The Underground of Happiness

New tunes for a new decade. Enjoy. Playlist The Fantasy Orchestra - Flow (Disco-Ordination) Arboretum – A prism in reverse (Thrill Jockey) Cabane feat. Kate Stables & Bost Gehio – Now, winter comes (White Label) Coco – Empty Beach (FCA Records) Craven Faults – Vacca wall (The Leaf Label) Caribou – Never come back (Merge/City Slang) Olafur Arnalds feat. Voces8 – Nyepi (choir version) Daniel Knox – Room key (HP Johnson Presents) Keeley Forsyth – Look to yourself (The Leaf label) Aoife Nessa Frances – Libra (Basin Rock) Dead Famous People – Groovy girl (Fire Records) Jeffrey Lewis & The Voltage – Exactly what nobody wanted (Moshi Moshi Records) Katie Von Schleicher – Caged sleep (Full Time Hobby) Theatre Royal – A marvellous death (Vacilando ’68) Shadow Show – Contessa (Stolen Body Records) Lewsberg – From never to once M Ward – Migration of souls (Anti Records) Mick Harvey – The Somme (from the soundtrack of the film Waves of Anzac) (Mute) Modern Stu...

Musical moments and memories from the year gone by. In no particular order. Enjoy. ******************************************************************* 1. North Sea Radio Orchestra – Dronne (The Household Mark) Another sublime set of tunes from Craig Fortnam and company which combines folk, kosmische and avant garde classical strands, taking the legacy of former band Cardiacs into fascinating new territory. Woodwind and strings are strong and strident against a hushed motorik rhythm on centrepiece song ‘The British road’, a wonderfully sharp state of the nation analysis of Brexit era Britain – when will they learn to fight like our men, how can I rise if you don’t fall. These poised swooping strings, along with the cooing woodwind, the signature guitar style of Craig Fortnam – courtly, playful, lithe – buzzing synths and the great pure singing of Craig’s wife Sharon against Craig’s reedier tones provide the core elements throughout. Essential food for the ears, th...

M Ward has produced some of the most sublime songs over his career which reference the roots of rock and roll – country, blues, swing, soul, a touch of lounge, orchestral – and here’s another beauty for the collection. With consoling back of the room strings, cavern reverb guitar and a devastating hushed croon, he creates a memorable atmosphere of dreamy late night intrigue. That the song turns out to be an epitaph to a friend who died in a car crash only confirms what a grade A songwriter Ward is. *Doo wop gets a run out on the equally lovely ‘Little baby’, as if Buddy Holly started a barbershop quartet and grew a falsetto. Track 11 in this playlist

You know how things come together sometimes, coincidences you could say. Well two albums came my way in the last month or so which seem to me to be connected, although as far as I know there's no direct contact between the people involved. Naim Amor is a French guitar player and singer who has spent the last ten years or so living in Tucson , Arizona. While living there, he's rubbed up against Howe Gelb, Calexico and other members of that city's notable music community. He sings in English and French and plays a kind of smoky, beautifully understated French jazz. Apparently, Howe Gelb says he's the best guitar player he's seen, and he's seen a few. His new album Dansons is just out on Vacilando 68 and it breaks new ground in combining Brazilian rhythms with Amor's well bedded French roots style. The result is a fascinating mixture of desert folk and sunny samba. Here's the opening track from the album, Creole , a great example of that fusion. Her...

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 226 Tues June 19 2012 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 http://i.mixcloud.com/CB3vwL Playlist Donnie & Joe Emerson - Baby Katie Kim - Your mountains my mountains ( playing Cork Opera House, July 21 ) Efterklang - I was playing drums ( playing Cork Opera House, Sept 15 ) Ombre - Cara Falsa Elisa Luu - Se fosse per me Slow Place Like Home - Dr Astro goes ballistic Calexico - Para Naim Amor - Our day will come M. Ward - The first time I ran away Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat - Ballad of the bastard ( playing Bowerbird, Triskel Christchurch, Cork, June 30 ) David Byrne & St Vincent - Who Ghost Estates - Never forget Electric Guest - Awake *next week's show will feature music from Richard Hawle...

A few short bits prompted by this week's playlist. Spent the last week or so captivated by the new M Ward album, A Wasteland Companion , it's on Bella Union this side of the pond. And I've found a lot of my love for it so far funnelled into one song, The first time I ran away . It's like a memory of a David Gates song (brushed acoustic, high tone bass) given a dreamy, psychedelic hue with filtered strings and pedal steel, a choir of background "oohs" and barely there tom tom tattoos by Steve Shelley. To call it beautiful doesn't begin to do it justice. If you're anything like me, you'll find it beautiful like oxygen is beautiful. The animated video by Joel Trussell is also great, giving the nostalgia and surreal undertones full flow.

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 217 Tues Apr 17 2012 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm) UCC 98.3FM listen live on the web at www.ucc.ie/983fm *no podcast this week Playlist Alisdair Roberts & Mairi Morrison - The whole house is singing ( playing The Slaughtered Lamb, London, May 23 ) M Ward - The first time I ran away Julia Stone - Let's forget Katie Kim - Pause ( playing The Unitarian Church, Dublin, Apr 21 ) Hooray for Earth - Bring us closer together It's a Musical - Point back The Chap - Rhythm king Father John Misty - Nancy from now on AU - Old friend ( playing Shacklewell Arms, London, Apr 25 ) Peter Broderick - Colin Kevin Tihista - Taking it to the streets (again) Fenster - Oh canyon Spiritualized - Hey Jane Lightships - Sweetness in her spark *next week's show will feature music from Tanlines, D...