helvetia
headless machine of the heart
full length compact disc
tscl012
$8
Jason returns for the third Helvetia album armed with a four track recorder and some top serious hooks.
The music plays out like a series of snapshots, subtle and hazy, dreamlike in consistency. It's a cut and paste style of arranging, much like the making of a mix tape, but lending to a time before computers took over. Ideas and musical concepts come and go, haunting, but never imposing. Guitars weave around drums with simple execution. It's spaced out soul and pop with a black heart.
Review from Rapid Transit Radio
Headless Machine of the Heart starts off with epic introductions, delayed high note riffs, and tripping organs. The vocals holding a brewing terror that releases with echos similar to Suicide's “Lets hear it for Frankie” and completely exhausted screams. Mid song a steady rhythm starts and a solid bass line... the story begins.
Radiohead fans that have been bored for years look no further. Helvetia has been mastering their sound for years and it's apparent that they care about their production. Backwards feedback and whistles ride impenetrable grooves in Triple Zero. Believe it or not this is all 4-track recorded. They are that good.
Fiction starts off with a gallup as singer tells the story of someone who was found with dead with a rifle covered with leaves already pale from time. Broken Bones has amazing instrumentation and vocal hooks sang with real emotion. Meadowlark has some the prettiest guitar work ever.
Cosmos Armantes is the most forward thinking dream pop song I've ever heard, not kidding. Their tripping drumbeats and figure eight guitar movements blend with a fusion jazz feedback solo into the second set of words and runs uphill to the best vocal hook and noisy guitar swamping to date. You don't believe me? Check it out. This band is unstoppable.
The last song could make your heart skip a beat if you listen hard enough. The guitars basically aren't even guitars anymore. They are new creatures on the Ocean Floor.
product details
"Headless Machine of the Heart" Track Listing
1. Triple Zero
2. Fiction
3. Broken Bones 
4. Giving It All Up
5. A Gypsy Life
6. Incestuous Future Fable
7. Meadowlarks
8. Headless Machine of the Heart
9. Cosmos Amantes
10. The Ocean Floor
Running Time: 41 minutes, 52 seconds
Recorded at home in Seattle, Washington on four track machines by Jason Albertini.
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