-=- SHGZ -=-
* Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal *
ARTIST..: Maxwell Farrington & Le SuperHomard
ALBUM...: Once
GENRE...: Pop
STYLE...: Baroque Pop, Chamber Pop, Indie Pop
YEAR....: 2021
LABEL...: Talitres
COUNTRY.: France
FORMED..: 2019, France
ENCODER.: FLAC 1.3.1 -8 -V
BITRATE.: 904 kbps avg
QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / 2 channels
SOURCE..: CD
TRACKS..: 12
SIZE....: 241.45 MB
URL..: https://www.facebook.com/lesuperhomard
https://www.facebook.com/maxwellfarringtonmusic
https://superhomard.com
https://www.hop-blog.fr/maxwell-farrington-et-le-superhomard-once
- TRACKLIST
1 We, Us The Pharaohs 2:37
2 North Pole 3:11
3 Free Again 2:53
4 Lights & Seasons 3:23
5 Love 3:32
6 La Mesa Motel (Feat. Max Meser) 3:10
7 Good Start 2:49
8 Oysters 2:29
9 Hips 3:02
10 Happening Again 3:00
11 Big Ben (Feat. Evelyn Ida Morris) 3:08
12 Tonight 4:01
Total Playtime: 37:15
"If you love early '70s Scott Walker, Lee Hazlewood and other grandly
orchestrated baritones, you're going to dig 'Once'" Brooklyn Vegan.
"Gallic pop-psych voyager conspires with Aussie crooner." Mojo ****
*
Once is a 12-track album released in 2021, credited to Maxwell Farrington &
Le SuperHomard. It's a collaborative effort between French producer
Christophe Vaillant (Le SuperHomard) and Australian vocalist Maxwell
Farrington. The album blends elements of mid-century pop, cinematic narrative
pop, and sophisticated continental pop, evoking the styles of Tom Jones, Lee
Hazlewood, and Scott Walker.
*
Released in early 2019 on the Spanish label Elefant Records, Meadow Lane Park
was the debut album by Avignon-based Christophe Vaillant under his new
entity, Le SuperHomard.
Undoubtedly dreamlike and enchanting, hailed by critics both in France and
abroad, and by Paul Weller (who invited the group on his entire European
tour), the musician laid the groundwork for a new artistic direction.
Originally from Brisbane, Maxwell Farrington left Australia in 2013,
travelling to the United Kingdom and then France. After Marseille and
Toulouse, he moved to Saint-Brieuc and took part in the formation of Dewaere,
a noise quartet bathed in 90s influences. Maxwell's vocals bring a poppier
and warmer touch.
Christophe and Maxwell met during a joint concert at La Boule Noire, on the
MaMA Festival in 2019. During his band's sound check, the Australian
performed an acapella version of a song by American composer Burt Bacharach.
This lead to an engaging conversation between the two musicians, who
discussed their common passion for Lee Hazlewood, Scott Walker and Frank
Sinatra. We find this elegance again reiterated throughout these compositions
- in the orchestral pop, the subtle arrangements, the velvet singing voice.
"Once" is a four-handed collaboration. Recording began in February 2020,
ending within a short distance of the New Year. It's a journey, both near and
far, where everyone will find a safe haven.
*
With a sound that craftily mixes the smooth easy listening of the 1950s,
sophisticated continental pop of the '60s, and the bands of the '90s like the
Cardigans and Stereolab (who borrowed liberally from them as well), the
French group Le SuperHomard displayed a warm, nostalgic glow on their 2016
debut EP, MapleKey. It landed them a deal with legendary indie pop label
Elefant, which released their debut album, Meadow Lane Park, in 2019. With a
solo Christophe Vaillant continuing to use the moniker, a collaboration with
resonant-voiced indie pop singer Maxwell Farrington followed in 2021. That
partnership continued, with releases including 2024's somewhat lusher Please,
Wait..., which was recorded with classical musicians.
Le SuperHomard is guided by the pop vision of multi-instrumentalist/producer
Christophe Vaillant, who in the early 2000s was in the power pop group the
Strawberry Smell and later in the decade played in Pony Taylor. In 2015, he
started work on Le SuperHomard as a solo venture but soon teamed with his
drumming brother, Olivier, and vocalist Pandora Burgess for the project's
first record, 2016's MapleKey EP, which was released by labels in Japan, the
U.K., and the U.S. Vaillant utilized a combination of guitars and drum
machines, vintage synths, and loping bass lines to craft music that showed
the influence of classic songwriters like Burt Bacharach, the sonic skills of
Brian Wilson, and the post-modern approach of craftspeople like Broadcast and
the High Llamas. Vaillant assembled a live band and played shows starting in
2016.
After signing with Spanish label Elefant, Vaillant began work on a
full-length album with the help of vocalist Julie Big, his brother Oliver,
multi-instrumentalist Benoit Pithon and guitarist R mi Saboul. Recording
after hours at the record shop where he worked, Vaillant and co-producer
Pithon crafted a sound that was lusher and more intricately arranged than
MapleKey, while still following the same musical signposts. After first
releasing the SpringTime EP in November 2018, the group's first full-length,
Meadow Lane Park, was issued in early 2019.
Vaillant met Australian expat Maxwell Farrington at that year's MaMA Festival
in Paris when he was taken by Farrington's a cappella version of a Burt
Bacharach song for sound check. The two quickly bonded over a shared
enthusiasm for artists including Sean O'Hagan, Scott Walker, and Lee
Hazlewood, and Farrington went on to write lyrics for Vaillant, while
Vaillant arranged a song for Farrington. The two exchanged demos, which led
to a collaborative album. Credited to Maxwell Farrington & Le SuperHomard,
Once arrived on Talitres in April 2021. The collaboration continued on the EP
I Had It All a year later, and in February 2024, Talitres released their
second full-length, Please, Wait... It was recorded at French venue L'Autre
Canal with opera and conservatory musicians.
*
Tin Pan Alley- and classic pop-inflected melodies are just one of the
idiosyncrasies of Maxwell Farrington's arty, theatrical alternative songs.
His 2018 album Demandez l'Impossible consisted of whimsical, video game-like
electronic instrumentals, while his 2021 collaboration with Le SuperHomard
relied on his resonant baritone voice on a set that drew on common influences
such as Sean O'Hagan and Scott Walker. That partnership continued with
releases including 2024's somewhat lusher Please, Wait..., which was recorded
with classical musicians.
Australian musician Maxwell Farrington left his homeland for Europe in 2013
and was based in Toulouse, France, when he released the playful,
trumpet-embellished synth song "Homme Terreste" in 2016. After sharing a few
more tracks -- both with and without vocals -- Farrington released an album
of chiptune-esque instrumental keyboard compositions called Demandez
l'Impossible in March 2018. A few months later, his song "Break My Heart" was
included on the compilation L'Ambassade l'Aime Pop, Vol. 1.
In 2019, Farrington met Christophe Vaillant, aka Le SuperHomard, at Paris'
MaMA Festival after Vaillant heard him sing an a cappella version of a Burt
Bacharach song for sound check. The two quickly bonded over a shared
enthusiasm for artists including Sean O'Hagan, Scott Walker, and Lee
Hazlewood, and Farrington went on to write lyrics for Vaillant, while
Vaillant arranged a song for Farrington. Exchanged demos led to a
collaborative album. Before its release, Farrington was featured on a track
on Chapi Chapo et les jouets lectroniques' album Collector. The Farrington
and Le SuperHomard full-length Once arrived on Talitres in April 2021. Their
collaboration continued on the EP I Had It All a year later, and in February
2024, Talitres released their second full-length, Please, Wait.... It was
recorded at French venue L'Autre Canal with opera and conservatory musicians.
*
Biography:
"I listened to a song that Maxwell sent me and said to myself, 'this guy is
incredible, I must work with him'," says Christophe Vaillant who performs as
Le SuperHomard.
His latest record, a collaboration with Australian singer Maxwell Farrington,
was born from an instantaneous connection the pair felt when they met during
a joint concert at La Boule Noire, on the MaMA Festival in 2019. During
Farrington's sound check, he sang an a capella version of a song by Burt
Bacharach. This led to an engaging conversation between the two musicians,
who discussed their common passion for Sean O'Hagan, Lee Hazlewood and Scott
Walker. "Well we can all agree that there's no seduction more powerful than
common taste in music," says Farrington. "Soon after that gig Christophe
asked me to write lyrics for him, which I did obligingly. From there I asked
him to arrange one of my songs."
It was clear the two had a lot in common in terms of taste but musically they
soon sparked too, sending things back and forth until the sketching of an
album emerged. "I sent off a few demos to Christophe down in the south of
France and he just picked out whatever songs he felt were good," says
Farrington. "Christophe has a saying: There are no bad songs, only bad
arrangements; and we only had good songs, so it was smooth sailing."
The result is a seamless collaboration from two people who share a great
musical intuition. Marrying Farrington's rich baritone croon with Vaillant's
deft yet stirring compositions and you're left with a record that feels like
a lost classic. Whilst those influences they initially bonded over are clear
on the record, it goes beyond being a simple ode to them. As Le SuperHomard -
whose 2019 debut album received great critical praise ("A sparkling debut" 4*
- Mojo ) - Vaillant exercised his clear pop chops via dreamy synth grooves
and sparkling melodies. Here that craft is equally on display, albeit with a
tonal shift towards more orchestral pop, with lush, sweeping strings lifting
songs as equally as tender strums of guitar keep them propped up. Combined
with Farrington's endlessly infectious vocals, the pair have landed on
something that owes as much to the music's rich history as it does to
contemporary sounds.
-=- SHGZ -=-
-=-=-==-=-=-
Dream Pop
is a subgenre of
alternative rock and neo-psychedelia
that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop
melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions,
and effects such as reverb, echo, tremolo, and chorus. It often
overlaps with the related genre of shoegaze, and the
two genre terms have at times been
used interchangeably.
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