It may not entirely seem like a compliment to call a record pleasant, but understand that I mean it in the most positive sense of the word. Happily, most of the songs on their new record, Love and Distance, do just that, making their follow up to 2001’s Young Effectuals a very pleasant record to listen to. At once airy and dense, coy and flagrant, antique and contemporary, the Helio Sequence are at their best when their psychedelic songs incorporate disparate sounds, themes, and arrangements. But where Quasi relies on a well-orchestrated synthesis to execute their cute and clever tunes, the Helio Sequence chases the tense beauty that comes through the careful combination of paradoxical elements. Brandon Summers and Benjamin Weikel of the Helio Sequence follow the Quasi school of dual adroitness to similarly successful ends. ![]() Buoyant keyboards, athletic drumming, sweet harmonies, and cynical lyrics all combine in perfect proportion to hit the sweet spot of pop perfection again and again. Quasi, on the other hand, plays as if two were the magic number. The White Stripes also seems to have some size-anxiety, trying too hard to please by combining simple beats with ready-to-order, hyper-stylized noodling à la Jimmy Page. ![]() A band like Lightning Bolt seems to apologize for the size of their line-up, overcompensating for only having two members by bombarding listeners with stomach-clenching noise and arrhythmic clatter. ![]() This is true for a lot of two-piece acts - Lightning Bolt comes to mind, as do the ubiquitous White Stripes and fellow Portland outfit Quasi. Portland-based band the Helio Sequence want their songs to be a lot of things - poppy, atmospheric, layered, complex - but most obviously, they want their sound to be greater than the sum of its parts.
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