Staff Reviews

Hey Sholay - ((o))

Review by Robert Cooke

There’s an optimism in Hey Sholay’s music that never comes close to getting on your nerves.»

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the story so far: hey sholay are a five-piece group of musicians, filmmakers and artists from sheffield and leeds, who play a breed of psychedelic independent pop with a hint of the northern lights captured in a jam jar. they have been described as imperious masters of the contemporary anthemic chorus, with bright vibrant tunes and a beat guaranteed to make you tap your toes. ((o)) is their cosmically titled debut album on fierce panda. it really is quite a journey.
way back in the mists of time - june last year in fact - hey sholay brought those bright, vibrant tunes and toe-tappingly fine beaticles to the doorstep of the general public and the catflap of bbc 6 music with the release of the 'dreamboat' / 'the bears, the bees, the clocks' double aa-side single on label fandango. this beat happening was brought to the fore by hey sholay's cunning tactic of sending their unsolicited demo to the top secret panda / fandango hq. on cassette. wrapped in fake (bear) fur. great work on every level, obviously, and hey sholay followed that effort up with, among other things, a tour with crystal antlers, an appearance at koko at the nme awards shows, and some superduper bbc radio 1 introducing fun with their 'wishbone' track garnering all manner of audio tlc from the likes of scott mills, greg james and fearne cottontail. most recently they bedazzled the leftfield firmament with the 'burning' single. along the way they managed to nail the kaleidoscopic - nay, kaleidopopic - whirligig of the '((o))' mini-opus and - here's the even cleverer bit - also got it mastered in the usa by don grossinger, a man who knows his way around the grooves and moves of flaming lips, rolling stones and pink floyd. so hey sholay are progressive, but not oppressively so; populist, but not obsessively so.
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