Sean O'Hagan / High Llamas new single and interview

[Retinend]

The new track, released today: "The Wild In The Streets"
https://www.dragcity.com/news/2020-06-18-wild-in-the-streets?fbclid=IwAR2TG6WSgjZCKgu-7D73w-VYd3WuDw_GMRSvcTNJ05j-dOsenRLPe4NUQUE

http://famishedcandiru.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-look-back-in-time-high-llamas-market.html
O'Hagan talks about one of my favourite old songs of his - "Market Traders" from "Santa Barbara"
(was originally published in French - check the byline for the link to the original in French - let me know if you find any typos)

It's a long article, but here are some highlights:

In a documentary, Ray Davies explained that, for all the songs which he had composed, he was looking for an unknown classical air which his big sister had played at the piano when he was 13 years old. And the poignant thing about this story is that his sister had died of a cardiac arrest that very day. Is this your approach? Is there a search for something which you use to escape, artistically?

That's a very moving story and I would say that for certain songs you effectively try to attain a sort state of of nirvana - it's a sensation of elevation. There are all kinds of art that access something ineffable, which one is searching for in the act of doing it.

In "Market Traders" and in the majority of your songs besides, there is a certain nostalgic or melancholic mood. Where does that come from?

I think that sadness and beauty go hand in hand. There are lots of preconceptions in pop music. We very often used to associate pop with youth and vigour, which really makes me laugh. It is quite interesting, writing a sad or introspective pop song - perhaps nostalgic too - in which you inject a certain kind of happiness. It's a kind of happy sadness and you get to something that's real. There are many wonderful songs that seem to strike that balance - for example John Cale or Brian Wilson. Also in folk music. Lots of people need a little nostalgia. It is a ingredient of many films too.

If I rightly recall, when I wrote it I was looking to write a song in the style of John Cale. I was a huge fan of everything he had ever done. But at the same time, I was thinking of a kind of song that would be good for FM radio: a nice little ditty that would grow on you with the synths and everything else. I wanted it to sound very American but with a slightly bizarre set of lyrics - very clichéd lyrics reminiscent of that kind of love song: "we're gonna make it to the stars!" So I thought up a story of a guy who's just going about one day and starts having all these funny ideas come to him in broad daylight. So all in all, it's a song about a kind of person who likes to go cycling! These are the moods I really enjoy creating, which are pretty "jazzy" and aren't my typical style, but in which I'm searching for a sound which makes you think of East-Coast jazz.

It's the French artist Louis Philippe who introduced Bossa Nova to me. One day, he had me listen to Milton Nascimento and - wow - I discovered this fascinating music! It completely obsessed me. I began to follow the BBC program "World of Thomas Patton" who covered the genre. I discovered that these artists had been in turn influenced by the golden years of 60s and 70s music! When I was younger I had heard Sergio Mendes talk about Tom Jobim and Frank Sinatra's Bossa Nova standards which one heard of so little. The day I discovered Jorge Ben, Joyce, Elis Regina, Chico Buarque, Joao Gilberto, Ivan Lins and many others... The list is infinite. It's like a source that never dries - I set myself to study and listen to them on a loop. Then, I started to play nylon-stringed guitars exclusively. I absorbed and assimilated these influences and made them a little part of myself.

What inspired the lyrics to "Market Traders"?

A little town North of London called "Hitchim". I had been there while I was a child. It was a Saturday, the market day, and the sun was shining bright and the day was full of colour. When I think of the day, I realize that it was really another time - the world before we had experienced so many great changes like what happened after September the 11th and all the other more recent political upheavals.

[Emotional Support Peacock]

I think he meant Hitchin, not Hitchim. I live there!

[Brundle-Fly]

His last album, Radum Calls, Radum Calls was only released last October. Up there with his best. Must be going through a purple patch

[Retinend]

I think he meant Hitchin, not Hitchim. I live there!

Oh, that's a coincidence! Do you know/like the song? You live in a piece of musical history now.

Yeah it was a French guy who wrote it so it was a mishearing. The google maps picture I added to the text shows me searching for "Hitchim" and getting "Hitchin". Didn't notice that until now.

[Brundle-Fly]

Bought the track. Lovely stuff. A hint of Frank Ocean about it.

[Neomod]

Sean's take on the 'new' direction.

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 the 2020 RnB experience and here I have found new tools to put records together.

It's still unmistakably him isn't it with some processed vocals. So dipping a toe rather than going all [insert contemporary RnB artist here].

This is lovely but I did expect him to say "That'll do pig" at the end[nb]I'm inferring he's morphing into James Cromwell[/nb].

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUX1j-Famtk

[tolecnal]

New High Llamas song. Seems he's going forward with the direction in the above post.

[Ron Maels Moustache]

New High Llamas song. Seems he's going forward with the direction in the above post.

Interesting to see he's doing things as the Llamas again name as it looked like for a while he wanted to retire the band and just put out stuff under his own name. Although it does sounds like it could just be Sean & daughter on this one, so who knows if anyone else is still involved at this point.

Edit: apparently it is the full band back together, great news!

[tolecnal]

The track list is on Apple Music. 12 tracks, two featuring Bonnie Prince Billy. Looks like Rae Morris on a couple others, and Fryars who also produced

[extraordinary walnuts]

Love Sean O'Hagan's music so much I can't talk coherently about it, very excited for this.

Took me a minute to realise what the album cover reminded me of. "Oh, it's Sketches of Spain."

Lost count of the number of times I watched this during lockdown. What a dude

[tolecnal]

Bit over the top but I am a believer in Sean's genius so I can kind of go with it as well. He's a true master, imo. Once you hear it you can't let go... I love nearly everything he's done.

[Egyptian Feast]

I love Microdisney and Stereolab to bits but haven't heard anything outside of that - what would be the best entry point to his High Llamas/solo stuff for a fan of those two groops?

[dontpaintyourteeth]

I love Microdisney and Stereolab to bits but haven't heard anything outside of that - what would be the best entry point to his High Llamas/solo stuff for a fan of those two groops?

Gideon Gaye probably. I started with Hawaii which is also wonderful but it's a lot to get your head around (29 tracks!)

[Egyptian Feast]

Cheers, will get on that.

[extraordinary walnuts]

Snowbug and Buzzle Bee are good entry points for the Stereolab fan IMO

[tolecnal]

I like nearly everything he's done but for me Talahomi Way frequently hits the spot. It's a concise look at their various sounds and styles, without sounding like a retread. It been a favorite over the years. Can Cladders is also very good and appears to be a good reference for the new album based on the first track. Hawaii is the one that made me fall in love with them.

His string arrangements are generally great across the board. The man knows a chord change.

[lazyhour]

Can Cladders is a great starting point - elements of all his styles in that one. The previous, called Beet Maize & Corn, is possibly my favourite but is unusually acoustic for the High Llamas.

Hawaii is the one that made me fall in love with the band too.

[Retinend]

For me it was Talahomi Way I was first obsessed with, but then I started listening to the earlier stuff more and I consider Gideon Gaye the masterpiece.

[tolecnal]

[Jim_MacLaine]

Production wise it reminds me a bit of T. Dolby's later work with Prefab Sprout.

[jamiefairlie]

Quite like some of the stuff he's done but I have to admit that when I listened religiously to Peel throughout the 80s, any opening that included "and we'll also have Microdisney in session" usually elicited an "och no them again" from me.

See also Bogshed, A Witness, Age of Chance....

[dontpaintyourteeth]

the mighty Bogshed

[tolecnal]

[Retinend]

I just have two words: cold and bouncy! Surprised to hear him do this sound again, but I dig it.

[tolecnal]

It's lovely. Sean always manages to appeal to me through his many iterations.

[tolecnal]

Can't wait. From Uncut.

[SpiderChrist]

Microdisney doc on BBC4 - 15th March!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001x9fs

[tolecnal]

He's so good with Stereolab. So much of what I love about those albums -- the horn & string arrangements. They always hit right. I know he did a lot of the goofy lil' synth embellishments early on, too. Sean is the best, imo. A true great. Misunderstood & under-appreciated, but I think he's the best at the thing that he does.

Microdisney took a bit of work for me. Cathal's voice seemed overwrought at first & the music seemed a bit thin at times, but there's a really great quality to almost all their albums once you lock in. I can find time for any of their LPs. I ended up thinking Cathal's pretty swell in the end, too... that last solo & the second Telefis album were fantastic. I can see Microdisney sounding a bit like '80s leftovers, but Fatima Mansions & High Llamas show the pedigree of musicianship and songwriting were hiding under that first layer of anonymity.

[tolecnal]

Looks like Drag City will be re-issuing all the old Llamas albums soon, beginning with Hawaii and Gideon Gaye. In the latest SHINDIG!.

[tolecnal]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2024/11/the-story-of-microdisney-the-clock-comes-down-the-stairs

MicroDisney documentary premiering on bbc4 this Friday

Cathal Coughlan and Sean O'Hagan met on New Year's Eve in 1980. The band they formed, Microdisney, were arguably one of the best bands of the 1980s that you've probably never heard.

Mixing Sean's melodic arrangements with Cathal's poetic, angry lyrics, they recorded four records together, gaining critical adulation and an obsessive cult following; but a hit single eluded them, as did radio play and record sales. By 1988, frustrated by their lack of progress, the partnership ended - leaving a trail of acrimony and broken friendships behind. Sean went on to lead The High Llamas as well as working with English-French band Stereolab, and Cathal Coughlan led The Fatima Mansions until their breakup in 1995.

This new film asks why the band failed to achieve commercial success. But it also picks up the Microdisney story thirty years on, when contrary to all expectations they reformed for a sequence of sell out reunion gigs, celebrating a new award for their seminal album, The Clock Comes Down the Stairs.

From their early days in Cork to the sell-out reunion gigs, the film includes exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, vintage archive, heart-searching interviews and live performances.