Helping Hand displays a variety of sci-fi bleeps, hisses, drones, and growls which are processed and twirled into condensed webs of sound. That being said, opener ¨Your In For It¨ scampers through dirty acid-techno beats and lewd, sweaty pulses – its inclusion, although a trifle capricious, is not altogether baffling, for it is in a sense indicative of the aberrant elements this duo throw into their compositions now and again as a means of keeping the listener on the defense. Such a mode of defiance is then thoughtfully contrasted with the generally sleek and inviting textures which are implemented throughout.
Very much a garment of many threads, French multi-instrumentalists Francois Rasim Biyikli and Charles-Eric Charrier nevertheless make these twittering sonic flares, industrial machine loops, and wistful piano melodies hang in a delicate balance with one another such that a certain light sweep and guileless spontaneity is upheld. The reverberent thuds, mercurial beat, and wallowing bells of ¨Strange Feelings¨ sketch a frigid austerity that is patient and focused, if a trifle derivative. This skeletal framework is given an undercurrent of depth on the following two pieces, ¨Helping Hand¨ and ¨Drifting¨, as rustic guitar chords, strummed and reverbed, generate dense masses that continually shift and grow out of these compositions like mossy branches.
The latter half of the album, namely ¨Separation¨, ¨Dirty Some Paper To Clear Out My Brain¨, and ¨Farewell¨ introduces some discordance and buzzing percussion to the picture; and the pair finally seem to be taking on more of a physical presence in these pieces, as opposed to simply floating above them, refusing to limit and commit themselves in some manner. With the next piece, however, the soft spray of organs and the skittering rhythm boxes goad this effort back into more temperate zones. In this manner, Helping Hand exhibits compositional ability, but these ambient excursions, for all their momentary jaunts through the outlandish, are often tame and detached, never demanding more than one’s passing attention.
