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By making an unexpected creative leap, the cult indie pop group of Irishman Sean O’Hagan, close to Stereolab who has become an in-demand producer, offers a disconcerting and formidably catchy musical experience.
The scene takes place around the mid-90s. Richard Branson, the billionaire ex-boss of Virgin, wants to attract a big fish from rock mythology into the nets of his new label, V2. The Stones aren’t free (ironically, they’re signed to Virgin), so Branson sets his sights on the Beach Boys. Problem: the Californian group and its demiurge leader, Brian Wilson, have been apart for a long time. To attempt a diplomatic rapprochement and convince the disintegrated family to record a reconciliation album, an emissary who is not experienced in the troubles of big Rican showbiz but who has his Beach Boys mastery, and who has just published an album with V2, is sent, Hawaii, where he more or less picks up things where Brian Wilson left them to get stuck in the early 70s.
Sean O’Hagan of the High Llamas thus arrives in California, meets the two clans, suffers the contempt of Mike Love who wonders what this unknown Irishman is doing under their parasol, but having reached the Holy Grail, facing Brian Wilson, the welcome is much warmer. “It was you who did Hawaii ? But then, you are ME!” Wilson says to him, with all the admiring and childish sincerity that is his. The Beach Boys album produced by O’Hagan will (unfortunately, or not) never see release
