On top of Spiritualized’s sweeping grandiosity and The Flaming Lips’ chipper psychedelia, The Helio Sequence dumped a shitload of homemade electronics.
Latin, jazz, world music, post-rock (they’re from Chicago, after all), prog rock, IDM, all distilled of their essence and reborn as It’s All Around You.
Remixes is quite fascinating, not just because of who did the remixes, but because of how fluid it is. Quite a coup to get these cats to remix French pop.
Bellamy’s falsetto and the bass runs no longer seem like explorations into neo-classical territory, but these are fine tunes, despite their transparent streaks.
Kaas returned to her roots as a jazz and blues-influenced French pop diva. She knows what she does best, and that’s belt out emotional songs en français.