- The appeal of the French dubstepper Helixir's tracks lies foremost in sound design. On debut album Undivided, everything is soaked in luscious reverb, a metal infrastructure ripe for ricocheting echoes and deceptively cavernous staging. Helixir's surround-sound tricks come to the fore in lead single "Atlantis," a decentralized mess of sonar pings and rattles that pop up from all angles. Undivided isn't all hedging underwater exploration, however: "Ride the Wind," with its obvious riffs and horn sounds, is Helixir's own version of peaktime mayhem.
These moments are sometimes the album's occasional weak points, interrupting its home-listening continuum: The title track, intent on driving home its self-consciously "dub" beat, grinds to the point of tedium, while tracks such as "Quiet Storm" and "Black Cat" sound slightly run-of-the-mill. Undivided's best moments are found when Helixir's sonic experimentalism comes into line with a blossoming rhythmic experimentalism. The striking "Space Traveling" does away with the reverb crutch, creating an uncomfortably dry and desolate percussive wireframe. It's a brave bit of stark minimalism, relieved by the greyscale 2-step of "I've (Never) Wanted to Hurt You."
In all honesty, Undivided is probably more accessible to dubstep outsiders than insiders. Its use of mostly conventional rhythmic ideas is its sometimes fatal flaw, particularly for jaded listeners, while its intricate production and fascinating sonic manipulation provide an exciting point of redemption. One need only listen to the Millie remix of "Atlantis" on the accompanying twelve-inch single to realize the potential Helixir has for truly immersive production, where all that disorienting chaos is gathered into a twisting and snaky 4/4 monster full of odd sounds and sidebar tangents. In that sense, Undivided is indeed a true headphones album, a dimension where Helixir's vision comes alive even when his rudimentary and emaciated rhythms sometimes buckle under the pressure.
Tracklist 01. Intro
02. Summertime
03. Quiet Storm
04. Atlantis
05. Ride the Wind
06. Undivided
07. Black Cat
08. The Big Wheel
09. Space Travelling
10. I've (Never) Wanted to Hurt You