Secret Thirteen Mix 090 - Helm

The author of the mix is Luke Younger, also known as Helm, a British sound artist, experimental musician and curator based in London, United Kingdom. Younger started by playing guitar during his late teenage years and later by listening and examining pieces by such artists as Andrew Chalk, David Jackman, Whitehouse and Robert Ashley. In 2005 together with colleague Steven Warwick (a.k.a. Heatsick) he formed experimental electronic project Birds of Delay, venturing in noise music, power electronics and abstract sounds. The duo released numerous records in many stylistically diverse labels ranging from Hospital Productions to Not Not Fun Records.

Younger's solo works as Helm could be described as audio collages connected by a vast array of revolving instrumentation and abstract sound sources. By weaving organic textures, synthetic atmospheres and smoothly shifting obscure rhythm patterns his creations reach a complete musical originality. Younger's fruitful collaborations with such authoritative labels as Bill Kouligas' PAN and Graham Lambkin's Kye strengthened his position in the underground scene and spread his records among sophisticated collectors/listeners. When not in the studio, Younger tours across Europe. He played live at the notable places and events such as Tate Modern, Unsound Festival, Café Oto, Skaņu Mežs Festival, Donau Festival, Berghain and many of PAN label's showcases. Apart from his musical works Younger is also engaged in curatorial work as he runs Alter imprint started in 2010 for the purpose of releasing his own record “To An End”. Lately the label released the works by Oneohtrix Point Never, Hieroglyphic Being, Richard Youngs, EL-G and other talents. Younger is a new generation artist and it is very likely that he is the real luminary of the future experimental/minimalism music scene.

Following his previous mixes for The Wire, The Quietus, Ad Hoc and Blowing Up The Workshop, Secret Thirteen is happy to present his newest and longest selection. “Secret Thirteen Mix 090” is a complex and volatile audio mixture that merges 21 expressive records released between 1982 and 2013. For more than 2 hours Helm guides listeners through noise, experimental, house, abstract, ambient music styles and other astonishing formations that hold fragments of psychedelic rock, dub techno, minimal. Although each track carries different emotional mood, sound development trajectory and processing technique, Helm finds special ways to indirectly connect all these pieces to simulate a sustained wholeness. Works by the pioneering electronic music Mohicans such as Pita (Peter Rehberg), Aphex Twin, Haswell & Merzbow, Masonna, Andrew Chalk, Regis were attentively weaved with recently published production by the up and coming artists such as Rashad Becker, Dirty Beaches, Delroy Edwards to create a feeling that you are sitting in a comfortable room with a close friend who reveals some of his recent findings and rediscovered gems. It is too complicated to fully analyze this colossal compilation as each piece requires a separate study and that is why we invite you to immerse into this picturesque ocean of dynamic sounds, rhythms and noises straight away.

“Secret Thirteen Mix 090” is like a puzzling Eduardo Paolozzi's surreal screen print “Girot” where the human form deconstructed in a cubist manner creates controversial thoughts about intelligence, constructivism, machinery revolution, depression, existentialism and anguish. The way Paolozzi resembles our fragmented civilization through imagination and fantasy is quite similar to Younger's diverse mix. By the dramatic juxtaposition of completely different ideas and sound shapes in his mix, Younger let us hear the pleasant eclecticism as well as his longevous musical influences that he has been maturing for more than a decade and that stands as the DNA of Helm's always expanding musical ideology and vision.

Tracklist:

01. " " [sic]TIM GOLDIE - The Abjector (Disc One, Excerpt) (W/O/M/R, 2007)
02. Etant Donnes - Aurore (Touch, 1990)
03. Thomas Ankersmit & Valerio Tricoli - Plague No. 7 (PAN, 2011)
04. Stefan Jaworzyn - M.O.R (Shock, 1981/2013)
05. Ohne - Dp Ts Rm (Mego, 2002)
06. Ø - Set The Controls For The Heart of The Sun (Sahko, 2008)
07. Steve Hillage - Red Admiral (Virgin, 1982)
08. Delroy Edwards - When The Glue Wont Burn (L.I.E.S, 2012)
09. Astral Social Club - 14 (Self Released, 2012)
10. Russell Haswell & Masami Akita - Unlock The Mysteries of the Sun (Warp, 2003)
11. Novatron - Inamorata (Cold Spring, 2000)
12. Rashad Becker - Dances III (PAN, 2013)
13. Masonna - Masonna Plays God Save The Queen Psychedelic Batchelor Pad Mix - Peel Session, Live @ Queen Elizabeth Hall (BBC/Alchemy, 1999)
14. Pita - Untitled (Mego, 1999)
15. Aphex Twin - Xtal (Apollo, 1992)
16. Andrew Chalk - Purest Rays Serene (Faraway Press, 2012)
17. Christoph de Babalon - Opium (Digital Hardcore, 1997)
18. Regis - Right Side of Reason, Part 2 (Downwards, 1998)
19. Porter Ricks - Nautical Zone (Chain Reaction/Type, 1996)
20. Jazzfinger - Premeditated Obolescence (Classic English Womb, 2006)
21. Dirty Beaches - Water Park Theme (Reprise) (A Recordings, 2013)

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