The Underground of Happiness

A few themes in this week’s show. Female folk artists. Bedouine , bringing a great soulful touch (and a Middle Eastern tinge if you listen closely) to a sound reminiscient of 60’s folk pop. Lean Year , a male-female duo in fact, but a psychedelic swirl of intrigue amidst hushed melodies. Something cosmic. Colleen , using a Moog to convey the universe, gorgeously. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith , using a Buchla Music Easel to create brilliantly light and playful electronic tunes. And Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra , a genius orchestra with swing or is it jazz sound. 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 460 Tues Sept 19 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/G8Wrvx Playlist...

Standing room only in the back of Coughlan’s Thursday. James Yorkston wearing a cap. Jon Thorne in bare feet. Suhail Khan with a ponytail. A joyous occasion even if plenty of sorrowful songs. Some things that happened. The furious blues conjured with an acoustic guitar a double bass and a sarangi. The sarangi a blur of fingers and a keening yearning tone to it you sometimes get from a steel guitar or some other times from a fiddle. Suhail’s feet tucked under him with the sarangi in his lap perched on a table covered with a rug. James’ cheeky way with a wisecrack. (“Thanks to Christy Moore for playing support earlier. And Paul Brady.”) Jon’s laconic way with a wisecrack. (“Remember when The Beatles were so high that they let Ringo sing” as he took the guitar off James to sing.) Suhail’s earnest boyish quality. James’ mischievous boyish quality. Jon’s stand up routine. “I first met Suhail on the set of a Star Trek movie. The Wrath of Khan.” Su...

A second brilliant album of east west exchanges... ...featuring Indian sarangi on the one hand and reverberating British folk drones on the other. And the mesmerising voice of Suhail Khan swinging and twirling with carefree abandon. It’s a heady mix. I particularly love the loose baggy double bass of Jon Thorne a lovely down to earth quality to balance the poise and elegance of the sarangi. Stirring stuff.

Every week the radio show is a series of mixes, usually a sequence of mini-mixes, 3 or 4 song runs put together to fill an hour. Every now and again though, a bunch of music comes together on my radar, drawn from albums sent to me as well as my own listening habits. Over the last few months I’ve noticed an amount of striking and powerful instrumental music coming together in this orbit I call The Underground of Happiness . All of this has received an airing on the show at some point, but given that I only have 1 hour per week to play with live on air, I thought it would be good to give some of this music an extra platform. Firstly, as you would expect, these are all instrumental pieces, which is to say they don’t contain vocals (although Polar Bear flirt with humming at one stage in ‘No more goodbyes’). In fact, most of these artists are what you would call either exclusively or largely instrumental artists. The cellist Julia Kent for example, exploring the outer reaches of her inst...

Touring season approaches so quite a few bands on the show this week playing live soon. Daniel Knox , part of Quarter Block Party in Cork in early February August Wells , Irish tour in Feb This is the Kit & Giant Sand , both in Cork in April Yorkston Thorne Khan , part of the Field Day Festival line up in June. Great new music from Astronauts , so good to hear from them again; also Nap Eyes , songs to get under your skin. And The Altered Hours (pictured), launching their long-awaited debut album this week in Cork, after which they tour the known universe. More on these pages as always. Jan 26 2016 w/ Altered Hours, Tame Impala, Moodoid, Daniel Knox, August Wells, Astronauts++ by The Underground Of Happiness on Mixcloud The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Twitter: UndergroundOfHappy Playlist 386 Tues Jan 26 2016 11.00am-12.00pm (rep...

A fantastic musical curio taking in naive pop, folk, jazz and Indian classical music. The song is written by the great Scottish songwriter Ivor Cutler , the band is James Yorkston , renowned Scottish folk musician, double bass player Jon Thorne and Indian classical singer and sarangi player Suhail Khan . They make something lithe and supple and swoonsome. Irish singer Lisa O’Neill , someone whose own work I personally haven’t dug up to now, adds a lovely dual vocal turn. I’m sitting here on the top of the world with my little black buzzer beside me My bum is cold and my face is white and this is my message to you as a bass pulse dots the backdrop and assorted drones (sarangi, nyckelharpa?) swoop and slide. Later Khan’s devotional singing just crowns it, a beautiful percussive instrument against the drones. It's a sweet and lovely thing which takes the charming strangeness of the original and turns it into something ancient sounding.

The first show of 2016 had some great new music from Tortoise , luscious shifting grooves from their new album The catastrophist Noveller , more epic soundscapes from one guitar, new album No dreams Josephine Foster , characterful vocal troubador songs, new album No more lamps in the morning . And some further fond memories from 2015 in the shape of Daniel Knox , endearing cabaret bounce Rozi Plain , beautiful kosmische type folk, both playing Cork's Quarter Block Party in February. And Lee Hazlewood from 1966, taking a leaf from Morricone, with massed vocals and bending strings...marvellous. More on these pages - check the Best of 2015 posts for more detail on my favourite music of last year. Jan 5 2016 w/ Tortoise, Noveller, Rajasthan Express, Josephine Foster, The Drink, Daniel Knox ++ by The Underground Of Happiness on Mixcloud The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com ww...