HELMS ALEE SHARE VIDEO FROM FORTHCOMING ALBUM
WATCH ‘TRIPPING UP THE STAIRS’
KEEP THIS BE THE WAY DUE 29TH APRIL VIA SARGENT HOUSE
Seattle three-piece Helms Alee announced a new album Keep This Be The Way for April 29th via Sargent House earlier this month and today they’re back with the final single before it’s release.
“Tripping Up The Stairs” pits nightmarish synths against a barrage of distortion and is accompanied with an Apocalypse Now meets Swamp Thing styled video focused on the concept of control. The director Ron Harrell notes:
“The idea that I wanted to convey when we set out filming the video was an uncomplicated yet visually compelling version of finding said control. To me it became as simple as floating at sea and finding sure footing on land. Helms Alee has a pretty hydrous identity as it is, so incorporating that part came naturally. I had an initial cut of the video that was a little cleaner and realistic, visually speaking. The band saw it and, what I heard them say was “that’s great, now fuck it up”. So I fucked it up and this is the result.”
On the collaboration, the band says:
“Ron Harrell is one of our dearest friends, so it felt very easy and natural to be directed into vulnerable states by him. Having been by our side through most of the creation of our latest record via assisting with engineering, contributing thoughts and ideas, and generally being a friend to us, it made perfect sense to collaborate with him in this format. Photography and videography are natural ways that Ron expresses his love of life. That is made clear by the visual beauty of this video. He took a complicated feeling and created a weird fever dreamscape story to express that feeling. He applied his empathetic nature to incorporate the feelings/needs of the band while sculpting a story only he knew how to tell.”
WATCH ‘TRIPPING UP THE STAIRS’ ON YOUTUBE BELOW:
Directed by Ron Harrell
Across the span of their first five studio albums, the trio zeroed in on different aspects of their sound – a blend of lilting siren songs, crushing Northwest thunder and sludge, angular econo-rock, and heady guitar pop while retaining their no-frills, meat-and-potatoes approach in the studio. But with this Helms Alee have expanded their palette by delving into the production possibilities afforded by recording the album themselves, creating their most dynamic and technicolored work to date. This new approach is immediately evident on first single and album opener “See Sights Smell Smells,” where reverse cymbal crashes, fragmented piano, layered drums, woozy drones, saxophone freak-outs, and trippy vocal treatments transport the listener to an altered state of exhilarated anticipation. The song is accompanied by a video created by Allen Watke whose video art consists primarily of analog equipment with an emphasis on VHS dubbing, glitching & manipulation.
When the pandemic hit, guitarist/vocalist Ben Verellen, bassist/vocalist Dana James, and drummer/vocalist Hozoji Matheson-Margullis found refuge in their music and bunkered down in a makeshift studio in Verellen’s amplifier shop. Through the remainder of 2020 and into early 2021, the band wrote an album as a distraction from the surrounding turbulence, recording songs with the assistance of Ron Harrell as they were writing them, composing the material with the added benefit of hearing them come together from the engineer’s chair.
Keep This Be the Way still very much sounds like a Helms Alee record, but it’s their first album that diverts from the faithful recreation of their live sound and delves into a vibrant tapestry of surreal sounds and invented spaces.
KEEP THIS BE THE WAY TRACKLISTING
1. See Sights Smell Smells – official video
2. Keep This Be The Way
3. How Party Do You Hard
4. Tripping Up The Stairs – official video
5. Big Louise
6. Do Not Expose to the Burning Sun
7. The Middle Half
8. Mouth Thinker
9. Three Cheeks To The Wind
10. Guts for Brains
Helms Alee will also be on tour with label mates Russian Circles in support of this album. They will also be appearing at Roadburn Festival. Tickets and more info available here.
EU 2022 with Russian Circles:
APRIL 14 PRAGUE, CZ – LUCERNA MUSIC BAR
APRIL 16 MONTHEY, CH – PONT ROUGE
APRIL 17 ZURICH, CH – ROTE FABRIK
APRIL 18 MUNICH, DE – AMPERE
APRIL 20 ESCH SUR ALZETTE, LUX – KULTURFABRIK
APRIL 21 TILBURG, NL – ROADBURN FESTIVAL
APRIL 22 PARIS, FR – BATACLAN
APRIL 23 ORLEANS, FR – ASTROLABE
APRIL 24 NANTES, FR – WAREHOUSE
APRIL 26 TOULOUSE, FR – METRONUM
APRIL 27 BIARRITZ, FR – ATABAL
APRIL 28 MADRID, ES – SALA MON
APRIL 29 PORTO, PT – HARD CLUB
APRIL 30 LISBON, PT – LISBOA AO VIVO
MAY 01 SEVILLA, ES – SALA CUSTOM
MAY 03 BARCELONA, ES – LA2
MAY 05 MILAN, IT – CIRCOLO MAGNOLIA
MAY 06 ROME, IT – ORION CLUB
MAY 07 BOLOGNA, IT – TPO
MAY 09 RIJEKA, HR – POGON KULTURE
MAY 10 BUDAPEST, HUN – AKVARIUM KLUB
MAY 11 VIENNA, AT – FLEX
MAY 12 LEIPZIG, DE – CONNE ISLAND
MAY 14 LOHR AM MAIN, DE – SOUTH OF SILENCE FEST
MAY 15 BERLIN, DE – ASTRA
MAY 17 GOTHENBURG, SE – MUSIKENSHUS
MAY 18 STOCKHOLM, SE – SLAKTKYRKAN
MAY 20 OSLO, NO – PARKTEATRET
MAY 21 COPENHAGEN, DK – A COLOSSAL WEEKEND
MAY 22 HAMBURG, DE – GRUENSPAN
MAY 23 KOLN, DE – DIE KANTINE
MAY 24 ANTWERP, BE – TRIX