Helio Sequence: "Everyone Knows Everyone" Video
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The Helio Sequence: "Don't Look Away"
Sometimes, the most important revelations come to us when intent is thrown to the wayside. The practice of deliberately rejecting pure deliberation is The Helio Sequence's newest modus operandi, but it hasn't always been. 1999's Accelerated Slow Motion Cinema EP and 2000's Com Plex (the former self-released and the latter on Portland's illustrious Cavity Search label) found Helio Sequence in hot pursuit of a very specific kind of sonic perfection, one steeped in amorphous, often ambient sensibilities and punctuated with ethereal, mechanical bursts of energy. The resulting linear compositions, intricately rendered from sonic threads affected by psychedelic and early 80s wall-of-sound groups, pointed towards what Helio Sequence would accomplish in 2001's stellar Young Effectuals (also on Cavity Search). Primal in energy and futuristic in tone, the record was, at that point, the band's neo-psych-dream swan song. "It was the pinnacle of what we were trying to achieve at that point," explains calm-voiced vocalist/guitarist Brandon Summers matter-of-factly. After three years, several tours (keyboardist/drummer Benjamin Weikel also lends his percussive skills to Modest Mouse, doubling the tour time), extensive hours of experimentation and afternoons spent listening to a lot of pop, Dylan and Can, the duo has reached a totally different plane of consciousness. "Love and Distance" is bright, free, and organic, a collection of refreshingly melodious songs that stand in stark contrast to the "univibe" that Summers asserts their past compositions often possessed. Summers and Weikel had been used to setting up a makeshift studio at the music store they started working at in tenth grade - one room was for tracking, one for mixing. When both parties quit their jobs to tour extensively in 2002, the recording, mixing and production operation moved to Weikel's parents' bonus room and basement, various rooms in Summers' apartment, and Issac Brock's garage. "So many of the takes weren't meant to stick," Brandon chuckles. In the familiar, comfortable setting of family and friends' homes, however, something happened - Helio Sequence gained an elevated level of ease that allowed them to throw caution to the wind, expanding on the complex, deep sounds they'd so masterfully crafted years earlier. Their latest album's strength lies not only in the soft tension created by its disparate elements, the traditional folksy twang of harmonica on "Harmonica Song", the fresh, tropical infusions of electronica on "Looks Good (But You Looked Away)", the passionate, precise collision of electric and organic percussion throughout, but in its natural flow. Each progression, each track, is part of a gorgeous, hooky whole. Armed with a surprising new instrumentation palette and buoyed by swift pop undercurrents, Helio Sequence finally felt able to construct their voluminous grooves using laissez-faire techniques that weren't previously a part of their creative process. The result is a band more confident, inspired and inventive than ever before.
If you're a MySpace addict or a wannabe hipster, the Hero from Helio may be for you. But no instant messaging and no Bluetooth, plus lackluster media options and a high price tag mean the Hero definitely isn't for everyone.
Is Helio's Hero the handset for you?
If you're a MySpace addict or a wanna-be hipster, the Hero from Helio may be for you. But no instant messaging, no Bluetooth, lackluster media options and a high price tag mean the Hero definitely isn't for everyone. CNET's Nicole Lee takes a look.
To promote the upcoming season of "The Simpons," U.K. television channel Sky One has created a live version of the opening sequence.
While the Helio Drift may not be as attractive as the Helio Kickflip, the Drift's high-end multimedia features, Bluetooth, and GPS capabilities probably make it the best handset that Helio has to offer.
"Goped the Fish" is a sequence taken from "Flying the Fish", a DVD documenting a microlight flight from Cape Town to the Fish River Canyon in Namibia, Africa's Grand Canyon and the second largest canyon system in the world.
The Coup's new album, Pick A Bigger Weapon, kicks off with a classic Boots Riley line ? "I'm a walking contradiction/Like bullets and love mixin'?" ? and then it just gets better. After a 14-year career that has defined the word "uncompromising", the Coup return armed with bigger funk and taller tales.
Backed by a stellar band that includes Audioslave's Tom Morello, Dwayne Wiggins, and veterans of Parliament-Funkadelic, the Gap Band, Toni! Tony! Ton?!, Jesse Johnson, and Frankie Beverly and Maze, the sound is a little edgier on this record and the beats a little faster." The Coup's uniquely bent grooves point to "Dirty Mind"-era Prince, late-80s Too Short, and the trunk-rattling hyphy sonics of the New Bay movement.
The Helio Ocean is a triple-deckered phone with a numeric keypad layer that slides down, and a QWERTY keyboard layer that slides sideways.
Prizefight: Helio Ocean vs. T-Mobile Sidekick 3
The Helio Ocean is a fun, new phone, but can it win the hearts of teenagers away from the Sidekick 3?
Tokyo Sex Destruction: "Two Years Ago"
Talk about Kickin out the Jams, Spain's most recent calling to MC5 is the radically refined garage rock'n roll explosion Tokyo Sex Destruction. 10 Rock'n roll hits that are filled with all the yeah yeahs and all the syncopated claps and guitar breaks and vocal leads and dance steps and catchy choruses. This album is explosive! Strong Nation of Ulysses/Make Up hybrid politic and style uniformity throughout their lyrics and image. On one hand it generates sounds more like The Sonics or Sly and The Family Stone but with the same political element as bands like International Noise Conspiracy. Ben Swank of Soledad Brothers says live they remind him of the same energy as the Datsuns with their wild shows. All power to the people motherfuckers!
