Helium Soul      Mass of Four     ZOWCD 29001

The first I heard of Helium Soul was by  e-mail, then I heard them aurally  through a CD which fell through my door in a jiffy bag. I was immediately impressed by my short and skipped-through listening. Helium Soul have friends in high places and include Radio 2 presenters Paul Jones and Bruce Dickinson, both highly rated musicians in their own right. When I had enough time in my busy schedule I decided to listen to Mass of Four on my car stereo. My Clarion i.c.e. is only a standard Peugeot fitting but Helium Soul filled the cabin of my car with an incredible sound. I loved the CD immediately!

Now I have time to review the CD formally and what a pleasure it has been. (Apart from having to type it twice due to my damn PC crashing!)

The first track is Dynamite and the opening sounds are of a hi-gain slide guitar coming in and past you like a Dodge Hemi on full chat !  Backing singers Lorraine Barnes and Gemma Dorsett singing "It's all right "and "It's Dynamite" on the choruses echo Russ Blaber's lead vocals. Russ also plays slide guitar, with Kenny Carroll's superb Hammond organ, and with Ad Critchfield on bass and Matt Dean on percussion, this CD opener hits you right between the eyes, just the way an  opening track should do.

Continuing the powerful theme with Nowhere To Run, which has a slightly aggressive attack on vocals, and is similar to how The Spin Doctors used to do it.  This band also have the Hammond/Leslie sound filling in any minor gaps. It's wonderful to hear! Russ Blaber , apart from being an excellent vocalist also plays a mean guitar and plays in a similar style to The Nimmo Brothers on this track. Fabulous,  and with a powerful rhythm section and the Hammond organ, it's a strong combination below the lead ,and comes through very  strongly on this track.

The ladies are back on Tell Me Why along with The Helium Horns and Ben Castle putting some funky wind into the mix. With Trumpet, Sax and Trombone played by Rob Wilson, Ryan Searle and Lawrence Tatnall respectively, they provide Russ Blaber with a muscular backing. Coupled with the Helium Soul rhythm section and Kenny Carroll's formidable keyboard skills, it's quite a sound, a very pleasing one at that. The next track, Set Me Free is tremendous, and not just for the beautiful tones of the Hammond. Russ plays a complimentary guitar to the choruses and it will  contort the faces of anyone with the most meagre amount of soul. This is another full and powerful track with the bass providing a lot of punch, and with Matt Dean's cymbals working overtime. The mid track guitar solo is melodic, well-toned and very tasteful, and the Leslie/Hammond sound make this track nicely atmospheric. Let's also mention the final ingredient of cello and violin,which are so well interpreted by Lara Herney and Kate Hosker.

Track five is a cracker, entitled Get the Best of Me, a real mover with Russ and Kenny playing opposite each other with the riffing progression, both instruments tonally pre-set to rip your soul apart. With the brilliant rhythm section never missing a beat beneath the lead vocals and guitar, you don't know where the next riff is coming from, guitar or organ. Towards the end of the track, the tempo slows slightly allowing the Hammond to control the latent and menacing advance before a no holds barred finalé takes the track out. Fantastic stuff, one of the highlights on this brilliant CD! 

The chugging rhythm of Let It Ride is like a steam train setting off up an incline with a heavy load! Kenny Carroll's electric piano gives way to a Hammond sound once again and  I suppose this is a shuffle really, a 12 bar, although it's well disguised. Gemma Dorsett echoes Russ Blaber's chorus then the electric piano takes us to another verse, again giving way to the Hammond. Russ takes us through the mid section with a nice guitar break with more verses and choruses and on to the electric piano outro. A good song....a very, very good song.

Some Southern fried blues manifests itself with Stay This Way, a cross pollination of The Black Crowes and Lynyrd Skynyrd  maybe! A great song with a very tasty guitar solo. Russ phrases so well  both on guitar and vocally, and in his own style. On this track he is most ably supported by Gemma Dorsett on backing vocals. This is another superb composition.

The Nimmo Brothers surely had some input on the eighth track, Superman. Maybe not, but starting with a cough into the microphone, this track is quite a funky piece of work. It's like The Nimmos meet The Spin Doctors and it's excellent! It also puts me in mind of The Hoax for some reason. You can't be bad when you are compared to The Nimmos and The Hoax! However, this band could surpass The Hoax given the right breaks.

Even stronger Jazz/Funk/Rock style is evident on Can't Keep Me Down. Like a melodic funky rap, Russ Blaber certainly has great style in his vocal delivery. The Helium Horns also contribute to a horns versus the guitar skirmish, and it sounds so good.

More power arrives in I'm The One, a superb track with a very deliberately plucked guitar theme throughout the track. This guitar and Hammond sound is very late sixties styled and is very agreeable. Like being at The Filmore West in 1969's Summer of Love, Russ sings vocals with the abbreviations of the guitar in the time honoured way , question and answer style. With Matt Dean's snare drum keeping time and an underlying bass melody accompanying the beautiful Hammond tones, Russ Blaber plays a fabulous guitar solo to the most satisfying and classically (1969 style!) themed outro. This truly is a wonderful song with the atmospheric tones of the Hammond bringing the likes of Brian Auger to mind.

I love that last song but the album closer, Coming Round Again is another fantastic and atmospheric composition you would never want to miss. Not sounding unlike an Ian Parker blues, in that it's an emotional, slow, mean and moody composition, the quiet intro gives way to a wonderful guitar solo finishing with a subtle trill. Russ sings well, in a deep tone over some very nice piano. Like Ian Parker's compositions, this song is of a very high quality, an epic contribution to this high quality CD album.

I'm glad I waited a while to review this album, giving it a few spins before I formally attempted a review. I found it hard to categorise the style but it has many elements, many in the funky blues arena.  It's success can't be attributed to any individual but the Hammond sound did it for me. Although I favour the guitar as my instrument of choice, I find a well played Hammond to be one of the finest sounds in modern music, be it rock, blues, or even pop music. It certainly boosts the power of this album.All the individual players on this CD contributed well and I have to congratulate each and every one. This CD is fantastic. The next step is to see them live! We are not sure of the distribution with this CD but if you see it in the shops, grab it....it's a great CD!

Steve Lally