It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 129 Helado Negro - PHASOR

 

I like records that sound like they're floating or drifting in space. OK Spiritualised I guess meet the criteria though they're going about it in a slightly obvious manner. Can. Sun Ra. Funkadelic. Records that appear set adrift frrom their moorings like Tintin and The Thompson Twins in Explorers on the Moon when their rocket ship finds itself beyond the earth's atmosphere and the rules of gravity no longer apply..

Helado Negro's new record PHASOR sounds very much as if it's floating in space for the whole of its 9 song 35 minute duration. It Starts has history with Helado. I've liked previous records from him down the years and I cerainly like this. A lot.

Negro is sometimes billed as a Sound Artist whatever that is. His music certainly doesn't restrict itself to immediate categorisation. He's a modern artist. The Guardian describes him as 'like hearing Arthur Russell play a Macbook instead of a cello.'

This has a delightfully playful Hispanic Space Age edge. It's easy listening in the respect that it's very easy to listen to certainly not that it's bland or lazy in any respect. Quite the opposite. So fix yourself tostado con tomate, aceite y jamon. Y relajate.' Damos y caballeros. Estamos flotando en el espacio.'