If you spend as much time mining the Internet for new music as I do, then you’ve surely noticed that Canada’s Toronto is rapidly becoming the new capital city of the Psychedelic revival. It would be of no surprise to me should curious social historians later discover that the water had been peppered with hallucinogens, or that the mushrooms being sold in Toronto’s supermarkets were of the magic variety. Go have a listen yourself – band after band emerging into the light of a brand new day to blow your mind, and at the centre of it all the name “The Hoa Hoa’s” (pronounced Wah Wah’s) is a recurring motif. Recently signed to vibrant new independent label Optical Sounds (www.opticalsounds.com), you’d be forgiven for wondering whether this band are truly Torontonian by design, or in actual fact beaming back songs from a decompressed reverb chamber on the bright side of some strange undiscovered moon.

I’ve got to confess that I was rooting for this one even before The Hoa Hoa’s debut album “Sonic Bloom” fell through my letterbox and was rushed like I was a kid at Christmas straight into my hi-fi. The thing is that not only for the last year through snippets of songs I’ve heard here and there have I fallen head over heels for their unique sound, but I@ve also been fortunate enough to have exchanged sporadic emails and am as equally bitten by their attitude. Every message from Hoa Hoa HQ reads like some candy-coloured explosion of words and ideas swooping on a rollercoaster of enthusiasm for what they are doing, and where their music fits into the bigger picture. Now, where once talk of a magical European mystery tour sounded like the stuff of daydreams, over time they have been edging towards it as a reality with equal measures of gutsy determination and beatific grins. The attitude and the songs are one and the same thing – completely infectious. You don’t have to love a band to love the music they make, but likewise you can love a band but grimace uncontrollably (despite your best intentions) when their records play. So when this thing starts I’m doubting that I’ve ever wanted a record to be so good before.

Thankfully it’s not that good. It is fucking great and then some.

Anyone lucky enough to have heard The Hoa Hoa’s live recordings – or luckier still to be geographically within touching distance of their gigs – will not be disappointed. “Sonic Bloom” is alive with the same raw swagger – a head-melting concoction of elements like the swinging sixties, “Anemone” era Brian Jonestown Massacre, wall of reverberated production, pulsating waves of guitars, quirky keyboard riffs, great driving drums that underpin the whole thing, and a deadpan vocal delivery that grows and grows on you like some long lost friend. The resulting brew is a distinguished sound-flavour that swamps the record in their own colour of paint. If you’ve heard The Hoa Hoa’s once, then you’ll know it is them whenever you hear them again.

“Sonic Bloom” is a 15 track full-length debut brimming with gems of songs and would-be psych anthems, kicking off with the brilliant “Yellow Jacket” and rarely taking the foot off the gas from then on in. How can you help but smile at opening lines like “You’ve got a yellow jacket/but you’ve got nowhere to wear it” or the weary comical delivery of “It doesn’t make a bloody difference”. In fact, “Yellow Jacket” epitomises how I hear this band – first listen: pretty damn good; second listen: “oh yeah, actually this is fucking great…”; third listen and I’m unconsciously singing their tunes under my breath wherever I go for days.

So do you want to just go and buy this record now or are you going to make me list all my favourite tracks?

For those of you still reading I suppose let’s take the next logical step and go to track two – “The List” – a thumping VU White Light/White Heat-esque spin-off loaded with Joy Division guitars. The first time I heard this song I thought it was pretty fucking weird. A year later and either I’m getting weirder or my first impression was completely disorientated because “The List” is simply a great song, garage-rock, rolling, explosive, hinting at rebellious punk vibes bristling away below the surface. After “The List” and then the slightly slower paced “I Saw You”, is “Landing On The Moon” with its supercool battlecry of “How does it feel?” and sublimely frantic guitarwork. Together with the brilliant melodic “Lazy & High”, “Landing…” is my favourite of the tracks that I’ve not heard before. Elsewhere “Going Down” sounds like London in the groovy days of Jimi Hendrix but with darker drugs and a lot more reverb. Closing tracks “Circles” and “Happiness…” are fitting, slow sonic ballads to wind the journey down (“the best trip yet” as the band sing on the semi-acoustic tale of implied sexual innuendo that is “Bottles”). And finally of course there is “New Love II” – a shimmering psychedelic work of pure gold and coming together of all the aforementioned elements in one probably record-defining five and a half minute bite-sized chunk. If the radio stations don’t pick this thing up and run with it then… well then fuck the radio stations. As long as we know it exists then everything’s gonna be alright, right? Oh man, I forgot to mention “Mixed” as well – wicked guitar-led riotry – see, I told you that you should’ve just gone and bought the bloody record at the end of the last paragraph.

And so it comes to pass – “Sonic Bloom” does exactly what it says it is, capturing an aurally kaleidoscopic group in their enthusiastic infancy, with petals of great songs unfolding in the sun of your brain like the Hoa Hoa flower they take their name from. It is a very hip, very great record, and as loveable as the personalities behind the music. That it captured the imagination and kicks off an equally exciting prospect as Optical Sounds so that it can someday sit beer-stained and scratched amidst the most loved and played discs in your music collection is not just good news for a ravaged and top heavy music industry, but bonafide proof that sometimes the good guy and the right band comes out on top.

I love The Hoa Hoa’s.

And The Hoa Hoa’s probably love you II.

Listen to The Hoa Hoa’s YELLOW JACKET:

Find out more about The Hoa Hoa’s at: www.myspace.com/thehoahoas

Find out more about Optical Sounds and BUY SONIC BLOOM at: www.opticalsounds.com

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