HELU’s excellent 35-minute debut exemplifies every great thing progressive music has to offer. Sweeping soundscapes, intricate progressions and touches of both grace and grunt, the band cover a lot of ground in a single, massive song – Varisema.
It only made sense that such a marvelous creation would stem from marvelous inspiration in the first place. As such, Art As Catharsis talked shop with Helu’s guitarist David Sattout who has kindly put together a list of songs that inspired Varisema for your listening pleasure. Throw on a good pair of headphones, turn the volume up and let the riffs do the rest. Enjoy.
Schnellertollermeier –
I think HELU owes its existence to this album by Swiss trio Schnellertollermeier. Our drummer Evan played it to me several years ago when we were touring with another group and immediately we got to chatting excitedly about something we might one day do in a similar vein. I particularly love the unusual interplay of the instruments and the way the piece gradually builds into something raucous and monstrous.
Dawn of Midi – Atlas
Our bass player Josh’s suggestion. The tones, the spaciousness and the grooves of this whole album (Dysnomia) are really seductive. There’s also a real precision and perfection to it. It’s a bit machine-like in a way.
Grizzly Bear – Aquarian
Another Josh job. A killer off-kilter production with searching melodies, sly harmonic movement and restless rhythmic push-pulls, this is classic Grizzly Bear. They just make everything more interesting. Varisema’s intro is big-time inspired by this one.
Battles – Tonto
Any band with two guys playing guitars with one hand and keyboards with the other is bound to pull an interesting sound. Add that to Stanier’s bone-simple drumming and throw in a soaring peak and you’ve got a really gritty, grinding anthem.
The Necks – Sex
Evan’s choice, along with Hanging Gardens and Open. Sex goes for nearly an hour and it’s not nearly long enough. One of the most hypnotic pieces of music you will ever hear. Listening to The Necks really encouraged us to listen to each other when we jam, to try to build slowly, to find something new in each repetition. Even if there only 1% of The Necks in what we’ve done so far, it’s easily the best percent. Although I reckon we got up to about 5.