Album
Type:Full Length
Date
Released: 11th February 2014
Label:
Sargent House Records
Sleepwalking
Sailors, album track
listing:
1.
Pleasure Center
2.
Tumescence
3.
Pinniped
4.
Dangling Modifiers
5.
Heavy Worm Burden
6.
Crystal Gale
7.
New West
8.
Fetus. Carcass.
9.
Slow Beef
10.
Animatronic Bionic
11.
Dodge The Lightning
Bio:
Helms
Alee's music is exactly the sort of mutant, fantastic hybrid that
used to only occasionally erupt out of small, isolated scenes,
uninformed by trends of the day — instead inspired by the band’s
own collective contributions. The Seattle trio’s unique amalgam of
metal, art rock, pop and punk is charmingly reminiscent of the
fertile creativity that groups once had before the Internet seemed to
instruct bands to only copy one another. Helms Alee’s third album,
Sleepwalking Sailors sounds like many styles combined into one, and
none of it concerned with any notion other than creating vital,
urgent and uniquely characteristic music.
Bassist/vocalist
Dana James, drummer/vocalist Hozoji Matheson-Margullis and
guitarist/vocalist Ben Verellen combine a vast array of ideas within
a single song, while still sounding entirely cohesive. Their songs
are undeniably heavy, but also freely roaming through icy post-punk
and warm melodic haze at any given moment. Any given song can be
pummeling one moment and then subtly shift into triply harmonies
without the listener even realizing what has happened.
"The
weird thing about it," Verellen muses, "is that we've got
three different people contributing lyrics, parts and melodies to
each song. So, they end up being disjointed by our individual input.
We spent 3-1/2 years writing the songs for this album, so it's
thematically all over the place."
Sleepwalking
Sailors was recorded with engineer Chris Common (These Arms Are
Snakes, Pelican, Chelsea Wolfe) in Seattle, with intentionally
built-in limitations. "We recorded the album to tape in order to
confine ourselves from ProTools refining every detail. We ended up
with something that sounds really big, but also a bit more
aggressive." Helms Alee's previous album Weatherhead was
released in 2011 to much acclaim by their longtime label HydraHead
just before it went under. Undaunted, and as a testament to the
band's strong fan base, Helms Alee originally crowdfunded
Sleepwalking Sailors, eventually raising an impressive recording
budget. Upon hearing Common's early mixes, Sargent House quickly
offered to bring the band onto their management roster and release
the new album. Throughout the course of the album's creation, the
band's independent aesthetic becomes clear: a dedication to truly
representing themselves, regardless of trends and outside influence.
The
Band Members:
Ben
Verellen
Dana
James
Hozoji
Matheson-margullis
Review:
Helms
Alee's debut for Sargent House is a complete monster of an album,
full of melody and math. They strike a delicate balance of
outrageous fuzz and clean post-rock that allow for an enormous pallet
of sounds. Every song is layered expertly and shifts organically
between savage riffs and delicate soundscapes.
In
Sleepwalking Sailors Helms Alee have added to their bag of tricks,
building off the dynamic and aggressive records Weatherhead and Night
Terror. As usual, Matheson-Margullis lays out lots of toms, with a
touch of double-kick here, extra rolls there. The vocals have more
harmonized passages and layers. James' bass lines walk melodically,
and Verellen's guitars sound dynamic and live. Everything has a
little extra heat in it.
Pleasure
Center starts the album off going from shoegaze-y guitars to
thunderous double-kick drumming, with wonderfully layered vocals.
Tumescence follows with some savage fuzz, tom-heavy rolling drums,
and ends by showing off their expertise in head-banging maths. More
loud-quiet-loud rocking comes next in Pinniped, starting with a
crashing intro, falling into a rolling melodic passage, and a
crushing end.
Jangling
guitars start off Dangling Modifiers, joined by a heavy dose of toms,
fuzzy bass and alternating screams with airy singing. Heavy Worm
Burden has some of the busiest drum work on the album, leading to a
heavy turn and melodic build that finishes the song. Crystal Gale is
a short interlude before the heavy start of New West. Here, with the
drums solo, the quality of the recording really shines. The drums
are nicely resonant and live sounding, even when the rest of the band
joins in. Nothing gets muddy, despite heavy doses of delay, vocals,
and distortion.
Fetus
Carcass brings more counting fun and head-banging riffs. Slow Beef
evokes Mogwai with a build from atmospheric guitars to a bombastic
end with touches of keyboards adding another layer in the mix. The
penultimate track, Animatronic, is a brief, but superbly heavy tune.
Dodge the Lightning finishes off the record by showing off a little
bit of everything Helms does so well, with multiple vocal lines,
rumbling bass, and dynamic guitars.
This
is by far the best sounding record they've released. Every
instrument and vocal line sits perfectly in the mix, the drums clear
and live. Each sound distinct but unified, creating a colorful and
layered aesthetic. The songwriting is superb, and as always there is
a fun complexity to their rhythms while steadily grooving through
odd-time. This is a gem of an album. Everyone should buy it as soon
as they can.
Written
by Ben Bowman
Sleepw alking
Sailors will be avialable to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl via Sargent HouseRecords from February 11th. Thanks to Rachel at Silver PR,
Sargent House and Lisa at Suburban for sending us a promo to review.
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