Helicopter Quartet – “Leading Edges”

“Leading Edges” is the latest full-length release from Leeds based duo Helicopter Quartet. Immediately disrupting the thought patterns by calling themselves Helicopter Quartet, Chrissie Caulfield on violin and synthesiser and Michael Capstick on guitar and bass have succeeded in producing unsettling, yet fragile, swathes of sound, that are at times swaying with prettiness and delight whilst at others jarring the ears with dissonance and discord. Whilst these two states of being may seem incongruous, “Leading Edges” succeeds in melting them together in a glorious miasma of otherworldliness. Born out of the remnants of Catscans, Helicopter Quartet set out on a mission to create new musical spaces in an attempt to create “…confusion and often fear”.  “The Way It Never Was”, for example, opens this release with pulsing violin and guitar reminiscent at times of early experimental Philip Glass circa. “Music in Twelve Parts”. Before too long, however, the mood veers off into a sinister pastoral violin monologue that brings to mind King Crimson’s “Larks Tongues in Aspic Part 1”. If these comparisons are whetting the listener’s appetite, then please read on. “Refuge (2014)” balances gentle and mournful to perfection. Droning violin crying, over lightly undulating guitar and electronics, makes for a seamless mood changer.

 Despondent guitar and violin characterise “110” which succeeds in instilling not only a mood of apprehension and foreboding, but also an insidious sense of inquisitiveness. The mood remains constant for over seven minutes as the music slides laboriously over an unnatural, yet organic, landscape. It is not until the end when the guitar rears it’s ugly, yet majestic head, that the texture is disrupted. A sense of alien longing permeates “Trailing Edge” which continues the familiar drone, but infuses it with soaring, and somehow medieval, qualities. The crescendo that is hinted at through these pieces comes with “Hothouse”, which mutates into an intense flare of restrained noise bringing the album itself to an expansive conclusion.  The Pierrotechnique remix of “Refuge” adds some muscle and further consistency to the original, with a tender pulse underpinning throughout.

The influences cited give some idea as to how to approach this release with The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, Sonic Youth, Karlheinz Stockhausen (whose “Helicopter String Quartet” bears an uncanny similarity in name to the duo), Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Curved Air and Dimitri Shostakovich all apparent throughout. If any of these names are unfamiliar to the new listener, then “Leading Edges” by Helicopter Quartet, should, in all fairness, be approached with care.  To the listener who reads this and nods with approval inside, this release will not disappoint. Who can fail to enjoy an album by a band whose interests are listed as “Effects pedals and mains hum”?

Ashley Reaks – Compassion Fatigue (1-8) album review

The premise for “Compassion Fatigue”, the latest release from multi-instrumentalist Ashley Reaks, is that the first song on the album will be one minute long, in the key of A, the second song two minutes long in the key of B, the third song three minutes long in the key of C and so on. On first realising this, one of the obvious knee jerk reactions may be that this is an abysmal gimmick, which totally overshadows the music within. Writing music within such strict guidelines may seem oppressive and mechanical. So, forget everything you have just read about the creation of the music and instead concentrate on the actual content. What we have here is a collection of tunes that so gloriously defy categorisation that they virtually stick two esoteric fingers up at any form of scene and go about their own business by their own rules. “Compassion Fatigue” as you would expect from being the first track, is one minute long and in the key of A, but forget I mentioned that, remember.

Sixty seconds of caustic lyrics superimposed over an almost progressive rock chord progression is the perfect introduction to this collection. The listener is hooked into the lyrical content in the same way that I can remember being drawn into the lyrics of Devo, there is something mischievous about the content, but it is dressed up in technically proficient and complex musical arrangements. Similarly, on “The World the Dead Have Made For Us” (two minutes long in B, sorry), the vocals and lyrics appear cheerful and family friendly, but hide a subtle message. “Cold Body Pussycat” illustrates how repetition in the vocal and instrumentation can accumulate layer upon layer to create mesmerising yet oddly sensitive music. In many ways that could be considered the theme to “Compassion Fatigue”, there is always a sense of “uneasy listening”. This can be illustrated again on “Wrong ‘Un”, as the music disguises the scathing nature of the vocal content. Contender for the best song title of the year so far must go to “Cot Death Grandmother”, and as the songs themselves become longer and therefore have available space to develop, the repetition and vocal wizardry take on a new level of sophistication. There is now even time for a saxophone solo and gently undulating vocal harmonies.

A dense, almost Philip Glass/Steve Reich-like element underpins “Street Cleaning” which really opens up the arrangements allowing for extended, almost baroque passages of saxophone, and progressive rock keyboard. It is now that the compositional proficiencies begin to shine through. The lyrics are no more family friendly for all this however, as the message is conveyed with a comical yet uncompromising edge.

Read the full review at This Is Not A Scene

Ashley Reaks website