Helicon have been flying high for a few years now but have just raised their game even further and are set to blow the musical landscape wide open with this one; ‘Arise’ – just released on Fuzz Club – is a game changer right from the beginning of the opening, title track. Once it swirls into life it takes just seconds to launch you into new realms; it’s a celebration, expansive and laid back, full of soul and fire and it feels like some sort of a crescendo even though it’s only the first track.
So far, each Helicon record has been very different to the one before, moving away from generic psych and any sort of predictability, delving further into new zones and hipper territory altogether. After the debut self-titled album, the ‘Zero Fucks’ 10” and then the ‘This Can Only Lead To Chaos’ LP it felt like they’d taken the guitar riffs and psych stylings way beyond their normal boundaries and could probably continue in that way for years..but then along came ‘God Intentions’, cinematic and reflective and with even greater depth and vision, different to anything else around and a unique twist on urban psychedelia . And now….boom! they’ve hooked up with Californian avant dub electronica guru Al Lover and dropped this monster! Helicon have always been collaborators like no other band I’ve ever known, always happy to embrace other influences and to work with and support other bands and artists. After swapping ideas and working remotely on demos the American producer and DJ hooked up with the band In Glasgow and the album showcases the results of these alchemical musical meetings. The partnership might seem unlikely in a way, but the connection is obviously a strong one and they’ve worked some serious voodoo together. It’s big and bassy and danceable, but it’s still very much Helicon, it’s still got that grit and psych punch; never slaves to genre conventions anyway the collaboration has pushed all involved deeper into new textures and sounds.
Previous single ‘Backbreaker’ follows the opener – crunchy and driving, an immense melodic rush, a collision of east and west – guitars, beats, sitars, there’s even flute in there somewhere… and it is the most ludicrously catchy thing I’ve heard in years..it should come with a health warning… it’s been living rent free in my head for about 6 months now and I have feeling it’s there permanently!
There is huge variation throughout the album – instrumental ‘Tabula Rasa’ is pumping bass-driven almost post-punk, like The Cure in the early days but with added abandon and zest and that unique Helicon energy, while ‘Not A Thought’ is a densely whirling fuzz mantra and ‘It Won’t Stop’ lays down baggy beats, a thunderous low-end and a devotional higher than the sun rhapsodic feel, hypnotic and trippy. ‘Adjust The Dosage’ is slower and more restrained, devotional and grand; that trademark Helicon ability for lifting your soul. How do they continually come up with emotive guitar lines like that? Expressway to your emotions every time…
‘We Don’t Belong’ and ‘Midnight Mass’ push out even further – the former starts with synths and a pulsing bass then morphs into a pumping trancey psychedelia while the latter is a dubby soundscape, dark and trippy, big and spacey and epic – both tracks as far from psych-by-numbers as you can get.
The album signs off with ‘Goodbye Cool World’; spoken word poetry over slamming crunchy trip hop with a sacred hymnlike quality, psychedelia with a conscience, exalted and poignant and totally out there…
‘Arise’ has a Screamadelica-like disregard for genre constraints and audience expectations; gleefully assembling elements from a massive range of influences. Yes, it’s that good that it belongs in a sentence next to that landmark album. Anything goes, if it’s cool, they use it. Each track has so much going on and such a rich texture that you’ll pick up new elements with each listen. There’s nothing minimalist about this record….this is a sensory overload.
Even with the risk taking and experimentation and addition of new textures the record still has that special Helicon thing that is hard to describe – that ability to make songs that feel timeless and part of you and that see into your head and know what you’re thinking. They seem to genuinely love what they do and that comes over clearly both on record and especially when they play live. Audiences pick up on it and feel part of it and the atmosphere created is always special; I can’t wait to see and hear them translate this into a live show; it promises to be a hell of an experience.
Imaginations are untethered here; ‘Arise’ is densely layered, exuberant and full of colour from start to finish. And groovy as fuck of course…
Al Lover and Helicon have concocted a total and instant classic – the perfect remedy for the daily existential dread out there. Without a doubt the coolest record of 2026…exhilarating and joyous and exactly what the world needs right now.
Gary Powell, February 2026
Helicon live dates
Buy ‘Arise’ here
