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HELIUM LISTEN TO THIS RELEASE VIA BANDCAMP BELOW
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LIMITED EDITION 300 ONLY BLACK VINYL LP. HOUSED IN A GLOSS FINISHED 320GSM BOARD PRINTED OUTER SLEEVE WITH BLACK INNER BAG & DOWNLOAD CODE. REPRESS ON PINK VINYL COMING MAY 2020
PRE ORDER THE PINK VINYL VIA THE LABEL WEBSHOP OR BANDCAMP SITE LP Tracklisting
A1 Drowsey Shores (5:25)
A2 Love The Drugs (5:39)
A3 Wicked Witch (5:48)
A4 Summer Spells (5:37)
B1 Videodrone (2:18)
B2 Curtains At The Mausoleum (9:11)
B3 Do You Wanna Come Out Tonight? (3:24)
B4 Primitive Fuck (6:33)
"An absolutely epic fucking performance from Black Helium who were heavy as fuck and destroyed my already fragile mind with their Flying V twin attack sounding like Sabbath, Black Angels, Hawkwind and The Sweet battling in a monster riff shop.” Spencer Hickman - Death Waltz Records / Transmission Records
Black Helium are a four-piece formed in
2016 for a special one-off Halloween gig at the notoriously heady
Guild Navigator club in East London, and have since then spread their
sonic gumbo of hard-edged psychedelic head-fuckery and Neanderthal
glam rock swagger across the country.
Heavy friends Stuart Gray (vocals/guitar),
Beck Harvey (vocals/bass) Davey Mulka (guitar) and Ben Davies (drums)
went on to record their debut, Primitive Fuck, at Hermitage Studios
with Margo Broom in March 2017. Although, Ben Davies disappeared
abruptly after recording his drum tracks after experiencing a
‘profound life-changing mystical occurrence’.
Influenced by bands such as Black Sabbath,
Hawkwind, Amon Düül II and The Stooges; Primitive Fuck channels an
era when psychedelic rock stood for mind expanding eclecticism, and
hip shaking sonic hedonism in equal measure, moving from motor city
heroism, to shapeless Kosmische ambient ego-death via space ritual
riff worship. Now, with new drummer, Diogo Gomes on board, Primitive
Fuck represents the birth of a band your psychiatrist warned you
about.
PROMO VIDEOS - FEEL FREE TO SHARE SUMMER SPELLS
DO YOU WANNA COME OUT TONIGHT?
CURTAINS AT THE MAUSOLEUM
ALBUM LAUNCH SHOW
REVIEWS
Where did you begin your rock journey?
Sabbath? Zeppelin? Rush? AC/DC? The Stooges? OK I could go on with a
hell of a long list here stretching back into the sixties, and maybe
beyond; or even forward in time to some of the excellent rock bands
plying their trade today. Well you’d probably have to go a long
way down the list before you got to mine, The Sweet; a band known
more for their pop-rock singles, but who really let it rip on
b-sides and album tracks. Here is exhibit one for the defence:
So why do I bring up this underrated,
misunderstood, largely ignored outside Germany and, ultimately,
tragic band. Well its because I feel that the spirit of this great
band is alive and well in Black Helium. By that I mean that they are
a band that are not afraid to show their influences, and the other
bands I’ve named above are definitely present in their music; but
there is something alchemical going on here which means that
what’s coming out the other side is something that doesn’t sound
derivative but fresh and properly exciting. There is an edge to this
twin-guitar attack band that I’m really getting to like a lot and
will probably, when I’ve listen enough times, very much get.
Let’s just get out of the way what
this album isn’t. Unlike a lot of the music I write about here, it
isn’t some sort of challenging LP with a heavy concept running
through it, it’s not particularly experimental. Well is it
psych? Well despite the name of this blog I stopped worrying about
that question a long time ago. So what is it and why am I writing
about it?
I think the answer to that lies in the
above discussion because, while the band in all likelihood had a
different starting point to me on the evidence of this album
they’ve certainly taken in many of my favourite bands along the
way. They are not, therefore, so much as the band my psychiatrist
warned me about but rather the one that s/he told me to go an listen
to if I wanted to retain my sanity.
OK so that’s enough flannel, let’s
get into it. The opener ‘Drowsy Shores’ starts with some sort of
false sense of security with an almost surf rock riff, with only the
repetitive counting in German being a pointer to what’s about to
come. As the track builds up though and that riff gets transformed
into something altogether more planet-like you’re quickly aware
that the scale of this album is going to be massive. Each section is
heavier than the last as Black Helium pile on the pressure and the
layers… this is going to be a hell of a ride so strap yourself in.
Then the end the track goes fucking mental… I knew at this point
that I was going to really like this set.
Onwards, and each track here takes a
different approach meaning it’s a real rock fan’s dream. ‘Love
The Drugs’ is totally on it from the start. I hear so many albums
from bands who sound promising, then the vocal kicks in and it’s
just so disappointing. Here the opposite is the case as the vocals
take the track along adding melody to the heavy backing before the
number heads of away from the sharp riffs into hazy psychedelic
territory. Then The Sweet stuff kicks in momentarily before heading
off again. And that’s the thing here, there are lots of different
elements to this track, to this album, but they just hang together
so well.
On to ‘Wicked Witch’ and straight
into another nailed on riff, and a vocal that is far more bluesy
than before. There is real momentum here as the band drives forward
with a real intensity. You could be variously in the desert, a drug
den, or in some sort of voodoo hell… or all three! Again there’s
so much going on here that to single out any influence would be
trite… just have a listen when you can and immerse yourself in
blend of styles. If it’s your thing to unravel where the sounds
come from then do it. Me, I’m just enjoying the sheer exhilaration
of listening to it.
“Summer Spells” is different again
with it far more psych-like start, some reverb and percussion giving
it a sinister atmosphere before the whole thing explodes like a
quarry being torn a new face into a rock explosion of geological
proportions. From there its the sort of fast/ slow track that
frequently doesn’t work. Guess what? It does here! And then
the whole fuckin’ thing just opens up towards the end into a
massive climax which I should have seen coming but was so into it I
just didn’t… sorry for the spoiler.
Well blimey that’s the end of side A
already and as we head off for the second half I really wonder what
might be coming next. ‘Videodrone’ somehow takes on a life of
its own as the band power through this shorter track that has all
the greater punch for it. Think being excited and jumping around
like a mad fucker and you’ve pretty much got it.
Then just when you think you might be
getting a handle on this band they hit you with ‘Curtains at the
Mausoleum’, which I’m premiering here. This, for me, is the
centre-piece of the album with it’s slow lilting start and strung
out arrangement which grabs you gently yet firmly at the start and
just takes you off into the psychedelic clouds on unknowing as the
matter from the explosions of a thousand rock planets coalesce into
a ten minute epic which will just have you gasping as you take in
the broad vista presented in front of you. Then as it continues it
intensifies to the extent that you think your head’s going explode
before bringing you down again in an analgesic descant that kinda
leaves you in a quivering mess on the floor. Next level… next
dimension, and I never even got to mention the sitar.
After that having something shorter and
more punchy is essential before you decend into maximum mind-fuck.
‘Do You Wanna Come Out Tonight’ does just that with it’s much
more uncomplicated approach that gets it’s Stooges out and just
rocks!
Then comes the title track, which seems
to just cram as much as it can in its six and a half minutes length.
Setting off at 100 mph it, if anything, speeds up with a guitar
attack that isn’t so much cutting edge as serrated. After two
minutes though it drops into something far more heavier and darker.
The primitive foreplay is over and the band are really going for it
now. This is Sabbath at their heaviest, but put through the sort of
lens where you can see the line through to more high end Metallica
and beyond. There is something really pure and unadulterated about
this track though… back to basics and really just banging it out
right until the primitive cigarette at the end.
I’ll be honest now and say that I
listened to this album through once and didn’t really get it until
I got to ‘Curtains at the Mausoleum’. So I started again and
BANG! This is above anything else a rock album… and there’s
nothing at all wrong with that. But it is a rock album that
doesn’t give a fuck about what they bring into the mix, because
what they spit out is an eclectic mix of styles (yeah including
glam) that just work. The more you listen the more this set is going
to grab you, and because it’s so varied you ain’t gonna get
bored
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