Stereotypes can be considered useful, especially when they offer a core of truth – like the much-trumpeted case of music or arts deriving from personal suffering. And since HELM has declared his latest record to be the outcome of trying to handle his very own chaos, we can only congratulate Luke Younger to this supposedly honest strategy of managing his individual stress through musical output. On the one hand, you can hear the Olympic mess that HELM is proclaiming through the record’s title rage occasionally, like in its vibrant urging, its casual shrill noises, the brewing crackling of sounds, ranging from thoroughly kneaded samples to composted field recordings and rare growths of pure electronic origin. However, on the other hand, »Olympic Mess« is a clearly directed force. It might not know its target, yet, but it’s on its way, unstoppably. The more the record unfolds, the more ease is added to this determination, as to be heard on the title track or on »Outerzone 2015«. With goodwill and imagination, the latter could be labelled as ambient, if its bulky layers were not almost torn by its inner tension, scrunching against each other like tectonic plates. And still, the listener leaves this chaos strengthened – and we can only hope that HELM has felt the same after having finished the record.
Olympic Mess
