HELICON x AL LOVER – We Don’t Belong

Arise is out today, and “We Don’t Belong” is the track that closes the album’s middle chapter before the comedown sets in. We’ve been following this collaboration since October — “Arise” in W44, “Backbreaker” in W48, “Not A Thought” in W03 — and the full album will get its spotlight shortly. But this one deserves a moment.

Where “Not A Thought” pounds and swirls, “We Don’t Belong” pulls the floor out from under you with a bassline that genuinely needs to be heard on headphones at full volume to land properly. It’s the trippier, slower-burn side of what Helicon and Al Lover do together — psychedelia as weight rather than rush, the groove doing the heavy lifting while everything else orbits it.

Arise was produced by Tony Doogan (Mogwai, The Jesus & Mary Chain) at Castle Of Doom Studios in Glasgow, built from a trans-Atlantic demo exchange before Al Lover flew over to add drum machine, synths and samplers. The rotating nine-piece collective behind it includes John-Paul Hughes, Gary Hughes, Mark McLure, Graham Gordon, Seb Jonsen, Billy Docherty, Mike Hastings, Anna McCracken, and Declan Welsh — with Belle & Sebastian’s Chris Geddes contributing piano on “Goodbye Cool World”.

Full album spotlight coming soon.