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” or “Acker Bilk” in the summer of 2010. Manuel continued to play with Jonquil, with plans to release an album later that year. MOG.com

Chad Valley – the alias of Hugo Manuel – is part of the same Oxford collective, Blessing Force, that Fixers belong to, and there is a similar feeling of 60s music being given a shimmery modern electronic makeover. But maybe because there’s just one of him he is able to give the project greater focus; there is no dilution, or sense of boxes being ticked, with Chad Valley – it’s just one idea, gloriously stretched out over four tracks on his sublime self-titled debut EP; one long wave of luxuriant sound after another. Last FM