Released: 11/08/23
You know how when you watched the 2011 film Drive, starring Carey Mulling and a borderline mute Ryan Gosling, and thought, wow, this might be the greatest movie I’ve ever seen? And then realised later, that actually the neo-noir was merely fine, it was in reality College’s luminescent ‘A Real Hero’ that made you feel really sad and stuff – perfectly epitomising the Portuguese word suadade, meaning, roughly, a profound nostalgic longing? Well, the excellent Espera, by Helios (AKA American composer Keith Kenniff) has that beautiful sense of suadade also – and as such would be perfect for any director looking to make their entirely adequate film seem a lot better than it really is.
Markedly different to the retro synth pop of College, Espera instead glides between minimal ambient electronics and more robust instrumentation, all run through Kenniff’s mini-cassette recorder, adding to the tracks a lovely warm analogue wobble. The LP thus feels almost palpably ‘close’, and the textural aesthetic of the instruments plays just as crucial a role as the exquisite melodic and rhythmic aspects of the compositions, making Espera one of the best headphones records you’ll hear all year.