Bleep

Having carved out a well respected presence within UK industrial experimentalism, London producer Helm pivots back to a more primal form of abject auditory terror with Axis. Conceived using primitive equipment, crude FX, contact mics and noise boxes the initial tracking was further bolstered by input from a troop of guest musicians. Including contributions from Lucy Railton (cello), Mark Morgan of Sightings (guitar), Alex Tucker (vocals), and the late, great John Hannon (violin) with mixing handled by Randall Dunn and final mastering by Stefan Betke (Pole) there are cadences of raw underground industrial DIY to the thoroughly future-facing sounds of the LP.

Originally billed as a musical/sound design accompaniment to a modern dance project before the encroachment of international lockdowns, the body of Axis is scattered with fragments of rhythm and eruptions of droning plateaus, each measure animated by a demonic choreography. As such, the trudging swell of noise on the likes of ‘Repellent’, ‘Para’ and ‘Moskito’ occupy multiple realms at once, containing both fractals crafted with corporeal stage movements in mind and sensations meant to be experienced in a cellar club away from the rest of the world. Our closing track ‘Tower’ is one of Helm’s most dramatic pieces to date, a pulsing world-ender that shoots particle implosion synth eschatology through an Aaron Dilloway cross-hair, ascending towards the pitch-black cosmos over its 8-minute course.

Axis is a record for the end of days, a death knell rendered in perfectly horrifying beauty.