THIRD - IT'S ALWAYS ROCK'N'ROLL

The third album from HELDON is clearly an experimental transitionnal record. The music pieces are trippy and spacey but sound repetitive by moments and are mostly pure ambient and improvised. The bands investigates the possibilities of tortured synthetizers and dissonnant Frippian guitars. Nonetheless, "It's Always Rock And Roll" contains interesting passages that are well worth the listen.

The introduction "ICS Machinique" is very enchanting in comparison to the rest of the record, rather dark. "Cocaine Blues" is a well constructed evolving track featuring trance loops that transports you in a galaxy far away... the ideal place to listen to "Aurore". The surprise here are "Virgin Swedish Blues" and "Ocean Boogi", which reminds me a lot of MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA's "Bird of Fire". A very enjoyable relaxing tune pre-dating Post-Rock! A music to hear while contemplating the sky. The fright comes back with "Zind Destruction", a true example of HELDON's playing dementia. This song destroys your ears but it rocks. The final track, "Doctor Bloodmoney", features long variations in the style of "Back to Heldon".

"It's Always Rock And Roll" is undoubtly an inegal album, but captures very fine moments from the french electronic band. Prefiguring modern ambient music, this record may sound too experimental for HELDON's newcomers, but if you are already into them or into Krautrock, give it a listen.