There's No 666 in Outer Space
There’s going to be a lot of noise about this album, and that’s not simply because Hella embrace the louder things in life – it’s the post-math-whatever-rock band’s first album as an ensemble rather than a duo, and possibly due to their flirtations with System of a Down and Pinback, it’s rather different than its predecessors. Different though, is often not a bad thing, and now Hella have accumulated a handful of new performers making them a five piece they are perfectly placed to make the sort of music they’ve been hinting at for so long. Okay, the band might have been lumped in with Don Caballero and Lightning Bolt, but there was always something a little more prog rock about Hella, a little more, well, pompous – and that’s exactly what I love about them. On the ridiculously (but necessarily) titled ‘There’s no 666 in Outer Space’ the band look to Yes and (gulp) early Genesis for inspiration to put together an album that while being hideously technical is absolutely no-holds barred pop music. It might be easy to compare the new Hella (with vocals too, shock horror) to similarly pop-flecked proggers the Mars Volta, but Hella have an avant garde streak impossible to suppress which will no doubt endear them to the noisier rawk fans around the world. Imagine Deerhoof with a look towards sounding like the Grateful Dead (there’s even a track here called ‘The Ungrateful Dead’) and you might have some random idea of how Hella sound, but then I’d still advise you to proceed with caution. This is like doing algebra while listening to Tom Jones, or breaking the Enigma code for a pop idol audition – it should be totally wrong but it really, really isn’t. Hella have re-wired their sound for the new generation of music fans, they have taken old and breathtakingly new and come up with an album which confounds all expectation and should be played, re-played and played again. All hail the new prog rock! Now get me my wizard hat…
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There’s going to be a lot of noise about this album, and that’s not simply because Hella embrace the louder things in life – it’s the post-math-whatever-rock band’s first album as an ensemble rather than a duo, and possibly due to their flirtations with System of a Down and Pinback, it’s rather different than its predecessors. Different though, is often not a bad thing, and now Hella have accumulated a handful of new performers making them a five piece they are perfectly placed to make the sort of music they’ve been hinting at for so long. Okay, the band might have been lumped in with Don Caballero and Lightning Bolt, but there was always something a little more prog rock about Hella, a little more, well, pompous – and that’s exactly what I love about them. On the ridiculously (but necessarily) titled ‘There’s no 666 in Outer Space’ the band look to Yes and (gulp) early Genesis for inspiration to put together an album that while being hideously technical is absolutely no-holds barred pop music. It might be easy to compare the new Hella (with vocals too, shock horror) to similarly pop-flecked proggers the Mars Volta, but Hella have an avant garde streak impossible to suppress which will no doubt endear them to the noisier rawk fans around the world. Imagine Deerhoof with a look towards sounding like the Grateful Dead (there’s even a track here called ‘The Ungrateful Dead’) and you might have some random idea of how Hella sound, but then I’d still advise you to proceed with caution. This is like doing algebra while listening to Tom Jones, or breaking the Enigma code for a pop idol audition – it should be totally wrong but it really, really isn’t. Hella have re-wired their sound for the new generation of music fans, they have taken old and breathtakingly new and come up with an album which confounds all expectation and should be played, re-played and played again. All hail the new prog rock! Now get me my wizard hat…
There’s going to be a lot of noise about this album, and that’s not simply because Hella embrace the louder things in life – it’s the post-math-whatever-rock band’s first album as an ensemble rather than a duo, and possibly due to their flirtations with System of a Down and Pinback, it’s rather different than its predecessors. Different though, is often not a bad thing, and now Hella have accumulated a handful of new performers making them a five piece they are perfectly placed to make the sort of music they’ve been hinting at for so long. Okay, the band might have been lumped in with Don Caballero and Lightning Bolt, but there was always something a little more prog rock about Hella, a little more, well, pompous – and that’s exactly what I love about them. On the ridiculously (but necessarily) titled ‘There’s no 666 in Outer Space’ the band look to Yes and (gulp) early Genesis for inspiration to put together an album that while being hideously technical is absolutely no-holds barred pop music. It might be easy to compare the new Hella (with vocals too, shock horror) to similarly pop-flecked proggers the Mars Volta, but Hella have an avant garde streak impossible to suppress which will no doubt endear them to the noisier rawk fans around the world. Imagine Deerhoof with a look towards sounding like the Grateful Dead (there’s even a track here called ‘The Ungrateful Dead’) and you might have some random idea of how Hella sound, but then I’d still advise you to proceed with caution. This is like doing algebra while listening to Tom Jones, or breaking the Enigma code for a pop idol audition – it should be totally wrong but it really, really isn’t. Hella have re-wired their sound for the new generation of music fans, they have taken old and breathtakingly new and come up with an album which confounds all expectation and should be played, re-played and played again. All hail the new prog rock! Now get me my wizard hat…
There’s going to be a lot of noise about this album, and that’s not simply because Hella embrace the louder things in life – it’s the post-math-whatever-rock band’s first album as an ensemble rather than a duo, and possibly due to their flirtations with System of a Down and Pinback, it’s rather different than its predecessors. Different though, is often not a bad thing, and now Hella have accumulated a handful of new performers making them a five piece they are perfectly placed to make the sort of music they’ve been hinting at for so long. Okay, the band might have been lumped in with Don Caballero and Lightning Bolt, but there was always something a little more prog rock about Hella, a little more, well, pompous – and that’s exactly what I love about them. On the ridiculously (but necessarily) titled ‘There’s no 666 in Outer Space’ the band look to Yes and (gulp) early Genesis for inspiration to put together an album that while being hideously technical is absolutely no-holds barred pop music. It might be easy to compare the new Hella (with vocals too, shock horror) to similarly pop-flecked proggers the Mars Volta, but Hella have an avant garde streak impossible to suppress which will no doubt endear them to the noisier rawk fans around the world. Imagine Deerhoof with a look towards sounding like the Grateful Dead (there’s even a track here called ‘The Ungrateful Dead’) and you might have some random idea of how Hella sound, but then I’d still advise you to proceed with caution. This is like doing algebra while listening to Tom Jones, or breaking the Enigma code for a pop idol audition – it should be totally wrong but it really, really isn’t. Hella have re-wired their sound for the new generation of music fans, they have taken old and breathtakingly new and come up with an album which confounds all expectation and should be played, re-played and played again. All hail the new prog rock! Now get me my wizard hat…