The Toulouse-born Christophe Vaillant and the Australian (and French by adoption) base their sound on a velvety vocal that entwines acoustic and digital textures to spice up their new creation, “Window Tax.”
Some records present themselves to us as feasts. The one offered by the third joint album by Maxwell Farrington & Le SuperHomard opens with Brussels Sprouts (Brussels Sprouts, opening in a rain-soaked musical) and continues with oysters and mascarpone (the fabulous lifted chorus of the title track, with a retro swing): we are far from the ordinary fare and Cogip’s self-service.
Window Tax finally fulfils all the promises that had been brewing in this union—between, on the carp side, the Toulouse-born Christophe Vaillant, and on the rabbit side, the Australian Maxwell Farrington, French-adopted and active in the Breton noise group Dewaere, who also cooks in his spare time.
Mini-operas and Twilight Swoops
These promises, the fine Once (2021) and Please, Wait… (2024), had only nicely caressed them, but this time the charm operates from amuse-bouche to dessert (the synthetic icing of Cake). We will also savor along the way odd Fish and Chips (a reminder that the album was recorded in Margate, England) in the company of Lily Buchanan, who also appears on a Do Da Da Da that casually cites Bach and Beethoven with a laid-back sixties vibe.
Recorded by Mike Lindsay of Tunng, whose taste for textures weaving acoustic and digital is evident here, Window Tax conjures, just as much, the mini-operas of The Divine Comedy as the twilight swoops of Tindersticks. Flavors from across the Channel and international sophistication.
Window Tax (Talitres/L’Autre Distribution). Release on April 24.
