{"id":16611,"date":"2026-02-12T19:18:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T19:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/?p=16611"},"modified":"2026-03-29T16:58:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T15:58:04","slug":"helicon-x-al-lover-arise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/helicon-x-al-lover-arise\/","title":{"rendered":"HELICON X AL LOVER ‘Arise’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Helicon<\/a> 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; \u2018Arise\u2019 – just released on Fuzz Club<\/a> – 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\u2019s a celebration, expansive and laid back, full of soul and fire and it feels like some sort of a crescendo even though it\u2019s only the first track.<\/p>\n

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 \u2018Zero Fucks\u2019 10\u201d and then the \u2018This Can Only Lead To Chaos\u2019 LP it felt like they\u2019d 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 \u2018God Intentions\u2019,  cinematic and reflective and with even greater depth and vision, different to anything else around and a unique twist on urban psychedelia . And now\u2026.boom! they\u2019ve hooked up with Californian avant dub electronica guru Al Lover<\/a> and dropped this monster!  Helicon have always been collaborators like no other band I\u2019ve 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\u2019ve worked some serious voodoo together. It\u2019s big and bassy and danceable, but it\u2019s still very much Helicon, it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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Previous single \u2018Backbreaker\u2019 follows the opener –  crunchy and driving, an immense melodic rush, a collision of east and west – guitars, beats, sitars, there\u2019s even flute in there somewhere\u2026 and it is the most ludicrously catchy thing I\u2019ve heard in years..it should come with a health warning\u2026 it\u2019s been living rent free in my head for about 6 months now and I have  feeling it\u2019s there permanently!<\/p>\n

There is huge variation throughout the album – instrumental \u2018Tabula Rasa\u2019 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 \u2018Not A Thought\u2019 is a densely whirling fuzz mantra and  \u2018It Won\u2019t Stop\u2019 lays down baggy beats, a thunderous low-end and a devotional higher than the sun rhapsodic feel, hypnotic and trippy. \u2018Adjust The Dosage\u2019 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\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018We Don\u2019t Belong\u2019 and \u2018Midnight Mass\u2019 push out even further \u2013 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 \u2013 both tracks as far from psych-by-numbers as you can get.<\/p>\n