Hailing from Beavertown, Ore., singer-guitarist Brandon Summers and drummer-keyboardist Benjamin Weikel started playing together in 1996. Three years later, the duo self-produced its first EP and officially formed The Helio Sequence.
While the band was touring in support of its 2008 album Keep Your Eyes Ahead, The Helio Sequence's recording studio in Portland experienced massive flood damage. Forced to find a new space, the duo discovered that recording its lustrous, emotional music in a different location affected the structure and style of its latest album, Negotiations. Summers and Weikel wrote, recorded and produced the record, which was released late last year.
Here, The Helio Sequence plays a few tracks from Negotiations and discusses the natural disaster that changed its sound. (Link)
Tracklisting
(( )) for interlude music
T Rex “Hot Love” Hits
Laura Mvula “She” Sing to the Moon
Joan Armatrading “Love & Affection” Joan Armatrading
The Shins “It’s Only Life” Port of Morrow
Alt-J “Breezeblocks” An Awesome Wave
((The Helio Sequence “One More Time” Recorded Live for the World Cafe))
The Helio Sequence “One More Time” Recorded Live for the World Cafe
The Helio Sequence “October” Recorded Live for the World Cafe
The Helio Sequence “Downward Spiral” Recorded Live for the World Cafe
((The Helio Sequence “Back To This” Keep Your Eyes Ahead))
Hey Marseilles “Hold Your Head” Lines We Trace
REM “Try Not to Breathe” Automatic for the People
Tame Impala “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” Lonerism
((The Flaming Lips “The Wizard Turns On” At War With The Mystics))
Broken Social Scene “7/4 (Shoreline)” Broken Social Scene
Yo La Tengo “Ohm” Fade
The Joy Formidable “This Ladder Is Ours” Wolf’s Law
Of Monsters & Men “Little Talks” My Head is an Animal
Rhett Miller “Our Love” The Instigator
((The Beastie Boys “Auntie Jackie Poom Poom Delicious” Hello Nasty Deluxe Edition))
The Lions “This Generation” This Generation
Passion Pit “I’ll Be Alright” Gossamer
The Heavy “How You Like Me Now?” The House That Dirt Built
The Black Keys “Tighten Up” Brothers
((Heartless Bastards “The Mountain” The Mountain))
Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell “Hanging Up My Heart” Old Yellow Moon
Delta Rae “Bottom of the River” Carry the Fire
Ivan & Alyosha “Running For Cover” All The Times We Had
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss “Gone Gone Gone” Raising Sand