HELDON

This sixth album from the band (or the man) is not an easy one to penetrate. And I guess that I have given it up after several listening. I had the same feel about their previous and quite chaotic work "Un Rêve Sans Conséquences Spéciales".

This "Interface" is just a juxtaposition of weird moments for about forty minutes. Even if the guitar work from Pinhas saves the bill more than once ("Jet Girl"). Experimental and quite difficult to approach.

It is true to say that "Bal-A-Fou" has a definite and early Floyd feel, combined with a clear jazzy experience. It is probably the best thing featured on this work while he recurring theme of "Soucoupes Volantes" leaves me cold and wandering.

All hopes are left in the hands of the epic and title track. But there again, expectations are not met although I have never expected too much from "Heldon". Some nice avant-garde music for their early works but no great albums as far as I'm concerned.

The hypnotic (but thin) theme from "Interface" is hardly going to change my overall mind about this album. I'm not very enthusiastic about this release and I can't really go over two stars to rate the music that is displayed. In one word: abstruse. Or hermetic.

As most of "Heldon" works, this "Rêve Sans Conséquence?" is not to be placed into all hands.

If ever you are fan of delicate prog electronic, the shock with the opening track "Marie Virginie C." might be fatal. It is a full and free jamming, experimental and VERY noisy track. Nothing to do with prog electronic as far as I'm concerned. More sounding as a second (at best) tier KC. Pinhas showed already lots of inclinations towards the master, but I can't tell that this particular track (which lasts for almost twelve minutes) does any good to his fame.

This might well be the most hermetic of their albums. The totally experimental "Elephanta" is just a parody of noisy elements which is stretched to the upper limit (over eight minutes!). So far, this album leaves me quite perplexed: I'm still looking to the first good and "listenable" moment.

OK. The jamming "Perspective IV Ter Muco" is by far the most bearable so far. Great beat (almost some "Santana" feel can be experienced) and some delightful guitar. But it holds more with free jazz than with prog electronic for sure.

I'm afraid that I won't rate this album as high as my colleagues. But I don't like very much the music that is played here. No feeling, inexpressive, void. Impossible to categorize really.

"Un rêve sans conséquences spéciales" holds more of a nightmare than a dream to me.

I am rating this album with two stars, but I'm not quite sure why. Not for the quarter of an hour of synthetic and VERY noisy sounds that can be heard during "Toward The Red Line".

Heldon's work is quite difficult to approach.

If you're looking for harmony or cosmic music, this is maybe not the first band you should get into, although the first part of this album ("Perspective I"), is probably the most melodic they have written so far. Sweet keyboards almost all the way through.

What I don't like at all is the reference to the Baader-Meinhof gang ("Perspective III"). These were a bunch of terrorists or nihilists (hence the sub-title of the opener maybe) and to mention them on a record to some sort of glorifying them is out of place IMHHO. This long part is extremely repetitive but also holds some nice TD oriented patchworks.

The only track which is not signed by Pinhas is "Bassong". It is of course bass oriented but not only. This is probably due to the fact that it was written by Michel Ettori who played guitar here. A fine, tranquil piece of complex music. Yes, it is possible!

The epic "Perspective IV" opens as the previous part ended. It evolves very softly towards some Fripp guided guitar solo played upon a foreground of electronic and experimental noises. I told you, melodies are next door.

This long track is subdivided into three sections, of which the good rocking "Virgin Sweedish Blues" is my fave. The band shows a very strong unity between keys, drums and bass. Somewhat an unexpected piece of music within this maelstrom of electronics.

"Perspective IV" ends up in a kind of wild jam during which the work from "Coco" Roussel on drums is quite impressive. In all, this album might please some of the progheads from this site but not the majority I'm afraid.

Three stars for this relatively revolutionary music.

The least I can with this French band, is that the more they released albums, the least accessible is their music.

Their first two albums showed a clear Crimson influence which is hardly to find here. The sound is mostly purely experimental, mechanical, and technical. If you're looking at beautiful synth lines, music from the outer world, amazing and poignant melodies there is only one advice: you'd better pass your way because this album doesn't feature any of these characteristics.

"It's Always Rock 'N' Roll" (what a strange title for such music displayed) is not as minimalist as the "Kraftwerk" debut, but it is not too far either. I am not submerged with joy while listening to this long release. The stereotype could be "Cocaine Blues": a boring and repetitive track of about ten minutes which generates basically no emotion at all. And I need emotions to survive.

The first track that could raised my interest is the first epic "Aurore" (dawn). This is indeed a fine prog electronic track. At least according my concepts which combine some coldness, great atmosphere, aerial keys, some magnificence and last but not least some great harmonies. Some TD filiation at the turn of the second part is probably not alien to my good impression about this song.

The icy "Ocean Boogi" holds some nice mellotron sounds which are quite precursory of the much later Scandinavian scene. A good track indeed.

I wouldn't even take the long running time of this album as an argument: would it be cut by half, I wouldn't have liked it better. Only "Aurore" and "Ocean Boogi" are worth. Two stars.

To make things clear even for a novice, the opening song is called "In the wake of King Fripp". I guess that it is useless to tell you that it is a great tribute to KC. Not the pummel one, but the melodic one (the one I prefer): great mellotron parts and hypnotic guitar all the way through. A great start indeed.

The short "Aphanisis" sounds like a delicate Hackett piece: a sweet and acoustic guitar work which has to be received as an interlude, a short breathe of air.

"Allez Teai" is more an effort of a band than the first release "Électronique Guérilla": the man in charge (Richard Pinhas) is surrounded by other musicians who are integrating some good elements to the whole. Now, a piece as "Omar Diop Blondin" leans more towards eclectic prog than to prog electronic (and the feeling prevails for each of the three initial pieces).

The spacey feeling starts with the short "Fluence" which is followed by "Continuum Mobile Disjonction Inclusive". Two distinctive tracks united by one feel: coldness, darkness, weirdness. Not easily accessible but still splendid for the lovers of the genre. Maybe not enough melodic and too repetitive to be catchy.

The KC hypnotic feel shows up back again during the fine "St Mikael?" which is another fine piece of music available. One of the best frankly.

This album is at the crossroads between "Kraftwerk", TD and Crimson. A rare mix for sure. It lacks in elegant parts (except the great opener) and therefore I rate it with three stars. A good album though.

This "Électronique Guérilla" is only four years too old to have met the debut of the European start of the electronic genre.

This debut is very much the effort of one man. Their leader and main composer Richard Pinhas: the head, brains and hands of the band. To depict the music that you can expect here is not easy: it isn't as experimental as the early "Kraftwerk" nor is it as spacey and cosmic as TD or Schulze.

The music is quite specific on its own and deserves full attention if you like sonic ambiences and weird conjunction of musical themes. I am not a deep fan of this debut, but one has to acknowledge that the French scene didn't produce a lot of similar bands in these remote days. Jarre being another one, but scoring much higher in the charts and playing a different type of music after all.

The first, and only, song with "vocals" is featured on the flip side of the original vinyl: "Quais Marchais, Mieux Qu' En 68": it is also the most accessible (if only this word can be applied to any of the tracks from this album). Weird text only understandable if you are fluent in French (and even so?).

This album is not easy to approach: somewhat minimalist, somewhat experimental ("Circulus Vitiosus"), but not at all commercial neither melodic for a ?cent. In other words: this album is challenging and will only attract the ones amongst you who are open to discover new paths of electronic sounds.

Three stars.

This very much the easiest to listen to album by Heldon, the changing musical scene presented in "Bolero", the almost comic sound of " Une drole de Journee" and the crafted rock and (sometimes) roll of "Stand-by" give the listener a changing landscape of sound. RP is a master of his guitar, a self confessed Fripp fan, he plays with a little more sublety, but manages to blend this with the madness of the accompanying bass, synths & battering ram drums. If one album can entice you to buy the back catalogue of a band, it then deserves the highest praise, Stand-by got me hooked on this very good French band, and so it gets my highest praise, this is an un-missable album for any prog-rocker worth his name! One critisism, the later cd re-issue of the album starts of with Stand-by, then Une drole de Journee, to finish with Bolero, it may be years of listening to the album with the tracks in their original order, but this order seems less satisfying, maybe Cuniform or whoever prepared the release should have a rethink and put the tracks in their original format.

This is HELDON's third album and it's a double with 85 minutes of music on it. Rather ambitious no doubt,but after his first two albums i'm not surprised that Richard Pinhas would be wanting to take on the world.Like most doubles this is very much a hit and miss affair.Richard composed all the songs except for "Ocean Boogi" which happens to be a George Grunblat tune.Very cool to see that Jean-My Truong from ZAO is playing drums on "Doctor Bloodmoney".Patrick Gauthier guests on synths on the same track. "ICS Machinique" features these interesting sounds that are like mini outbursts of thunder.Synths eventually join in. "Cotes De Cachalet Ala Psylocybine" has this electronic beat, then the guitar comes in making some noise before 2 minutes.The guitar becomes really prominant 5 minutes in. "Mechammment Rock" is my favourite.Drums and bass to open before the synths join in.The guitar starts to rip it up.Awesome sound! Gilbert Artman the leader from LARD FREE guests on drums.How cool is that! "Cocaine Blues" features pulsating electronics as other sounds come in.A deeper sound then takes over as other sounds come in.So much going on here.By the way the first disc is my favourite.Disc two begins with "Aurore" which features some guest Indian harmonium.This is very repetitive.Dogs come in barking before 15 minutes to add a new dimension, but at over 18 minutes in length this is a long one. "Virgin Swedish Blues" has these spacey sounds as the guitar tastefully plays.Mellotron in this one as well. "Ocean Boogi" is my favourite of disc two.The acoustic guitar,bass and spacey sounds all sound so good.Electric guitar arrives after 2 minutes.Mellotron follows.Such a good track. "Zind Destruction" is dedicated to "the man on the guitar" which i assume is Robert Fripp.The guitar sounds so psychedelic here as Richard lights it up.The sounds pulsate as Pinhas solos away. "Doctor Bloodmoney" is the almost 17 minute closer.Lots of spacey synths including Patrick Gauthiers solo.Jean comes in on the drums 12 1/2 minutes in right to the end.Some excellent moments from him here. Good album, in fact i like it better than the next two.3.5 stars.

HELDON's debut was pretty much Richard Pinhas doing it all except for the one track he got lots of help on.On this his second album he partners with Georges Grunblatt.There's a nice picture of the two in the liner notes.Speaking of liner notes Richard thanks his idol Robert Fripp,Patrick Gauthier,Jimi Hendrix and Eno along with some others.I like what ClickForth says about this album on the RYM site.He describes it as "Hazy soundscapes that take you somewhere on a summer afternoon,required listening". I couldn't agree more especially since i was listening to this early today as i drove on a beautiful summers day through the country side.It doesn't get much better. "In The Wake Of King Fripp" is such a great title.Gentle guitar to open as mellotron washes in and continues.Such a beautiful sound.Angular guitar comes in after 4 minutes.Just gorgeous. "Aphanisis" features some nice dual acoustic guitar melodies throughout. "Omar Diop Blondin" is dedicated to both Fripp and Eno.The guitar is darker sounding as synths join in.Angular guitar before 1 1/2 minutes.It stops 2 minutes later as we start to get these guitar soundscapaes the rest of the way. "Moebius" is a TANGERINE DREAM like tune,very electronic sounding.Great song. "Fluence" builds as the sounds seem to hover.It's like the sounds keep coming closer then they drift back.About half way through the sounds are floating like they're suspended in mid air.The synths get louder 10 minutes in. "St.Mikael Samstag Am Bends" again feature electronics that float and hum.The guitar comes in after 2 minutes.Mellotron a minute later.Angular guitar before 5 1/2 minutes. "Michel Ettori" features dual acoustic guitars like the second track. I really like the style of HELDON's first two albums, but "Interface" and "Stand By" are my favs.

When it comes to HELDON's seven studio albums from the seventies i like the first two and the last two the best.This is the debut from 1974 and as the liner notes say "All tracks made by Richard Pinhas with an AKS synth and a 1957 Gibson Les Paul".He does get some help with rhythm guitar on one track, and a lot of help on "Ouais Marchais Mieux Qu'en 68".You should see the picture of Richard in the liner notes,that might be the best "fro" i've ever seen! Richard dedicates this album to Robert Wyatt.Very cool. "Zind" is a fairly straight forward number with synth sounds coming and going while we get this constant hum. "Back To Heldon" opens with what sounds like a sequencer as spacey sounds flood the soundscape.This sounds really good.The guitar is making some noise as well.Interesting sounds after 5 1/2 minutes. "Northernland Lady" is the best of the first three tracks.We get this relaxed rhythm guitar as angular guitar from Pinhas comes in.Electronic sounds also fill out the sound. "Ouais Marchais Mieux Qu'en 68" is where we get a lot of guests helping out including Patrick Gauthier on piano and synths.Guests also add some bass,drums,spoken words and more synths.It opens with drums and guitar as spoken words join in.When the words stop the elctronics come in.This contrast continues.Love the sound of this tune. "Circulus Vitiosus" builds and then these melancholic synths come in.Just an incredible sound here including the guitar.It gets pretty intense late. "Ballade Pour Puig Antich" opens with what sounds like steam letting off over and over as the electronics twitter.The guitar comes in gently.Fantastic! This was an important electronic album in France back in 1974, and Pinhas would go onto become the biggest star of this genre in his home country.