High Llamas - new l.p.

High Llamas 'Talahomi Way'
cd/lp/dd - Released 11th April 2011 – Drag City

Track Listing; Berry Adams – Wander, Jack Wander – Take My Hand – Woven and Rolled - Ring of Gold - Talahomi Way – Fly Baby, Fly – Angel Connector – To the Abbey - A Rock in May - Crazy Connector – Calling Up, Ringing Down

For the past eighteen years, the High Llamas have been following their own lights, making records, and essentially occupying their own genre in doing so. Their music is timeless; elements of retro and modern share the space, creating a unique time and place that is outside the lines of history as we experience it. Talahomi Way is the latest evolution in their body of work, a record that will please those who enjoy their musical adventures while also providing a draft of their eternal mystery to neophyte listeners.

The High Llamas’ catalog on Drag City has been a set of sculpted records with two carefully ordered sides, featuring all the elements that albums do when arrayed in a two-sided format. The material is pared down to essential qualities both within the songs and within the album as a whole. The composing moves apace; Sean O’Hagan’s songs are not written until there is an album to write them for – and each album is given a musical focus that mirrors the High Llamas’ recent exploration of musical worlds. In the four years since their last album, Can Cladders, no writing or recording occurred until there new alchemy afoot, a new way to reinvent the musical wheels that High Llamas have ridden throughout their journey.

In the course of their post-millennial albums, the High Llamas sound has shifted subtly nto a more organic setting – gone are the slick, electric-band settings of their great 90s albums Gideon Gaye, Hawaii and the rest. With 2003’s Beet Maize and Corn, Can Cladders (2007) and now, Talahomi Way, their arrangements have breathed with acoustic space, giving the music a more intimate, personal resonance. Yet O’Hagan’s lyric-writing is in the great traditions of the American and British 20th century songbook: story-songs, impressionistic feel-pieces, crafted without an aim towards personal exposition. Even so, their set and focus provide a view to the world as he sees it.

The music of the High Llamas creates an uplifting experience for both the performers and listeners. Even when wistful or melancholy, the emotional peaks of these experiences are highlighted by the sounds in the grooves. Like citizens of the old empire, the High Llamas explore the world of music and sound, seeking stimulus for their appreciation for history and diversity, as well as a confirmation of the sense of order that they have come to expect from life as they know it. When all these things click, then space is cleared on the keyboard and the fretboard for their new sensations in sound.

Mixed by Tim Gane and featuring the splendid arrangements provided by the band (Rob Allum, Pete Aves, Sean O’Hagan, Marcus Holdaway and Dominic Murcott), Talahomi Way is a new chapter in the song-and-storybook of the High Llamas.

The High Llamas wil be on tour in the UK throughout May;
Wednesday 4th May Brighton Komedia
Friday 6th May Birmingham Hare and Hounds
Thursday 12th May Glasgow Captains Rest
Friday 13th May Gateshead The Sage
Saturday 14th Liverpool The Williamson Tunnels
Sunday 15th Manchester The Deaf Institute
Saturday 21st Cardiff The Globe
Sunday 22nd London Southbank Centre
 
While cycling around his home-district of Peckham (in southeast London) a few years ago, Sean O'Hagan decided that not only would the new High Llamas music be driven by narratives, a collection of stories, but they would first have to be performed as theatre; reshaped theatre, if you like, blending stories, songs and soundtrack.

The resultant piece Here Come The Rattling Trees introduces six characters, some real, some less so, whom Sean has encountered over past years in Peckham. It is also The High Llamas new LP! Here Come The Rattling Trees was first performed in the Montpelier Theatre pub in Peckham in June 2014, and in October 2014, it played for a week-long run at the Tristan Bates Theatre in Covent Garden, London.

The story centers around Amy, an unsettled 28-year old with a desire to travel. She finds herself in Peckham Square working in temporary employment publicizing the re-branding of the local leisure center. Peckham Leisure will pass from public ownership to private management and while leafleting in the square Amy encounters five characters, who, it transpires, have their own stories to tell. These stories have emerged from Peckham over the past 25 years and speak of buildings and change; of hopes, ambitions and disappointments.

This is the soundtrack to those stories. With witty, artful musical strokes,Sean and the High Llamas have crafted deft musical sketches with the signature "Llamas" sound that has evolved over ten album releases since 1992. A colorful array of electric, acoustic, and synthetic instruments, alongsideSean O'Hagan's gentled vocals, are deployed to transport the listener to the low-key highs and lows of the British working week - an incisive, sympathetic view to the wonders slipped in between the pages and too often passed over in everyday life.

Dive into the stories, characters and songs on January 22nd!

https://soundcloud.com/drag-city/here-comes-the-rattling-trees

The High Llamas Online:
Official Site-http://www.highllamas.com/
Twitter-https://twitter.com/High_Llamas
Drag City-http://www.dragcity.com/artists/the-high-llamas
 
REPORT FROM THE LLAMAS-SPHERE: HERE COME THE RATTLING TREES HITS THE STAGE!

Here Come The Rattling Trees is more than an (amazing!) new album from The High Llamas - as a complete concept, it's actually a full on stage production, a play written by Sean O'Hagan about the Peckham neighborhood in London, England. In this setting, the album's music becomes a freakin' live score performed in real time by The High Llamas throughout the course of the play. First run back in 2014, Here Come The Rattling Trees is about to go for a second run, beginning next week!

For three nights at CLF Theatre in Peckham, everyone can (and absolutely must!) experience Here Come The Rattling Trees as it was originally intended! Each night following the play, High Llamas will perform an exclusive short live set, too. That's what we in the industry call bonus material - who doesn't like a twofer?? Tickets are available here, go get them! And prep yourself by watching this Here Come The Rattling Trees mini-doc / trailer to get you in the mood! Hell, watch the official video for McKain James while you're at it, and if you haven't already, get your mitts on a physical copy of Here Come The Rattling Trees today!

Monday, 5/23/16 through Wednesday, 5/25/16

The High Llamas present Here Come The Rattling Trees, A Musical Narrative

@ CLF Theatre, Bussey Building, Peckham, London
 
EVENT GUIDE - HIGHLIGHT
The 4 Of Us
The Richmond Revival, College Road, Fermoy, Co. Cork, P61 T292

1st Feb 2025 @ 7:00 pm
More info..

Beer Pong

Old Oak, Tomorrow @ 9pm

More events ▼
Top