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Artist: HELALYN
FLOWERS
Album: E-Race Generation
Year: 2006
Helalyn Flowers, Helalyn Flowers, where are thee, my
Helalyn Flowers?! Well, they are still in Rome according
to their press-package, but the good news is that this
Italian electrorock duo has a new release out! ‘E-Race
Generation’ is the name given to this three-track promo/single
which can be seen as the follow-up of their rather
succesful debut EP ‘Disconnection’. With that debut EP
Helalyn Flowers managed to find a place somewhere in my
mind labeled with the description “very promising stuff
– keep an eye on them!” (which I did indeed) so I opened
my CD player immidiately to let the sounds of this new
release enter my mind.
In soccer they say sometimes: “Never change a winning
team.” I am not 100% sure if they sometimes say in the
music scene “Never change a winning formula”, but if
they do Helalyn Flowers has definitely listened to that
quote. The basics are still there, compared with their
old stuff. Take some easy listening electro, mix it with
some synth pop and gothic influences and the
electro-rock is born. Drown it all into a big glass of
catchyness and Helalyn Flowers is born. But, to say that
this band brings nothing new compared to the old stuff
is rather unfair. They clearly spent more time to
develop the songs in all crazy details, and the band has
became more mature to say the least! ‘E-Race Generation’
kicks off with the title track, surprisingly with the
same name as the release. This is an easy listening
track, but with very different elements combined. When
the intro reminds me to Swedish EBM band Covenant, a
rather poppy song follows with a decent and powerful
chorus. Some wicked sampling is hearable all over this
track, which gives this song something extra that other
electro-rock bands are still in search for. ‘Voices’ is
a darker song, where Helalyn Flowers manage to mix dark
and a little harsh EBM stuff with beautiful vocals and a
refreshing chorus. The schizophrenic sounding intermezzo
fits the song nicely, and combined with the beautiful
synths they prove that they know how to let different
stuff sound united in one single song! ‘Teargas’ is
unfortunately already the last track of this single.
This track is a little less experimental than the
preverious ones, and it’s a bit too early to call it an
old school Helalyn Flowers track since they only exist
for a few years, but I think you get the idea by now.
Easy listening electro-based rock with a little touch of
the gothic scene, and musically this song stands
decently again. In the end, this release confirms
something I already knew. Helalyn Flowers are, together
with The New Flesh from Spain, the biggest electro-rock
talents of the moment. I dare to say that Helalyn
Flowers took another step forwards again, and I will not
be surprised if a recordlabel picks them up sooner or
later. One more thing I would like to mention in this
review (which I didn’t mention in my ‘Disconnection’
review) is about the vocalist. Noemi manages to create
sensitive though powerful vocals mixed with eachother,
which are as bright as a clear blue sky. And what about
the Italian-English accent I hear you ask? When lots of
Italian acts have a bad Italian accent when they sing in
English, Noemi’s accent is not irritating at all. In
fact, her English sounds better than most of the Dutch
vocalists too! And yes, that’s definitely a compliment!
Oh, and last but not least, if you wish to take some
hints from a crazy Dutchie: try to listen to this with
headphones when you are fully concentrated, it will show
you some new elements in their music time after time.
And if you have no idea what a headphone looks like...
your eartrumpet will be fine too!
Vote: 88 / 100
Review by: Gerardo |
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01. E-Race Generation
02. Voices
03. Teargas |
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