After taking his bedroom recordings to the next level with a full band in
Jonquil, Oxford-based
Hugo Manuel went back to recording as a solo artist under the name
Chad Valley.
Jonquil signed to Dovecote Records in the States and, around the same time,
Manuel leaked a handful of dreamy, Ibiza and R&B-inspired electro-pop demos to the Web. A flock of sites (including Vice, Pitchfork, and Guardian) featured
Chad Valley's "Up and Down" and "Acker Bilk" in the summer of 2010.
Manuel continued to play with
Jonquil, and debuted his self-titled EP later that year. In 2011,
Chad Valley released
Equatorial Ultravox, and then branched out with 2012's
Young Hunger, which featured a long list of indie A-list collaborators including
Twin Shadow,
Glasser,
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, and
Active Child. ~ Jason Lymangrover, Rovi
