Helicon (Glasgow)

Pop Mutations & Freakender present: Helicon & Al Lover Friday 24th May The Flying Duck 18+ Helicon - Helicon was formed in 2011 by brothers John-Paul and Gary Hughes in East Kilbride, Glasgow. “Channeling the cosmic noise of their Scottish homeland and sitar-led, opium-tainted sounds of India with the neo-psychedelic swoons of 90s San Francisco”. Helicon has released 6 x singles, 9 x EPs, 3 x studio albums and 1 x Fuzz Club live session album. With a new ‘Live from London’ album out in February 2023. Helicon signed to Fuzz Club in 2017. Tony Doogan recorded and produced Their self-titled debut album at Mogwai's Castle of Doom studio in Glasgow. Last year they collaborated with Will Carruthers (ex-Spacemen 3, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Spiritualized, Dead Skeletons) for the hilariously profound, mind-melting single 'I’m More English Than You, You C*nt!'. ‘God Intentions’, their third studio album on Fuzz Club was released 28.04.23. Their most ambitious, collaborative and psychedelic record to date. Championed by Gideon Coe on BBC Radio 6 Music and described by critics as “a masterclass in cinematic psychedelia”. Mastered by Mark Gardener (RIDE), collaborators include Lavinia Blackwall, a string quartet and French, avant-garde violinist Sotho Houle and more. God Intentions won ‘Psych Lovers Album of 2023’. Al Lover - Los Angeles-based experimental producer Al Lover, a staple of the global psychedelic scene, has spent nearly a decade fine-tuning a broken, abstracted form of electronica that pools together a tapestry of trip-hop, world music, synthesized krautrock, dub and dark ambient. Utilizing an arsenal of samples, drum machine, analogue synths and live instrumentation, Lover’s is a kaleidoscopic sound that’s J-Dilla, DJ Shadow and Lee Scratch Perry by way of Brian Eno, Kraftwerk and Cluster. Central to Lover’s pursuit is a desire to explore the fringes of psychedelic music and the common threads that run through its far-reaching styles, drawing elements from the past and connecting them to the future. Through the years Al has released a number of studio albums, toured the US and Europe supporting the likes of W.I.T.C.H, Night Beats, The KVB, Kerala Dust, Christian Bland & The Revelators and more, remixed the likes of The Brian Jonestown Massacre and Elephant Stone, been resident DJ for the Levitation and Desert Daze festivals and collaborated with the likes of GOAT, Anton Newcombe, Peaking Lights, The KVB, White Fence and Cairo Liberation Front. Now, Lover returns with his latest studio album, ‘Cosmic Joke’, on Fuzz Club Records – a series of synthesized philosophical meditations on modern life, in all its tragicomic absurdity.