By John Deasey
Chrissie Caufield and Michael Capstick are a duo that go under the The Helicopter Quartet moniker – yep, proper strange that but then they are from Leeds so I guess can be excused. This is their second album, or collection, as they refer to it, and is an interesting and fulfilling release.
Being a duo, you might think their sound would be a bit thin, a little weak and missing several layers. Think again – this is a big sound, a bloody big sound with screeching cacophonic ebbs and flows as Caufield takes her violin strings to the very edge of existence, looks over into the abyss, then pulls back at the last second to treat us to a beautiful post-rock denouement of gentle Explosions In the Sky-type ambience.
And that’s just the opening track – ‘Supersymmetry’. A brilliant start to a wonderful album that weaves in and out of a gloriously mad sonic adventure with just enough hint of experimentalism as to not be annoying.
The eponymous title track comes up next and introduces us to a Mum-like world of clicks, drones and guitar noises, laying down a finely woven texture of ambient bliss. Initially it’s hard to say where this track is heading but when the strummed chords come in at about the 3 minute mark, I am reminded of GY!BE at their sinister best, and when the cellos’ sonorous beauty pierce this delicate labyrinth of noise, I am taken to a world of Mono and Worlds End Girlfriend and their spectacular Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain.
This really is that good. It would be a worthy soundtrack to the deepest, most sorrowful of videos ……
The theme continues into ‘Hunter Gatherer’ with electronic clicks and noises underpinned by gentle strings, never in a rush, never hurried along. Layers are added with guitars and synthesizers coming into the mix and the violin becomes more and more shrill, incessant and almost violent, transforming this into an eerie rumbling soundtrack to some dark, terrible event we should not bear witness to. Great stuff and very unsettling.
‘Warsaw’ continues this eerie rumbling and now we also get some tremendous Eastern-inspired strings wailing and howling over the terror and a synthesized lead adding to the just about held in check chaos. Again, this track finishes superbly as it gently drops down to single notes, droplets of sounds, echoing away into the distance.
The collection closes with ‘Seeds of Decay’ which builds on the themes introduced in the previous tracks but adds an almost jazz-like freeform section of random noises – I’m not sure this track works as well as the others but the final minutes are as good - layers of sound stripped back to leave us with a humming, buzzing, beautiful finale.
A cracking release and highly recommended if you like your ambient, slightly experimental, theme-like music ……
