Luke Younger, the London based musician who goes under the name of Helm and runs the Alter label, has crafted some of the finest and most insidiously atmospheric noise music of recent times. Both his 2011 Cryptography album and its follow up, 2012’s exquisitely dark and brooding Impossible Symmetry, conjured up images of empty urban space and crumbling infrastructure, all dripping pipes, low-hanging mist and scum-clogged waterways. (Fittingly, tQ’s review of that album – written while we were based in an office above the still-under-construction Olympic stadium – noted that "I’m reminded of the way this construction site ambience pours into your field of hearing and incorporates itself into the rhythms of your daily life, to the point where it’s difficult to distinguish whether its disembodied voices and metallic shrieks are originating from the speakers or outside the window"). Younger has since released another pair of excellent EPs via PAN which explore still more emotionally engaging inner landscapes, Silencer and The Hollow Organ. To read our interview with him from last year, click here.
Younger plays at Berlin’s Atonal festival this week, which takes place in the suitably industrial-gothic surrounds of the Kraftwerk, a grand old cathedral of a disused power station. Also on the bill are a line-up of similarly stark and exploratory electronic musicians, including several other current and long-running Quietus favourites. Among them are Cabaret Voltaire, New Zealand’s Fis, Donato Dozzy & Nuel, Ike Yard, Killing Sound, Errorsmith and Powell. In advance of his set, Helm has recorded us an exclusive mix, which you can listen to via the embed below, and features a truly varied roster of artists – it’s not often you veer from Pharaoh Sanders, to Thomas Bangalter, to Joni Mitchell, Muslimgauze and Steely Dan within the space of half an hour. The full tracklist is further down the page.
Helm – Mix For The Quietus & Atonal by The Quietus on Mixcloud
Helm Quietus Mix – tracklist:
Franco Battiato – ‘No U Turn’
Robert Ashley – ‘The Park’
Nina Simone – ‘End Of The Line’
Pharaoh Sanders – ‘Astral Traveling’
Thomas Bangalter – ‘Irreversible’
Julius Eastman – ‘Evil N****r’
Joni Mitchell – ‘Edith And The Kingpin’
Muslimgauze – ‘Byzantine Crucifixion’
Flamen Dialis – ‘Dedale Vert Du Retour’
Steely Dan – ‘Any Major Dude Will Tell You’
Tor Lundvall – ‘Pale Sun’
Peter Hammill – ‘Stranger Still’
Deacon Blue – ‘Real Gone Kid’
