Mazes are, frankly, scary. They meander from darkened alcove to sunless impasse, the heart caused to quicken and, in anticipation of the unknown, heckles to rise. Thankfully, London-via-Manchester four-piece Mazes are altogether brighter – yet their DIY hooks, barbs and riffs nevertheless scratch out at the unwary. Equally, the band’s fuzzy guitar and tempered lyrics loom all the same from indiscernible mid-fi murk, catchy garage pop liberally offered by way of fruit en route.

Coasting on carefully selected 90s slacker credentials, A Thousand Heys has highlights aplenty, and none more so than the impeccable “Go Betweens”. Originally the flip to the horizontal, Kinks-inspired single “Cenetaph”, it’s sufficiently snotty to catch the ear, sufficiently jangly to boogie (never mind grin) to, as well as being sufficiently riff-tacular to inspire devotion amongst the taste-making community, and sufficiently short to reward hammering the repeat button. And all this has justifiably earned it the coveted opening slot on A Thousand Heys.

In comparison, the sub-two-minute “Most Days” pops with melody in compensation for its length, thinking also to successfully blend in inane, Blur-like choruses to the track’s mix. Somewhere between The Velvet Underground and The Stooges, “Wait Anyway” and its mangled guitar lines play out iconically on top of one another, lapping against psychedelic repeats, freewheeling with riffs and feedback. Whereas, earlier, “Surf & Turf” is entirely more linear – blatantly, as well as lovably, indebted to the pragmatic Pavement suite as it is.

Avoiding the raw write-offs of, say, Lovvers, A Thousand Heys‘ sunny disposition allows Mazes to join the retaliatory ranks of hugely likeable layabouts such as Male Bonding and Let’s Wrestle, which all a new British invasion doesn’t make, but does all go some way to steadying the good ship.

Advised downloads: “Go Betweens” and “Wait Anyway”.

_{A Thousand Heys is out April 11th 2011 on Fat Cat.}

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