Glasgow band Helicon and Los Angeles-based producer/DJ Al Lover are today releasing the third and final single, ‘Not A Thought’, from their incoming collaborative album, ‘Arise’. Due out February 13th 2026 on Fuzz Club, the bold new record finds Helicon’s counter-cultural psych-rock infused with Lover’s genre-bending electronics – resulting in a maximalist, uplifting sound with a baggy, hypnotic pulse.
On the new single, which follows ‘Arise’ and ‘Backbreaker’, Helicon’s John-Paul Hughes says: “This one’s for the heavy psych heads. Pounding, motorik momentum, swirling fuzz guitars and a dense, enveloping mix that feels circular rather than linear. Looping and locking you into a euphoric, swirling psych-out. Lyrically, it’s about pretending everything’s OK when it isn’t. Mantra-like in its repetition, it captures collapse and the quiet violence of modern mental saturation. When generating ideas and demos for the album, it was the first track where AL took the lead, sending over the initial beats and chords, which we then arranged, expanded and built into the final version we recorded together in Glasgow with Tony Doogan.”
Lover adds: “’Not a Thought’ was a fun one. Most of the album came together with the band sending me demos to tweak and build on, but this track worked in reverse. I sent over a few loops, and what they came back with completely blew me away. I love how unhinged the final version is—it’s unlike anything I’ve heard, and it really feels like new ground was broken. It’s dark, heavy, and freaked out, but there’s a light touch of humor and a real blasé attitude to it. That kind of juxtaposition is what makes it work, and it feels connected to the spirit of bands like The Velvet Underground and The Stooges.”
Produced by Tony Doogan (Mogwai, The Jesus & Mary Chain) at Castle Of Doom Studios in Glasgow, ‘Arise’ is a dense, hypnotic, and fiercely rhythmic record that layers trip-hop breaks, deep low-end and dub textures. The record’s alchemical creative approach was built initially on a trans-Atlantic online back-and-forth of demos between Helicon and Lover. Once upwards of 20 demos had been bounced across the ether and eventually whittled down, the Helicon band (clocking in at nine members at the time of writing, with Belle & Sebastian’s Chris Geddes also playing piano on ‘Goodbye Cool World’) headed into Castle Of Doom to lay down the bare-bones, ready for Lover to fly over and join them and work his magic on drum machine, synth and samplers.
“For me, psychedelia is about breaking things open and seeing where it can go next”, John-Paul says: “How far can it stretch and still feel vital? Working with Al Lover let us twist it into something new and prove it can still evolve, still surprise, and still mean something in a world of conformity where everything begins to look and sound the same.” With Lover adding: “The process of working with Helicon on this project has been nothing but a joy. It’s so nice to have music be the conduit for human connection. This is an ongoing theme with any creative endeavour that I’ve undertaken. I hope that connectivity reaches through the music to the listener, helping them feel like a participant in the music, not just passive observers.”
UPCOMING HELICON LIVE SHOWS
2nd Feb – Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh
26th Feb – Sidney & Matilda, Sheffield
27th Feb – The Deaf Institute, Manchester
21st Mar – The Georgian Theatre, Stockton On Tees
25th Apr – Foxlowe Arts Centre, Leek
26th Apr – Ramsgate Music Hall, Ramsgate
27th Apr – Hot Box, Chelmsford
1st & 2nd May – Fuzz Club Eindhoven
3rd May – Kulturzentrum Kinett, Kusel, Germany
10th May – Neue Zukunft, Berlin, Germany
13th May – Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth
2nd Aug – Kendal Calling, The Lake District
19th Sept – Psyched Up! The Old Woollen, Leeds
25th Sept – The 100 Club, London
More to be announced soon
Thoughts Words Action 