page_title: The High Llamas
section_title: 2000s–present
hierarchical_section_title: The High Llamas / History / 2000s–present
caption_attribution_description: Alterna2 - Foto: Xavi Torrent
context_page_description: The High Llamas are an Anglo-Irish avant-pop band formed in London circa 1991. They were founded by singer-songwriter Sean O'Hagan, formerly of Microdisney, with drummer Rob Allum and ex-Microdisney bassist Jon Fell. O'Hagan has led the group since its formation. Their music is often compared to the Beach Boys, a band he acknowledges as an influence, although more prominent influences were drawn from bossa nova and European film soundtracks.
  O'Hagan formed the High Llamas after the breakup of his group Microdisney. The band initially played in a more conventional acoustic pop style, but after he joined Stereolab as a keyboardist, he was inspired to revamp the group's music closer to the electronic and orchestral sound he preferred. Their second album, Gideon Gaye, anticipated the mid 1990s easy-listening revivalist movement, and its follow-up Hawaii nearly led to a collaboration with the Beach Boys. Since then, the High Llamas' albums have been more electronic and stripped-down.
context_section_description: The High Llamas started recording for the Duophonic and Drag City record labels with Buzzle Bee (2000), which saw the band experimenting more with their sound, while Beet, Maize & Corn (2003) eschewed electric guitars and synthesizers in favor of string and brass arrangements. The latter marked the arrival of an additional member, Pete Aves, on guitars and banjo. Unterberger referred to Beet, Maize & Corn as "a high achievement for the Llamas with both critics and fans." In The Rough Guide to Rock (2003), music critic Nig Hodgkins commented that despite "adventurous breakthroughs by previously obscure American bands such as Mercury Rev and the Flaming Lips," the High Llamas failed to attract a comparative following and were seen as "a little too esoteric and experimental to threaten a mainstream that had once warmed to the strong melodies of Gideon Gaye."
  Can Cladders (2007) received generally favourable reviews. Pitchfork reviewer Eric Harvey wrote that the album "emerge[d] as the most enjoyable High Llamas record in over a decade. ... with a bounce and sway nearly absent from its largely rhythmless predecessor." Another four years went by until their next release, Talahomi Way (2011), described by O'Hagan as a "spring album". He said that the band's slowed output was due to low finances, and that he could only sustain a career in music through arrangement commissions. He could not afford commercial studios and recorded in improvised spaces "as much as possible, which allowed the budget to go on strings and brass. But I also wanted to create more space on the records. I was tired of density." In 2013, the group contributed a song, "Living on a Farm", to an episode of the children's television programme Yo! Gabba Gabba.
  In 2014, the High Llamas premiered a theatrical play, Here Come the Rattling Trees, at the Tristan Bates Theatre in London's Covent Garden. Pitchfork critic Robert Ham summarized the plot as "extended anecdotes [used] to comment on the rapid changes happening in London, particularly in Peckham, a region in the southeastern part of the city where O'Hagan has lived for over 20 years." The play originally featured a cast of actors and actresses, but when a studio album adaptation was released in 2016, the record only featured instrumental performances. O'Hagan explained that this was because the label felt that its promotion "would be difficult as the record would appear to be from a different medium."
  In 2019, Drag City released O'Hagan's second solo album, Radum Calls, Radum Calls. During an interview to promote the record, he commented that the High Llamas were not defunct and that he was attempting to secure the rights to the band's work from Universal Music Group, "who are extremely reluctant to do anything with our catalog, and I’ve really been wanting to get them remastered and pressed on vinyl, and maybe do an expanded series like Stereolab have done. If we can get that to happen, we’ll tour. ... Then we might use that as an opportunity to officially retire—it would be a great way to close that book, don’t you think?"
caption: O'Hagan performing with the High Llamas in Spain, 2011
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