The High Llamas: C or D?

https://www.dragcity.com/news/2020-06-18-wild-in-the-streets?fbclid=IwAR3-DjefQRHjdXG2hFvJnebHGBTrCGSP6UUJv9m66C8VxoGxBtAcvph-TXQ

The lockdown-era return of wildlife to the towns looked foreboding, with images of our streets deserted but for the odd roaming animals - but weren't cities built for everyone? Sean O' Hagan and his daughter Livvy have teamed up to sing of this ecstatic, divisive and unexpected homecoming, with squelching, modern r'n'b beats to boost the much needed energies in our stagnated communities today. Mixed by modern art-pop wunderkind Fryars, "The Wild Are Welcome" introduces a futuristic side of O'Hagan's always inventive songcraft. Sean writes:

"This April, the animals were coming back to the cities. I love our wild in London, the foxes and badgers - but then sheep, deer and goats started to stray back into the edges of urbanity, in Essex and on the fringes of Swansea and Edinburgh. So I imagined the conversations the animals were having as they acclimatized to the new norm. And of course it flipped the status for the rest of us not in captivity, as we stared out at the wild from our lockdown. As much as I have enjoyed the musical landscape that I have explored for 30 years, I want to creep beyond it. I can still drop the chords as I always have but I am enamored with the 2020 RnB experience and here I have found new tools to put records together. Livvy keeps me informed and I increasingly run stuff by her, so when the idea of this tune emerged, I wanted a female vocal around which to hang an approximated vocal running through bit crushing and transformers to get the 'sound'. The sounds of Sly's Riot mixed with these vital new expressions. This is where I am at in 2020: SEAN SYLVESTER DRAKE 61."

Nothing to add to Sean’s own description! Hard to judge from just one song but yeah more in this vein would not I think be unwelcome.

A really great interview with @High_Llamas Sean O'Hagan on his creative process: https://t.co/g0UVGTGqOd

— Paul McDermott (@learnandsing) June 18, 2020

For an act that gets a lot of "every record sounds the same," he sure releases quite an eclectic array of music. I'm addicted to the new song. His daughter's got a lovely voice. She's great on Radum Calls as well.

I keep returning to "The Wild Are Welcome." What a wonderful song. I really hope that's a taste of his next album.

Turned on Resonance FM for the first time in ages this morning and caught the last ten minutes of an interview with Sean on "Clear Spot".

He mentioned being friends with the members of Broadcast (as they were one-time label mates on DuoPhonic) and that there was some talk of him doing the strings on a future album at one time. Sadly wasn't to be :(

https://www.mixcloud.com/driftrecordshop/sean-ohagan-in-conversation/

Found a link, looks like it was a repeat from a year or so ago.

Sean had launched a minor social media campaign to get UMG to put all the Llamas stuff up for streaming. Looks like he won that battle. Says he's been trying to get the music re-released for 14 years now. Looks like it's on to fighting for some physical reissues... hope they start with Gideon.

Curious. Is there a reason why the label wouldn't want them on streaming services and/or released?

I assume lack of interest, sadly.

boom

These 4 albums from the @High_Llamas catalogue now available on all digital services for the first time worldwide. Spotify links below
Santa Barbarahttps://t.co/jryZEUnqxB
Gideon Gayehttps://t.co/0w5AD6FoYh
Hawaiihttps://t.co/H0wpUwxdl3
Cold And Bouncyhttps://t.co/D1YjcYj6Uu

— Sean O'Hagan (@seanohaganmusic) June 23, 2021

Yes!

I see a couple of Talahomi Way vinyl for sale on Bandcamp.

Wait, I mean Can Cladders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhZuSuycHIU

Forgot about this beauty.

Maybe it's just me living as a High Llamas/Sean O' fanboy for a couple decades now, but Santa Barbara sounds like a much better record than I remembered. I'm glad it's on Spotify. Lyrically, it's spotty; Sean's never written the best traditional song lyrics. Melodically, it's great. I love the little Steely Dan-esque guitar flourishes, and he even brings some noise to a track or two: Period Music" ends with some rad outburst. It's also mercifully short, at 9 tracks. I like it much better than I like his first solo release.

I always liked that one.

This new Fryars LP, God Melodies. I don't know what to make of it. Lyrically, totally obnoxious & dude seems kind of annoying, but the hooks & Sean O' arrangements keep bringing me back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfu5isOKqlE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZLQ0uSOyyE

https://driftrecords.com/products/fryars-god-melodies

Written, Produced and Performed by Fryars
Guru, Collaborator in Chief, Arrangements, String Arrangements, Musical Direction
and Additional Production - Sean O’Hagan

Hearing the signature string arrangement + chord change switches on a song about bangin' a woman twice the dude's age is kind of amusing.

I dunno. I sort of like this. Songwriting gets a bit lazy by the end tho, imo.

An EP ft. Sean just came out:

https://eileengogandimplediscs.bandcamp.com

Eileen Gogan has been a fixture on the Dublin music scene for a good many years, performing in various bands including The Would Be’s, The Revenants, Acton Bell and The Drays. Her breakthrough moment came in 2020 with the release of her second solo album “Under Moving Skies”, which received a 4-star review in MOJO, play on Gideon Coe's BBC6 Music show, and widespread praise from Irish and UK media and radio. The Irish Times called her… “one of Ireland’s most underrated artists” while Americana UK magazine called her album…”a showcase for Gogan’s beguiling vocals”.

Sean O’Hagan has a very storied career in music as a performer/writer/arranger and producer. Born in the UK to Irish parents, he moved to Cork as a teenager and formed the highly revered Irish band Microdisney with singer Cathal Coughlan. He was an early member of Stereolab before leaving to form the highly influential group The High Llamas, and in doing so, practically invented the sub-genre known as ‘chamber pop’. His credits as arranger and producer include Paul Weller, Gilberto Gil, Sondre Lerche, Tim Burgess, Fryars, Gruff Rhys, Bill Callahan, Bonnie “Prince” Billy and more.

Together these Anglo-Irish luminaries have found a fascinating synergy that has resulted in the new EP “Another Golden Day”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdNzMQPsDDA

sounds good!

Lovely

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CckStvXjOz8/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Nomads would be a really good song if it just knew when to stop. It's over four minutes long when it should be 1m50 like something off Friends.

This comment had me at a loss until it clicked you weren't talking about Monica, Ross, Joey, Chandler, Phoebe and Rachel.

Have to disagree anyway, Nomads has never felt too long to me, it's the perfect length for such a languid composition. If it was less than two minutes it'd feel like it had hardly even started.

Also the fact the promo was co-directed by Edgar Wright is one of those little things that always me makes me go "Huh!" when I remember it.

https://www.discogs.com/release/28999000-Nile-Rodgers-Sean-OHagan-Mulatu-Astatke-Kassin-Robert-Wyatt-Terry-Riley-Archie-Shepp-7x7

This looks pretty interesting.

Tricatel is proud to present, in a limited edition of 777 hand-numbered copies, the superb double vinyl/book dedicated to 7×7, inspired by Bertrand Burgalat.

Seven notes in the scale, seven days in the week, seven colors in the rainbow, seven wonders of the world, seven virtues and seven sins, seven ages of life, seven samurai, seven dwarfs for Snow White… Under the sign of 7, Belgian artist Jean Pierre Müller, in close collaboration with seven music legends (Robert Wyatt, Archie Shepp, Sean O’Hagan, Mulatu Astatke, Kassin, Nile Rodgers, Terry Riley), has conceived a magical project combining visual and sound compositions, in all senses and meanings.

In the summer of 2012, 7×7 was first presented to the public in its entirety at Edinburgh’s Summerhall, the start of a series of high-profile exhibitions and shows that have taken 7×7 from New York to Cannes. Ten years later, Jean Pierre and Tricatel would like to dream again with you, this time of a physical object celebrating 7×7 and offering the general public the opportunity to own a piece of the 7 colors dream.

This art and music object is a Gatefold double-vinyl, comprising two white vinyl records in printed inner sleeves and a 64-page booklet in the center, like a book.

More about Jean Pierre Müller: jeanpierremuller.be / 7x7art.com

oh my god these llamas are a dream! One of those names I consistently saw buzzing about but never grabbed a hold of a record. Listening to Hawaii right now, what a lovely lovely lovely lovely lovely record! It's hard to twist, turn and somersault when your on a sandy sunny beach without getting dirty or confused, but this record is doing it. These llamas ain't fluff. Beach boys pastiche this ain't, its a continuation.

Anyways sorry, couple decades late I know, but before my time.

<3

Some great llama hate posts earlier in this thread. Very funny idea to me that Hawaii could drive you mad, that's just excellent

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001sn2g

Looks like a new album is coming too. New song is called “Hey Panda.”

new music is good news — especially if it means Sean's health is good.

love this tune — o'hagan string arrangement: https://cabanemusic.bandcamp.com/track/today

the whole previous Cabane record has plenty of Sean contributions too: https://cabanemusic.bandcamp.com/album/grande-est-la-maison

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/LKd4lHAt9cA/maxresdefault.jpg

Looks like a full band affair. The first song is interesting. Auto-tune and a bit of atonality you rarely hear on a proper High Llamas track. According to Gilles Petereson it's a true High Llamas LP with the full band on the album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKd4lHAt9cA

I like that they are bringing some electronics back into the mix on this one

^ Definitely. That may be my favorite sounding Llamas track since Buzzle Bee (which is 24 years old!)

Seems that’s the mission statement here:

https://i.imgur.com/CTVsgVG.jpg

Some great llama hate posts earlier in this thread. Very funny idea to me that Hawaii could drive you mad, that's just excellent

― H.P, Friday, November 24, 2023 6:51 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Depends upon what you mean by 'mad'. Hawaii is notorious in my world for being the album I was listening to that one time when I briefly lost my ability to understand English. Okay, sure, I might've been on something at the time. But I can still hear the incomprehensible string of random phonemes that comprised the lyrics to 'Nomads' as clear as a bell.

“Hey Panda” is so good. I was unconvinced on my first listen but it’s not left my head. I’ve had a few more listens and I like it more each time. Sean has a way with chords and nifty little sounds. He pieces everything together so well.

Nomads lyrics were incomprehensible to me even without being on something. Literature is fluff to nomads is such a great one-two punch. I’ve been pumping Hawaii on my daily morning drive to the beach with dog and it’s really a wonderful way to start the day

Their lyrics are like Steely Dan with the obliqueness maxed out.

It’s a very good album. The tracks are lil impressionistic paintings, with the lyrics. That’s the High Llamas way. I think Sean writes pretty evocative lyrics and clearly knew his strengths weren’t the same as Cathal’s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktv4ATNdGyU

Enjoying this lesser known Sean O' album today. It's so nice. He makes very good sounds.

wow what the hell is "hey panda" (in a good way). the only reference point i have for this is like, lambchop's this (is what i wanted to tell you) (which i adore). it's not as good as that but i'm very intrigued

He did a song with his daughter a couple years ago that foreshadowed this new direction. I really dig it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF1X_N4wraY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNWxJWAlrtM

\m/

new Cabane record is up on Bandcamp and flying out (vinyl only). self-released again, so may be one pressing of 500 like the first (thought they did do CDrs).

https://cabanemusic.bandcamp.com/album/br-l-e

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YekklReDLPI

I love it.