The Underground of Happiness

My favourite tunes of 2019.* Sounds like another great year. Enjoy. *A few snuck in from other years on the basis that they happened for me in 2019. So as well as the year of Twen, Purple Mountains, Vanishing Twin, Paul & The Tall Trees... The year of Bright Phoebus . The year of Steve McQueen (acoustic) . The year of Loch na hEala . Playlist Vanishing Twin – Magician’s success (Fire Records) POZI – Engaged (Prah Recordings) Weyes Blood – Everyday (Sub Pop) Hiss Golden Messenger – My wing (Merge) Charles Rumback & Ryley Walker – Half joking (Thrill Jockey) Twen – Holy river (Frenchkiss Records) Paul & The Tall Trees – Then we’ll wave (So long) (Big Crown Records) Rozi Plain – Trouble (Memphis Industries) Fixity – Becoming an earthworm (Penske Recordings) C Duncan – Reverie (Fat Cat Records) Sarah Louise – Late night healing choir (Thrill Jockey) Bedouine – Tall man (Caroline) Paperface – Little monsters (Daydream Records) Purple Mou...

There's a few tunes there now like... Playlist Fixity – Becoming an earthworm (Penske Recordings) Spill Gold – Dali (Meduse MagiQ) Laurence Pike – Drum chant (The Leaf Label) Pozi – Watching you suffer (Prah Recordings) Drahla – Stimulus for living (Captured Tracks) Pill Fangs – Pain inside (Sunstone Records) The Pinheads – Feel it now (Stolen Body Records) Mdou Moctar – Ilana (Sahel Sounds) Death & Vanilla – A flaw in the iris (Fire Records) Rozi Plain – Conditions (Memphis Industries) Lali Puna – Being water (Morr Music) Vanishing Twin – KRK (At home in strange places) (Fire Records) Von Spar feat. Laetitia Sadier – Extend the song (Bureau B) Wand – Scarecrow (Drag City) Samsara – Yellow fangs (Tiny Room/Hidden Shoal) The Proper Ornaments – Please release me (Tapete) Dana Gavanski – One by one (Full Time Hobby) Bobby Oroza – Your love is too cold (Big Crown Roecords) Hiss Golden Messenger – Everybody needs somebody (Merge) Nilufer Yanya – Tears (Ato...

New music in the ether in this new year.* (*A couple of exceptions, The Shacks who I just learned of lately, released last year, and a few others from end of 2018.) Music from Oslo, Cork, Berlin, Glasgow, Brooklyn, Brisbane, North Carolina, Athens, Rotterdam, Dublin, Niger, Bavaria, Bilbao, Tucson and more in here. Enjoy. ********************* Playlist Lali Puna – Being water (Morr Music) Coldharbourstores – Disenchantment (Enraptured Records) Deerhunter – Plains (4AD) C Duncan – Impossible (Fat Cat) Tim Presley’s White Fence – I can dream you (Drag City) Cosmic Range – Breathing water (Idee Fixe Records) Sarah Louise – Rime (Thrill Jockey) The Telescopes – Don’t place your happiness in the hands of another (Tapete) The Last Sound – Cyclical pang (Fort Evil Fruit) Julia Kent – Crepusculo (The Leaf Label) Rozi Plain – Symmetrical (Memphis Industries) North Sea Radio Orchestra – The flower (Bandcamp) Shana Cleveland – Face of the sun (Hardly Art Records)...

On the most significant weekend in the Christian calendar, there was something appropriate about the primal and even pagan undertones of this wonderful show of live music and (I’m going to say) ideas. Firstly we must speak about the sheer presence of Natalie Mering on stage (which is only added to by the remarkable sky blue with white clouds trouser suit, a sort of David Byrne meets Pop Art statement). You could call it a certain kind of cool. It certainly comes across as a confidence but with no sense of distance or aloofness to it. There’s a distinct warmth to her stage persona, or we might just say her personality because there’s no hint of artifice, just an easy engaging quality. Her between song patter also has a distinct air of playfulness. She has a mischievous streak, no doubt about it. ‘Seven words’ is introduced with a wry smile as “seventeen words...it’s grown another ten words...a lot has happened”. One of the encores (a krautrock classic) is billed as “a more Ge...

A string of great female singers and musicians on the show this week. Camille , making a fountain of milk sound like the lightest, breeziest, most intriguing thing in the world and not a bit sticky and messy. Love those banks of backing vocals too. New music from Jane Weaver , gorgeous kosmische with a dreamy melody and a raft of vintage synths. Weyes Blood , who as we all know is magnificent; Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble sounding breezy and Brazilian and uplifting as ever amidst the chaos. Both of those women playing Ireland soon. And some classic library music from Stringtronics , taken from the 1st Connectors compilation (pic) by Barry 7 of Add N to (X) . More on these pages. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Twitter: UndergroundOfHappy Playlist 440 Tues Mar 28 2017 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm) UCC 98.3FM list...

Some odd things this week. Odd can be beautiful. Ariel Pink & Weyes Blood joining forces for something epic and strange. Half Japanese with legendary force for good Jad Fair sounding in great voice. Stephen EvEns coming on like a Cardiacs outtake, excellent. New music from Goldfrapp , not so much odd as just brilliant. And not odd at all, exactly as you'd expect, glorgeous songwriting from Mark Eitzel , who is on tour in Europe soon. More on these pages. The Underground of Happiness i>uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Twitter: UndergroundOfHappy Playlist 432 Tues Jan 31 2017 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm) UCC 98.3FM listen live on the web at www.ucc.ie/983fm *listen back to this show here goo.gl/o0SptT Playlist C Duncan – Nothing more ( playing Cyprus Avenue, Cork, May 4 ) Mark Eitzel – The last ten years ( playing Cypru...

So here's the final instalment of this Best of 2016 loosely centring on Psych Pop and some offshoots. I must say it was great listening back to the tunes over the last few weeks. It seems I always say this, but it really was another great year for music. It’s also very interesting when compiling a list like this to spot trends over the year, or longer, some kind of pattern that might be developing, or on the other hand any glorious one offs. I think I always say this too but no harm in repeating. These lists aren’t meant to be representative in any way. I know there are glaring omissions here out of the sum of music released last year but this list is made up of the music that struck a chord with me and in almost all cases was played (generally quite a bit) on the show. So once more with feeling, these are in no particular order. Enjoy. ************************************************************************** 1. Weyes Blood – Front row seat to Earth (Mexican Summ...

One last post before New Year's. This one rounds up some tunes mostly from the second half of the year. It turns out there was a lot of great instrumental music in there. Plus some other material that I think fits with that. Enjoy and see you on the other side. Fixity – Hungry clouds Tortoise – The catastrophist Elias Krantz – Patchwork Pt 1 Syrinx – Aurora spinray Marielle V Jakobsons – Rising light Cavern of Anti-Matter feat. Bradford Cox – liquid gate Melt Yourself Down – Dot to dot The Comet Is Coming – Space carnival Dieterich & Barnes – Parasol gigante Alien Ensemble – Skeleton dance Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – Arthropoda Matthew Bourne – Keighley Qluster – Glasperlenspiel Nathan Bowles – Chiaroscuro Lambchop – Flotus Iggy Pop, Tarwater & Alva Noto – As Adam early in the morning/I am he that aches with love Rothko – A young fist curled around a cinder for a wager Wymond Miles – Protection C Duncan – Nothing more Weyes Blood – Generation Why Cool...

Welcome to the captivating, transfixing world of Weyes Blood . Two words have cropped up a lot in reviews of this album – stately and compelling – and both are valid. Stately because there’s an unrushed and a certain and deliberate stance in the delivery of these songs. If stately makes you think cosily endearing, think again, because there’s also a confrontational character to them which makes sense in light of her previous work with Ariel Pink and Jackie O-Motherfucker. Compelling because those very qualities, when added to the glorious voice of Natalie Mering , make the songs impossible to turn away from. The melodies soar, taking flight on her voice. In its lower register it has a little of the stoicism of Karen Carpenter, a comparison point which only adds pathos and poignancy to the overall sound. Listen to the way she sings “do you need me like I need you” on ‘Do you need my love’. Or the chorus of ‘Generation Why’, “Y-O-L-O why”, which could easily be hilarious...

A mix and match this week, some Best of 2016 , some new music (ahead of the Christmas Special next week). The former. Entrance , beautiful sweeping orch pop. Weyes Blood , a monumental noise with a voice deceptively smooth. North Sea Radio Orchestra , a wonderful album of shifting avant folk music. The latter. Nadia Reid , back with a new album in the new year, a lovely foretaste. Whyte Horses , reinterpreting their album with a 400 strong children's choir. A Winged Victory For The Sullen , soundtrack music with great propulsion. And a classic from Super Furry Animals , currently on tour. More on these pages. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Twitter: UndergroundOfHappy Playlist 426 Tues Dec 6 2016 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm) UCC 98.3FM listen live on the web at www.ucc.ie/983fm *listen back to this show her...

Weyes Blood (pic) is Natalie Mering and you need to hear her. Dreamy psych pop that is stately, somewhat serene, and with a singing voice that will have you in the palm of its hand from the first note. Do it. Also great new Howe Gelb , from his Future Standards album, which is piano trio jazz tunes and with to die for vocals also by Lonna Kelley . Virginia Wing have some very interesting spooked electronic shapes on their new album, haunted you might say. Cory Hanson's solo album is another beaut, subtly freaky folk songs with lush throbbing strings. And Rothko have made something that's absolutely gripping, like some kind of cross between Mark E Smith and Ken Loach. Give it a go. More on these pages. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Twitter: UndergroundOfHappy Playlist 425 Tues Nov 29 2016 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesd...