Tramping through the Portland, Oregon indie rock circuit the last decade, an encounter with the Helio Sequence was as inevitable as ridiculously exorbitant cover charges and pricey beer. Theirs never seemed to be a fickle touring or show docket. For the most part, it felt like a “have stage, we will travel” policy. Many a Northwestern denizen of the night grew to love their sonic saturation and count on them for a night out.
As familiar as the band’s stage presence might be, the newest in new from Helio Sequence is an interesting, if not casually departing, listen. Their album Keep Your Eyes Ahead does nothing really new, as much as it takes the old rock format and gives it a fresh new half-turn. Long in the tooth as an act, the Helio Sequence’s ten-song showcase (as lovely an album design by Pavlina Honcova-Summers as you’ll ever see, too) seems to have brushed off the brashly challenging sonic experimentation of youth and come out on the other side with a bevy of strong, radio-ready tracks. Never in all of my HS encounters have I quite equated the band with the fun, smart-boy pop of XTC, but Keep Your Eyes Ahead often begs that impression. They’ve created work that catchy (“Hallelujah”), sometimes pensive (“Lately”), and crackling tight in its construction (the coolly-founded coda, “No Regrets”). Not to say that the hard-performing duo of Brandon Summers and Benjamin Weikel will go all Andy Partridge (meaning, well, either stage-shy or absolutely dipso calypso) and assume the full-on bedroom rock position, but the sudden preoccupation with jerkily glimmering rock is evident.
A long time ago, the Helio Sequence endured comparisons to the roots of modern rock psychedelics. Those comparisons, at least on the wings of Keep Your Eyes Ahead, should be shuttered. For now. There may very well be another turn in store for a band that has already scaled a few mountains. |