Helio sequence topaz farm8/31/2023 Tempering the free form approach to writing was Summers and Weikel’s meticulous attention to production and arrangement. Other songs like “One More Time”, “October” and “The Measure” quickly formed from rough one-minute sketches by Summers, while the down tempo “Harvester of Souls” was completely improvised musically and lyrically in a single take. The two would put a loop on and improvise together with Summers on guitar and Weikel on drums, recording one take of each jam. Weikel, who was listening to minimalist/ambient composers like Roedelius and Manuel Goettsching, had created dozens of abstract synth loops of chord progressions and arpeggios. It proved to be the most spontaneous, open, and varied writing process they had ever experienced. They left behind much of the cleaner-sounding modern digital studio equipment and instruments they’d always relied on, and embraced vintage gear that would color their recordings with a warmer, deeper sound: Tape and analog delays, spring and plate reverbs, tube preamps, ribbon microphones, and analog synths.Īs the new studio came together, so did the songwriting. But it wasn’t until the success of Keep Your Eyes Ahead that they could afford to step things up: The duo spent months (and many hard-earned dollars) retooling their studio. Summers and Weikel, who started playing together in 1996 and self-produced their first EP in 1999, have always been gearheads. They decided to use this opportunity to try something different. With twice the square footage, the space also had room for more gear, a lot more gear. They no longer had to work their recording schedule around loud rehearsals by neighboring bands, but were free to create late into the night in uninterrupted seclusion. After three months of searching, Summers and Weikel settled into a 1500-square-foot, former breakroom-cafeteria in an old warehouse. But Summers and drummer-keyboardist, Benjamin Weikel, were lucky: All of their best equipment was either on tour with them, or racked high enough off the studio floor to be spared. Heavy rains had caused the building’s plumbing to overflow like a geyser. Back home in Portland, OR, the band’s studio/practice space was under nearly a foot of water. In 2009, while touring in support of Keep Your Eyes Ahead, singer-guitarist Brandon Summers got an unexpected phone call in the middle of the night. If Love and Distance was the album that pushed the Helio Sequence off the rails, Keep Your Eyes Ahead is the sound of the duo getting back on track.Negotiations, the fifth full-length album written, recorded, and produced by The Helio Sequence, would sound different had it not been for a flood. They're still too loud to be the work of a genuine pop band, but that's certainly where the Helio Sequence seems to be heading, having trimmed the length of their tunes (nothing here exceeds the 4:30 mark) and emphasized songcraft over pure ambience. The album's biggest songs - "Hallelujah," "Can't Say No," and the reverb-drenched title track - are driven not only by dense guitars, but also a new focus on melody. But the group is still able to build up cloudy walls of sound, adding bubbling electronics and layers of instruments into songs that are lush, towering, and altogether gorgeous. For a band that used to channel My Bloody Valentine's mix of noise and beauty, folksy ballads like "Broken Afternoon" and "Shed Your Love" are a big change, a result of Summers' desire to slow down the band's galloping pace. Summers no longer yelps, perhaps because his scarred throat simply won't let him, and the group now alternates between massive psych-rock, dreamy pop, and Dylan-influence folk. Four years later, Summers appears to have regained the use of his pipes, and the band's fourth album, Keep Your Eyes Ahead, is another sonic jump. The frontman had an even tougher time on the road, where a string of shows steadily whittled his voice down to a raspy fraction of its original power. The album was a step forward for the Helio Sequence, but it was still a haphazard move, one that found Summers yelping and shouting in an attempt to deliver a memorable performance. On 2004's Love and Distance, frontman Brandon Summers found his voice and pushed it the forefront of his band's swirling sound.
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