Chad Valley (musician)

Hugo Manuel, better known by his stage name Chad Valley, is an English electronic recording artist and singer. He has released two EPs, various singles and three full-length albums, Young Hunger, Entirely New Blue and Imaginary Music in 2018.

Chad Valley
Chad Valley performing at The Waiting Room in The Three Crowns in Stoke Newington, London on 14 November 2014.
Background information
Birth nameHugo Manuel
OriginOxford, England
GenresChillwave, synthpop
Years active2010–present
LabelsCascine
Associated actsJonquil

Career

Manuel began Chad Valley as a solo project alongside the Oxford-based band Jonquil which he heads.[1] In 2010, he released his eponymous debut EP via Cascine, which consisted of four tracks. His second EP, Equatorial Ultravox, was released in 2011 leading to wider recognition for Manuel. Neil Ashman of Drowned in Sound described this release as "wistful in tone, but it's no nostalgia trip and summer or not it's a consistently blissful and thrilling EP that bodes well for any forthcoming album."[2]

In 2012, Manuel released his first full-length album, Young Hunger, his longest release as Chad Valley and which involved contributions from many other artists including Twin Shadow, El Perro del Mar and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. Under the Radar described the album as "[making] little attempt to veil his affection for the zillion-dollar, slickly produced, mammoth-sized pop albums of the 1980s; the results are as charming and imaginative as one may have come to expect from one of the blogosphere’s most buzzed-about artists."[3] On the album's extensive use of collaboration with other artists, Manuel stated "It was always the intention to have loads of guests from the very beginning. As a way to involve more people than anything else; because I think it's hard, as a solo musician, to not get really introspective. I'd done two EPs worth of introspection; songs that were just me and my thoughts, written and produced by me with lyrics by me. It was all a little too me-centric, and I'm not too comfortable with that. So, I wanted to have other voices in there to widen the palette."[4] Pitchfork stated "The many guests on Young Hunger prevent the album from getting too bogged down in schmaltz, adding color and texture to the record."[5]

Discography

Studio albums
  • Young Hunger (2012)
  • Entirely New Blue (2015)
  • Imaginary Music (2018)
  • The Starlight Night (as Hugo Manuel) (2020)

EPs
  • Chad Valley (2010)
  • Equatorial Ultravox (2011)

Singles
  • Now That I'm Real (How Does It Feel?) (2011)
  • Shell Suite & Remixes (2011)
  • Fall 4 U (2012)
  • Tell All Your Friends (2012)
  • Up & Down (Vince Clarke Remix) (2013)
  • I Owe You This (2013)
  • True (2015)
gollark: It's my intellectual property.
gollark: No it's not.
gollark: Actually, I'll release potatOS under the MIT, AGPL 3.0, unlicense, public domain, zlib license, WTFPL, all rights reserved, GPL 1.0, MPL 2.0, Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International, and SIL Open Font License 1.1.
gollark: I should triple-license potatOS.
gollark: I mean, not really, it also reflects just... how long ago the spread there originated.

References
  1. Whyte, Woody (November 22, 2012). "Interview: Chad Valley". Spindle. Retrieved July 27, 2014.
  2. Ashman, Neil (June 22, 2011). "Album Review: Chad Valley - Equatorial Ultravox". Drowned in Sound. Retrieved July 27, 2014.
  3. McGuane, Kenny S. (October 29, 2012). "Chad Valley - Young Hunger Review". Under the Radar. Retrieved July 27, 2014.
  4. Carew, Anthony (October 12, 2012). "Interview: Hugo Manuel of Chad Valley". About.com. Archived from the original on July 11, 2014. Retrieved July 27, 2014.
  5. Brown, Harley (October 29, 2012). "Chad Valley: Young Hunger Review". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved July 27, 2014.
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