Out There
Released: September 2007
Now-Again
http://www.stonesthrow.com/nowagain/The Heliocentrics - Sirius B
It’s about time I sat down and start writing about one of the wildest albums I’ve heard in the last few years instead of just listening to it over and over again and keeping it from the rest of civilisation. Whilst Battles’ Mirrored woke me up to 2007 math rock, The Heliocentrics’
2007 record Out There sent me to hyperspace without really knowing what genre of music I’m listening to.
Even through The Helios are signed to Stones Throw’s subsidiary funk label Now-Again, to call this album just plain funk would be like calling Miles Davis just a Jazz trumpeter. This instrumental album starts off with a voice sample of a stewardess introducing the listeners to the journey they’re about to take into a world far away. This world has an orgy of sounds and influences: Free jazz-check, fuzzed out funk-check, middle-eastern influences-check, African percussions-check, flower-power psychadelia-check, Javanese Gamelan-check (?!?) the list goes on and on. Malcom Catto - the drummer (Dj Shadow’s drummer amongst others) is noticeably the de facto leader of the group as his drums dominate the album without even playing one bore fest of a drum solo. The steady and highly funky beats he sets up are complemented perfectly by Jake Ferguson-bass & Thai guitar, Mike Burnham- modular synth & effects, Jack Yglesias- flutes, percussion & santur, Adrian Owusu- guitars, oud & percussion, James Arben- clarinet, tenor & baritone sax, Ray Careless- alto, tenor & baritone sax, Max Weissenfeldt- vibes & percussion as well as Khadijatou Silcott-Fraser- vocals (very occasionally).
Staying true to the Stones Throw tradition, The Helios are superb musicians producing superb pieces of work with almost no publicity. A quick Wikipedia search on ‘The Heliocentrics’ will give you 0 results. It’s a sad state of affairs so if a spaced out-jazzfunkrockpsychadelia happens to be your thing, go beg, steal, threat…anything really to get this album.
Side A:
1. Intro
2. Distant Star
3. Flight 583
4. Once Upon a Time
5. Beyond Repair
6. Sirius B7. Untitled
Side B:
8. They Are Among Us - Part 1
9. The Zero Hour
10. Joyride
11. The American Empire
Side C:
12. Before I Die
13. Intermission
14. Age of the Sun
15. They Are Among Us - Part 2
16. Winter Song
17. A World of Masks
Side D:
18. Sounds of the East
19. Somewhere Out There
20. Second Chance (K2’s Prayer)
21. Return Journey
22. Sirius A
23. Falling to Earth
24. Outro
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