HELVETIA - ESSENTIAL ALEINS (Clear Vinyl) LP
Essential Aliens is the 10th Helvetia album. Helvetia is the solo project of Jason Albertini from Duster. The songs on Essential Aliens were recorded over the last year in Jason's basement. Helvetia resides in Portland, Oregon but was formed in Seattle, Washington in 2005 after Duster first went on hiatus. Since the band’s inception, Jason has continued to employ a rotating cast of band members and collaborators, which now includes Steve Gere and Samantha Stidham. Steve and Jason also played in Built To Spill together from 2012 until 2018. In 2019 Duster started playing shows and recording again. During this time Jason started writing what would become This Devastating Map--released in August 2020, Post-Trash called it “a constantly shifting project that takes experimental lo-fi into brilliantly colored psych directions with a concise glow.” Then the pandemic took hold. With normal life at a standstill and unable to hang with his bandmates, Jason focused his energy on his daughter’s homeschooling schedule, and recording. He focused on finishing one song a day and was soon honing in on a new album. Essential Aliens takes all the elements of the Helvetia sound and simplifies. Basic progressions morph with stoner repetition and end in head scratch. Drums distort and muted bass lines prop up acoustic guitars that were recorded blown out on a cassette four-track. Cheap electric guitars are barely kept in tune and are recorded direct, almost painfully in your face. The character of the recordings are informed with warm fuzz and intimate room sounds. The songs are short blasts of psychedelic chill, unrooted by genre, a rummage around an alien radio dial. The visual elements come from a recurring dream in which Jason’s life is turned upside down by a series of unexplainable events that turn out to be orchestrated by a ghost. He wakes up convinced that he is a ghost as well. The protagonist in the videos spends his time plotting his way back to the living. The ghost’s disguise was inspired by a photograph of children dressed in Great Depression-era Halloween costumes.These are simple songs about keeping yourself from falling apart. To remind you that you can be strong. This is a weird blues.