<p><span><span>- Summer! Admittedly in most of Australia the distinction between the short, dark and dismal days of winter, and for those in the Northern Hemisphere, that briefer season of long hours of bright sunlight which “spark joy” for creatives and their audience isn’t the same. (Australia is a sun-drenched place, where the light is bright, almost blindingly bright with the colour set to full-on.) Pop music has feasted on that seasonal dichotomy for decades, and as long as we have the sun and a rotating planet, we will probably have those bright ear worms that underscore those carefree summery days and nights.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span><strong>Chelsea Wheatley</strong>, formerly of Fremantle via Melbourne and a sometime LA resident, has placed another entry in the summer vibe catalogue under her performing moniker Chela.<strong> </strong>While only four tracks long, the songs have a veritable history that could go back decades, if they were converted to a text unpacking their development. Wheatley calls the EP her “…transient journey of discovery…” and says "these songs have seen me over many places in the world, and in a sense, as I travelled solo over country borders, they were my only companions, changing in sound as I changed too.” Recorded and written in Melbourne, NYC, LA and Perth in collaboration with <strong>Styalz Fuego</strong>,<strong> LeBruce</strong>,<strong> Andrew Lappin</strong> and produced by <strong>Chris Zane</strong> (<strong>Passion Pit</strong>,<strong> Bat for Lashes</strong>) in the UK, it’s a well-travelled set. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Kicking off with the title track, the song brims with crystal-clear guitar riffs and the one thing that runs through all of Wheatley’s work, an incessant beat. Say what you want about drum machines and keyboard programming, they work in pop music – provided the artist and producer are of the same mind. Keep it simple, keep it direct and make the hook “hook”. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span><em>Heart O’ Hearts</em> is a sheer delight, musically, starting with a string of arpeggios and then come the verses commentating on the nature of a relationship, and this one is a particularly rocky one but the chorus reminds her partner “<em>we’re in this together</em>”. It just bops along until the crisp and sure ending of the song.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span><em>Spirit Rich</em> might come off lyrically as a bit of a social meme post but it does pull out some sweet guitar licks and a reflective bridge, while still holding on to that hook of a beat. <em>Losing Belief</em> closes the EP with some deep left-hand notes on the keyboard and it increases in tempo in that familiar way, leading to an atmospheric middle section, launching into the chorus that is as uplifting as any pop anthem could be. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Wheatley delivers a clear and clean set of songs that would not be out of place with the beginnings of '80's American pop electronica (groups like <strong>Missing Persons</strong> and <strong>Berlin</strong>), so it’s not surprising that Chela is touring as a support act to Australia’s greatest standard bearers of pure '80's nostalgia <strong>Client Liaison</strong>. Like them, there is no disingenuous artifice with the construction and delivery of these tunes. Summer is here and the sound is poptastic. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span>- Blair Martin.</span></span></p>
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