We have had half a (third) eye on the Glasgow Psych Rock band Helicon for a few years now. Staples of the UK’s underground rock scene, gathering a rapidly expanding fan base both at home and abroad since they formed back in 2009 and from then they’ve gone on to release eight EPs (we thought that ‘Kolorskope’ and ‘Seraph’, their contribution to the 2013 Mind Explosion 12” split EP with Celestial Bums, were absolutely killer tracks), tour Europe several times and share the stage with everyone from the likes of Wooden Shjips, The Warlocks and Dead Skeletons. It’s taken a while…………their debut album has finally landed via the good folks at Fuzz Club and it’s a belter!!
It’s been worth the wait…………….unlike a lot of bands who put a out full albums worth of tunes after only forming 10 minutes earlier to find that they only have an EPs worth of decent material, after several years of evolving through several line up changes, honing their craft and shaping their songs on the road, the self titled Helicon album comes fully formed and without a duff track in sight. Exploring themes of love and loss, drugs and drink, religion and politics, and life and death, Helicon’s new album is a collection of sprawling and expansive Eastern-sounding Psych-Rock with inspiration taken from the cosmic noise of their Scottish homeland (see The Jesus & Mary Chain, Mogwai etc.) to the sitar-led, opium-tainted sounds of India and the Neo-Psychedelic swoons of 90s San Francisco. It’s a mix of brutal, slashing modern Psych Rock with a muscular rhythm section and squalling guitars blended much darker, tripped out adventures in the hazy narcotic netherworld, ethereal and mesmeric at times, crushingly heavy and droning at others………“Helicon’s sound world is one of dark drones and relentless noise. It’s ambitious, gorgeous, intricately structured, and, especially with sitarist Graham Gordon in the band, wonderfully original.” Helicon's debut is a sublimely dynamic record that sounds like all the best parts of Psych history rolled into one masterpiece of an album, eight years in the making this is a record that's certain to propel Helicon's already-formidable reputation to unprecedented heights.
Helicon’s self titled debut album is out now via Fuzz Club Records on vinyl available from all good record stores, the usual suspects on line or direct from the Fuzz Club store with the digital download/album stream available here………………………
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