I do tend to push the boundaries of what constitutes Nordic, but The Helicopter of the Holy Ghost definitely need to be placed in our Non Nordic section, given I can only find the most tenuous of connections.
They appear to mostly reside in the South East of England, and I can’t deny I was lured into 1st listening to them by their canny Cardiacs hashtag on Twitter, but then further intrigued by the unusual name and band members with a rich indie background, consisting Mark Morriss (The Bluetones), Billy Reeves (theaudience), Mark Peters (Engineers) and none other than Crayola Lectern – from his own project Crayola Lectern, Lost Horizons, Departure Lounge, various ‘Cardiacs family’ releases and all round good guy. Oh and the forthcoming album will feature contributions from Simon Raymonde (Cocteau Twins), Dale David (Amy Winehouse band) & Thomas Anderson (Gazpacho).
Enough name-dropping I feel, but there’s a whole host of bands there that I like so my expectations were high even before I heard the music. The outline of some of the songs were written by Billy Reeves way back in the ‘olden days of theaudience, but following a serious car accident were pretty much lost until demo’s resurfaced back in 2017. They were written with a more commercial vision originally, but now after many years, and thanks to the Crayola Lectern piano contribution, the songs have shifted in a completely different direction.
Most recent single ‘I Will Never Hurt’ is a sweeping atmospheric song, with a gorgeous piano contribution from Crayola Lectern, totally convincing vocals from Mark Morriss and the most intense instrumental arrangements that starts innocently with a lovely evocative trumpet solo, before all hell breaks loose - definitely the type of song you’ll want to listen to again and again.
It’s far too easy to throw phrases around like ‘it’s my favourite single of the year’, so I won’t do that. Except that it really is. Certainly of the Non Nordic variety,
I’m very much looking forward to the album, which is called ‘Afters’ and which will be released during the midst of this August’s heatwave.
As for that tenuous Nordic connection, well at least one of The Helicopter of the Holy Ghost have been in a band previously with Nick Triani, who now heads our favourite Finnish label Soliti and who just turns up everywhere.
Find them on Facebook.