The Underground of Happiness

North Sea Radio Orchestra – I a moon (The Household Mark) What a fantastic album this is, from Craig Fortnam and friends, with a strong core of English folk music and traces of (post) classical, medieval, electronica and even Krautrock in the supporting cast. Opener Morpheus miracle maker has great swooping strings and a vocal reminiscient of Kate Bush ( Hounds of love era) from Sharon Fortnam (there’s even room for a Micheál Ó Súilleabháin style piano + glockenspiel trill). The title track is short, sweet, strange, driven by glockenspiel, laptop and harmonium and reminds me a bit of Montreal math poppers Oen Sujet. Heavy weather starts as a piano waltz sea-shanty but spreads its wings into string and oboe interludes and male-female counterpoint vocals, before a rousing, massed-band, chamber pop finish. Arguably the highpoint of the album, the instrumental Berliner luft carries off a motorik Neu groove on acoustic guitar alongside a bubbling Moog, with a memorable mid-section stand-...

Rachael Dadd – Balloon (Broken Sound Music, from the album Bite the mountain ) Beautiful, exultant folk tune centered around a ukulele strum which gathers sparkles of what sounds like thumb piano, with lovely clarinet flurries. Reminiscient of Sufjan Stevens although less formal, more down-home. A tantalising foretaste of the Bristolian's upcoming album, most of which was recorded during a 2-month trip around Japan, which is the kind of back story that also gets me going. The other album track heard by UOH, Sticking in pins , favours strings, ukulele, brushed snare and massed vocals, to equally uplifting effect. Have a listen to this, another great tune from last year’s Elephee EP. And another track from Bite the mountain that just came to light. You can follow Rachael’s travels (including encounters with haybails and Japanese gobo seeds) on her blog here – http://rachaeldadd.blogspot.com/

Bill Ryder-Jones – A leave taking (from the A leave taking Soundtrack EP, Double 6) The Coral cropped up recently in relation to Neville Skelly and here they are again, kind of. Bill Ryder-Jones was the original guitarist in the band, before striking out on his own a few years ago. Here's a quote from him worth copying - ‘ When I left the band I wasn't playing much music at all but in 2009 a friend got in touch asking if I would write something for this short he was making, which I did. It's pretty much the only thing I wrote that year but the process opened another world up to me. We thought it'd be nice to give it away to the people who have been interested in what I've been doing on my own and also to hint at the future a little bit. My album, which is a soundtrack inspired by a novel, is pretty much a progression from the things learnt when writing for Leave Taking .’ And apparently, this is the novel. As he says above, this 4-track EP is available ...

As you know, Efterklang are playing in Cork this coming weekend, at the Savoy Theatre , Saturday night July 30th. And by the sounds of this, from the Efterklang website , it will be very special. " Efterklang+Daniel Bjarnason & Their Messing Orchestra is a special 17 piece band that debuted at the Cross Linx festival tour in February earlier this year. It is the 7-piece Efterklang live band with Daniel James (of Canon Blue) on guitar, Heather Broderick on piano and Peter Broderick on vibes and steel drum. And then we have the brilliant Icelandic composer Daniel Bjarnason on Rhodes and then you add a saxophone quartet, a brass quartet and a classic percussionist. This all turns into Efterklang + Daniel Bjarnason & Their Messing Orchestra. We will be playing Efterklang songs with arrangements for the Messing Orchestra by Daniel Bjarnason ." Sounds fantastic on paper, says you, and here's a taste or two of what it might sound like in the flesh (also from the Eft...

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 186 Tues July 26th 2011 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm) Cork Campus Radio, 98.3FM listen live on the web at www.ucc.ie/ccr *listen back to this show at https://rapidshare.com/files/3436609654/UOH_Podcast_July_26_2011.mp3 Playlist Metronomy - Everything goes my way ( playing Royal Albert Hall, London, Oct 3 ) Joan As Police Woman - Chemmie ( playing Electric Picnic Festival, Stradbally, Sept 2-4 ) Patrick Cleandenim - Crazy in the night Josh Ottum - Green in the sun Luke Temple - More than muscle Cloud Control - Gold canary ( playing The Academy, Dublin, Oct 7 ) Franki Valli & the Four Seasons - The night ( Munster Soul, Northern Soul Clubnight, The Phoenix, Cork, Aug 20 ) The Feelies - Should be gone Grimes - Favriel ( playing Whelan's, Dublin, Aug 3 ) Thomas Truax - A gold star for...

Rejoice! The first track is now available from the upcoming third St Vincent album, Strange Mercy . The album comes out in September on 4AD . You can get your digital hands on Surgeon now in exchange for your e-mail address at http://strangemercy.com/ It features lots of woozy synths and what sound like cut-and-paste guitars, as well as the memorable opening line, " I spent the summer on my back ". It also sounds like Annie Clark has been listening to some dirty funk music since the last album. You can view some fairly strange video teasers on that site too, including one where Ms Clark, as well as several other beautiful women, deliver some of the most polite, delicious, crushing rejections ever to camera. It's disconcerting and intriguing at the same time, quite like her music actually. And to get us even more in the mood for the new album, here's the video for Laughing with a mouth of blood from her last album Actor . It showcases her irreverent brand of ...

You could have been in Eastern Europe at times. If you stared up at the renovated church ceiling, you could have been back in time by a couple of hundred years, such was the antique quality of the music*. This was Ryan Francesconi playing at Triskel Christchurch in Cork last Friday, a sublime match-up of artist and venue, if ever there was one. Before saying any more about the gig, here's a few lines from a review of his current album that caught my eye. " Skirting any obvious models, this is an attempt to establish his own original voice on the instrument ... These are polished and meditative pieces, given to frequent pauses and moody moments. On the title track Francesconi can flight out sparkling ornaments that recall Toumani Diabate's kora ... The music is sophisticated, but there's an escape from the urban, a sort of West Coast Buddhist romanticism. That's not meant as a snide comment - this is a beautiful album, carried off with poetic aplomb ....