The High Llamas Rattle the Trees

New music from Brian Wilson fan Sean O'Hagan's High Llamas.

Part-time Stereolab collaborator Sean O'Hagan has found full expression of his Beach Boy impulses as well as his love of low-tech drones in The High Llamas. Almost everything the band does can be summed up by the title of its 1998 album, Cold and Bouncy. There's a remoteness in the band's love of retro electronic elements and an organic warmth in its Smile-like orchestrations.

In 2013, O'Hagan began writing Here Come the Rattling Trees after riding around his neighborhood in southeast London with the idea that they would lead to a theatrical performance. That dream was realized in 2014 in a story that dealt with cities, neighborhoods, change, and significance we pin on places and things--a theme that seems right on time in 2015.

The album will be released January 22, 2016, but here is the title track.

During the band's absence from recording, I've had to get my High Llamas fix watching and listening to this lovely distillation of the band's charms on reruns Yo Gabba Gabba! with my daughter.