These Trails

These Trails - Garden Botanum 1973 cf.

High Llamas - The Hot Revivalist 1996

 

 Towards the mid-1990s, indie music had broadly been replaced as a term by alternative music.  Quite what it was an alternative to, was probably never quite explained.   American alternative rock had lost the edge of early grunge and was increasingly corporate, Britpop bands were keen to get big deals and a lot of dance music had become mainstream.  Little wonder Sean O’Hagan, of the High Llamas, chose to go on a different direction, with an album (Hawaii)  of Brian Wilsonesque lush sounds, electronica, lounge and exotica.  At that time,  there was a small scene of clubs  setting a similar course, playing music often found in the bargain crates of charity shops.  You could get a Henry Mancini album such as Music of Hawaii for 50p

The High Llamas' Hawaii is a wonderful sprawling double album full of sophisticated musical invention and tropical imagery.  We would regularly give it a spin on our turntable in our first flat, a musical accompaniment to a relaxed home-cooked dinner.  Beyond the background however, themes of colonisation and questions of musical authenticity versus inauthenticity softly drift in and out of focus as the record progresses.  The Hot Revivalist is an example of the layered sounds, ethnic instruments and laid-back rhythms that help to define this as a special album,  out of time and place with much of what was going on.

Whilst O’Hagan was imagining Honolulu from a wet London, thirty odd years previously in Hawaii, These Trails were living the dream.  Patrick Cockett and Margaret Morgan were both born on the island (Morgan was part of an old sugar planter family) and they used to hang out together during the summer down at the beach at Hanalet Bay.  They returned to Hawaii after studies in California during the height of the 60s counterculture.  Cockett was influenced by West coast psychedelia, whilst Morgan was more of a clean living, free spirit nature lover.  As a duo, they began playing music together for fun and coming up with compositions (mainly from Margaret).

Garden Botanum is the closing track from their eponymous album.  It is typical of the evocative and exotic soundscapes they produced -  you can almost smell the heady scent of the tropical plants of the garden on the rim of the Manoa Valley.

Unusually for a private press record, These Trails is a complex recording, with sounds lapping over each other, familiar and unfamiliar -  traditional and experimental,  organic and electronic, kī hōʻalu guitar tunings and ARP synths  - a woozy hypnotic mix.  The diversity of their friendship group, who lent a hand to the project, shines though.  Carlos Pardeiro from Uruguay adds a song and Indian instrumentation,  David Choy brought not just the synth, but fascinating arrangements derived from his eclectic global tastes, whilst Boogie Kamela’s tapping feet, which adorn the front cover, were recorded to add to the natural rhythms that breeze through this album.  

The record feels like an immersive barefoot exploration of the island, treading gently, turned on to the sensations of nature and landscape.  It is full of wonderful details of homes, waterfalls, lush vegetation and the sea.   A genuine wonder, unsullied by commercialism or exploitation.

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This music is a world away from the tiresome, sneering cynicism of rock clichés and drab identikit bands. These Trails offered an escape to paradise, for anyone willing to listen.

Much of the information and photographs  were sourced via a great article and interview in Psychedelic  Baby magazine, with thanks to them.  Link to their site below:

https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2023/10/these-trails-interview.html