Helios Creed - "Deep Blue Love Vacuum"
(Noiseville Records 2006, CD/2-LP, Noiseville 58)
Helios Creed - "Deep Blue Love Vacuum"
(Noiseville Records 2006, CD/2-LP, Noiseville 58)
From Aural Innovations #34 (August 2006)
The latest from Helios Creed features his trademark blistering spaced out, punked out industrial head exploding rock, plus a few goodies that set the album a little apart from the past several Helios albums and make this one of the best I've heard from the man in a while. Backing Helios on Deep Blue Love Vacuum is Jerry Page on guitar and synths, J.D. Pinkus on bass, Paul Della Pelle on drums, Blair Bovbjerg on theremin and Fabienne Shine (Damon Edge's widow) taking vocals on 3 tracks.
After a slow, haunting intro bit, the band launch into "Beginning of Light", a blistering slab of raw space rock that features nearly 7 minutes of jamming, cosmic aggression. Other examples of classic Helios include "Cowboy" and "To 2012", both brain frying, space rocking and completely insane freakout tunes. The guitar on "Cowboy" actually sounds a bit like Zappa, which is crazily cool within a Helios context. And "Sandbox Jungle" is a DEEP space Blues rock song played by wild animals on acid and with kick ass rock vocals from Fabienne.
There are also several songs with a solid rock n roll foundation that I enjoyed. "Got to Have Someone" features tightly played rock n roll but done up sonic mayhem style, and with the theremin giving things a sci-fi B flick vibe. "Fields of Green" consists of Helios styled rock n roll with a whimsical new wavey feel. "Help Me Bitch" is an explosive freakout psychedelic space-metal track. "The Things They Showed Me" is another spaced out rock n roll song but with a 60's psychedelic feel. And rounding out the set is a cover of the Lou Reed classic, "All Tomorrow's Parties", with Fabienne on vocals and is probably one of the most purely trippy psychedelic tracks I've ever heard on a Helios album.
For more information you can visit the Helios Creed web site at: http://www.helios-creed.com.
Visit the Noiseville Records web site at: http://www.noiseville.com.
CLICK HERE to read the Action Man account of a Helios Creed show in Portland, Oregon.
Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz