When two masters of the inner minds get together a creative apocalypse is at hand. Working with mic-maestro K Sos of Miami Beach based hip-hop act The NOC is always nothing short of bombastic brain waves colliding collaboratively. Sos hit up the Beery Method Studios to produce iconic new illustrative work for his latest release Introducing…The Hoy Polloy: On The Way To Rome. Keyed up for any of Sos’s project we set forth down the rugged stone-hewn path of child’s play with imagery that reflected the pure brevity of Sos’s playful lyrical intentions while infusing the darker side of his life-based handbook that is the new record.
The Hoy Polloy is a project between multi instrumentalist, vocalist and producer K Sos (of No Ordinary Cats) and guitarist / engineer Nicholas “Roman” Romanelli. Description: The Hoy Polloy started when K Sos asked guitarist Nick Romanelli to appear on his 2011 release “Sciamachy” to provide a solo for the sultry love song “Stay if You Will”. Out of mutual respect for each other’s talents the two met up for some recording sessions in the fall of 2011, originally intending to rework some of K Sos’s old material into alternate versions. Eventually, it was agreed they two would work on a handful of remakes as well as a mix of new material, but when it came time to pick the songs for the album only one previously released track made the cut leaving 13 new songs to be explored by fans. Their ability to cross many genre boundaries inspired them to create this debut experiment that touches on everything from blues and psychedelic rock to soulful ballads, heart racing dance tracks and hip hop madness. Served with an arsenal of instrumentation composed almost solely by the duo, the album flourishes with vast sounds of both electric and acoustic guitar, spontaneous percussion and a range of psychedelic vocals and noises that could trip anyone out.
The album which was recorded at a handful of locations around south Florida can be described as nothing less than bizarre in nature. Sos describes the transitions between songs to be like switching from a scorching desert to the arctic tundra in just a matter of seconds. Roman’s favorite track from “On The Way To Rome” is ‘Relief’ because it is the song that set the tone for the album, and although it is the only old cut to make the record, you can tell why its textured but simple delivery birthed a new direction for the duo. The album’s music is based largely on lacking common genre constraints; Roman says that’s because the music’s fearless and is based largely on the duo’s philosophy of “Let’s try it”. K Sos enjoys the high energy power of tracks like “Cart Wheels” but also is astounded by the duo’s undeniable chemistry on tracks like the psychedelic “Felt Tip” or their coming of age cover of Neil Diamond’s “I Am, I Said” which wraps up the album.
Released on SkinnyBuddha Records, The Hoy Polloy touts another lyrical bomb blast on the heated streets of the South. K Sos and crew will be back in the studio and working a tour for 2013. The apocalypse just dropped and the path to redemption is On The Way To Rome.