The Underground of Happiness

And finally...my last word on the music that floated my boat in 2023. May the year rise with you. x Playlist 1. Saeko Killy – Sun shower (Tapete Records/bureau b) 2. Hiro Ama – Ultramarine (Silent Way) 3. Robert Forster – It’s only poison (Tapete Records) 4. The Bonk – The stars look great (bandcamp) 5. Nation of Language – Sole obsession (Play It Again Sam) 6. Decisive Pink – Destiny (Fire Records) 7. Sprints – Up and comer (City Slang) 8. POZI – Pest control (PRAH Recordings) 9. Chalk – Asking (Dutch Tilt) 10. m(h)aol – Nice guys (Tulle) 11. Martin Rev – Dreams (bureau b) 12. The Umlauts – Dance and go (PRAH Recordings) 13. Ghost Woman – Yoko (Full Time Hobby) 14. Christian Cohle – Another life (bandcamp) 15. Special Friend – Bete (Skep Wax Records) 16. Surprise Chef – Rosemary Hemphill (Big Crown Records) 17. Sally Anne Morgan – The center (Thrill Jockey) 18. Cormac O Caoimh – A good place for you (bandcamp) 19. Craig Fortnam – Ruins in time (Believer...

The first instalment of tunes that caught my ear last year. A combination of albums I played a lot and one off tracks that stuck with me. Call them earworms. Enjoy. x Playlist 1. Harmonious Thelonius – Soft opening machine (bureau b) 2. Ghost Power – Asteroid witch (Duophonic Super 45s) 3. Astrel K – Is it it or is it I (Duophonic Super 45s) 4. Albertine Sarges – Hold on (Moshi Moshi) 5. Chalk – Velodrome (Dutch Tilt) 6. Chewy She – Mustard (Chewy She) 7. Donna Thompson – Be with you (PRAH Recordings) 8. Guerilla Toss – Cannibal capitol (Sub Pop) 9. Josephine Foster – Hum menina (Fire Records) 10. Junk Drawer – Tears in Costa (Art For Blind Records) 11. L’Exotighost – Exotique mecanique (Everlasting Records) 12. Rozi Plain – Help (Memphis Industries) 13. Silverbacks – A job worth something (Full Time Hobby) 14. splint – Military procedures (Nice Swan) 15. Sprints – Literary mind (Nice Swan) 16. The Garbage and The Flowers – Eye know who you are (Fire...

Another instalment of June earwigs. Enjoy. x Playlist 1. Astrel K – Is it it or is it I? (Duophonic Super 45s) 2. Ghost Power – Asteroid witch (Duophonic Super 45s) 3. Jimi Tenor – Life hugger (bureau b) 4. Charles Watson – All my mountains (Moshi Moshi Records) 5. Dana Gavanski – I kiss the night (Full Time Hobby) 6. elkyn – If you’re still leaving (Curation Records) 7. Guerilla Toss – Live exponential (Sub Pop) 8. Marisa Anderson – Waking (Thrill Jockey) ( playing Clonakilty International Guitar Festival, Sept 16-17 ) 9. Naima Bock – Every morning (Sub Pop) ( playing End of the Road Festival, Sept 1-4 ) 10. Sam Prekop and John McEntire – A ghost at noon (Thrill Jockey) 11. The Notwist feat Juana Molina – Al sur (Elijah Minnelli Remix) (Morr Music) 12. Soccer96 feat Salami Rose Joe Louis – Yesterday knows me (Moshi Moshi Records) 13. Film Noir – Erotica (Albé Productions/Un Plan Simple) 14. The B-52s – Give me back my man (Island) 15. The B-52s – Planet Cl...

An early summer backlog. Music from Cork, Dublin, Malmo, Tokyo, Helsinki, Berlin, Madrid, San Francisco, New York and more. RIP Cathal Coughlan. Enjoy. x The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.mixcloud.com/theundergroundofhappiness Twitter: UndergroundOfHappy UCC98.3FM www.ucc.ie/983fm Playlist 1. Etienne Jaumet & Fabrizio Rat – Visione pop (bureau b) 2. Povoa feat Páula – Intuition (Moshi Moshi) 3. Cephas Teom – Primordial forms (METR Music) 4. Silverbacks – A job worth something (Full Time Hobby) 5. Albertine Sarges – Bird’s life (Moshi Moshi) 6. Hater – Something (Fire Records) 7. Sack – Sleeping on the floor (Dimple Discs) 8. Craig Fortnam – Even on Sundays (Lunar One series - bandcamp) 9. Craig Fortnam – Gigant (Believers Roast) 10. Butcher Boy – Dear John (Needle Mythology) 11. The Plastik Beatniks feat Angel Bat Da...

Some odds and ends here. Mixture of things that fell through the cracks towards the end of last year, plus some new releases from January. More great sounds in the world. Enjoy. x Playlist 1. God is God – The song Part II (bureau b) 2. The Monochrome Set – Hello, save me (Tapete) 3. Analphabet – The wirtschaftswunder (bureau b) 4. Blue States feat Allison Brice Grasso – Alarms (Memphis Industries) 5. Guerilla Toss – Cannibal capitol (Sub Pop) 6. Junk Drawer – Tears in Costa (Art For Blind) 7. Lael Neale – Hotline (Sub Pop) 8. Naima Bock – 30 degrees (Sub Pop) 9. Prima Queen – Chew my cheeks (Nice Swan Records) 10. Sprints – Little fix (Nice Swan Records) ( playing Ulster Sports Club, Belfast, Mar 6 ) 11. Saroos feat Sequoyah Tiger – Frequency change (Alien Transistor) 12. Odd Nosdam & Rayon – From nowhere to north (Morr Music) 13. Abiodun Oyewole – My life (AFAR) 14. Anita Lane – Home is where the hatred is (Mute) 15. The Burning Hell – Bird Queen...

In which the ex-Kraftwerk man takes a base of kosmische, sprinkles a dash of Peter Gunn and a smidgin of avant garde tendencies, to make something glorious, and fit for the dancefloor. *But don't mind me, here’s the accompanying blurb, which is too good not to include, and also says far more about this tune than I could ever add. Imagine this! Square de l’Atomium, Brussels, Belgium. Some time ago in late summer Lotte Reiniger, Walter Ruttmann, François Truffaut, Jean Giraud and Quentin Tarantino held a conference in the upper sphere of the Atomium. The main topic of their meeting was film editing. Eventually Walter raised a question about rhythm: "When is a cut rhythmically interesting and right?", he was asking. Subsequently the conversation went on and on. After a while it was getting dark and it started raining outside. Lotte looked out of the window and through the pouring rain she noticed a black Citroen "Berline" in the distance. The limousine was dr...

Here's something you don't hear every day. The title track from the new Tarwater album starts with a low tuba drone and a sample of some tapped acoustic instrument strings (of unknown origin), which are then joined by a very chilled out programmed drumbeat and electric guitar pattern. Then, out of the blue, one minute in, comes the sound of an instrument I've never heard before. It sounds vaguely Middle Eastern or North African, and as if it should be a wind instrument. It plays a quixotic melody that's not a million miles from something you'd hear on bagpipes. It's brief and very exotic to these ears, then it's gone again. The song meanders on, pauses momentarily, at which point a male voice intones " inside the ships " in very good English with a slight accent, accompanied by that tuba again and an accordion (or maybe another bellows instrument). He then proceeds to list what I think are names of dances, like " The Easybone", "The ...

Qluster - Haste Tone (Bureau B, from the album Fragen ) From Hans-Joachim Roedelius, who (along with Dieter Moebius and others) brought you Kluster, Cluster and Harmonia, and sound installationist Onnen Bock. Meditative, swelling synths ebb and flo like the tide, punctuated by discreet bells and obscure gurglings, until a beautiful piano and flute duo sails into view. Sublime stuff from a master. QLUSTER - LIVE PREVIEW 2011 from luma launisch on Vimeo . Cashier No. 9 - Lost at sea (Bella Union, from the album To the death of fun ) An uplifting wall of 60's sound, with a melancholy vocal in the middle and a lonesome harmonica in the wings, from the Belfast band's David Holmes-produced debut album. Tympani and castanets make up the intriguing supporting cast. There's the glorious whiff of the Brill building about the songwriting too. And here's the equally great first single from the album, Goldstar , sounding a shade like The Stone Roses taken in hand by Lee H...