Helicopter
Label owned by John Wiese, an artist and composer from Los Angeles, California. His ongoing projects include LHD and Sissy Spacek, with plenty of freelance work with many artists as diverse as Sunn O))), Wolf Eyes, Merzbow, Dave Phillips, Smegma, Kevin Drumm, Cattle Decapitation, and C. Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core). He has toured extensively throughout the world, covering Europe, Scandinavia and Australia as a member of Sunn O))), the UK as part of the Free Noise tour (a tentet including Evan Parker, C. Spencer Yeh, Yellow Swans, etc.), the United States alongside Wolf Eyes, and recently performed in the 52nd Venice Biennale with artist Nico Vascellari.
XCIII
More than 25 years after their first partnership, international collaborators Smegma and Merzbow reunite for an all-new album that pushes the conceptual springboard of random composition generation even further. Consisting of two movements spread over 93 tracks, XCIII presents a collage of abstract electronics, unconventional instruments, reel to reel tape manipulation, loops and effects, best experienced in unique combinations on shuffled play.The first movement, Climactic Gruesome Costumes (wh…
Reslayer
Tip! ‘Sissy Spacek reaching full maturation – Hyper destructive low end heavy cut ups. Harsh noise from unheard nether-realms.’ - Brandon Hill
Electric Field In Parallel
‘Another stunning, definitive and beyond harsh release from the arguably the most forward thinking ultra-sonic-destruction unit in the world.’ - Brandon Hill
Radio Format
While we may live in an oversaturated time of hi-definition, microwave-pulse paced images and video snippets, one format that has remained in play since the early 1900’s is that of radio. A format perhaps overlooked most in its ability to not only act as a conduit of audio, but also that of a uniquely non-visual live performance, facilitating a direct audio-only portal from performer to the imagination of the listener.Radio is a place where live collaboration and conversation can occur not just …
Mutant Stomps
These American legends of outsider avant-garde need little introduction. Since becoming core members of the Los Angeles Free Music Society five decades ago, they have retained their focus, determination and unmatched originality, influencing generations and never seizing to advance further avenues of progress. Mutant Stomps is a result of Smegma’s living room recording sessions at their pink house in Portland. All tracks were produced 2012–2013, with one dating back to 1975 for good measure. The…
Live At Zebulon
Airway began as a solo project of Los Angeles Free Music Society member Joe Potts. The first release was the Airway 7-inch, which featured subliminal messages to coincide with an art exhibition in Tokyo. Since their August 1978 live debut at the LACE Gallery, the group has performed many concerts with different large lineups, always with Joe Potts’ subliminal message experiments as a central feature. Airway’s “Live At LACE” LP, first released in 1978, and introduced to Japan by Takuya Sakaguchi,…
Violent Adaptation
The latest release from Form Hunter, a duo that comprises S. Aune (Breaking the Will, Kjostad) and W. Czerkies (Sunken Cheek, Goddaughter). Everything pushed defiantly into the red, pummeling scrap metal, mangled electronics, blasting tape hiss and shredded eardrums. Grinding you into the dirt, cutting to the bone with a rusty hacksaw, a reminder that noise feels best when it hurts. For those forever chasing the euphoria only harsh noise can provide.
Scissors
* 2x7-inch, gatefold cover * 20th anniversary edition of Sissy Spacek's second album, first reissue since it's original release, this time as a double 7-inch in a deluxe gatefold cover. An incomprehensible, discombobulated wreck."This four-track explosion of sound had my jaw agape from the first note to the last. With minor percussive breaks between sizzling hard-wired damage, this wasn’t at all what I expected. Instead John Wiese has offered tracks that intensely re-align your senses for their …
Sissy Spacek
* 20th anniversary edition of Sissy Spacek's first album, first ever LP edition * Helicopter presents the first LP edition of Sissy Spacek by Sissy Spacek . Frantic, violent, destroyed music.
"Probably the world’s first plunderphonic grindcore record. Although in this case all of the plundering is self inflicted and self directed as they record their own blasting grind record and attack it with a razor blade and spit out a garbled, sputtering, stuttering no-wave masterpiece. Think Oval, if he on…
Entropic
* 2020 Stock * On the verge of their 40th and in the midst of their 20th anniversaries, respectively, Hijokaidan and Sissy Spacek merge in Tokyo for their first collaboration, featuring Jojo Hiroshige, Junko, T. Mikawa, Charlie Mumma, Futoshi Okano, Tentenko (guest), and John Wiese. Hijokaidan formed in 1979, marking the first wave of groups in Japan exploring extreme noise. Sissy Spacek formed in 1999, often playing in large ensembles of players, and frequently exploring grindcore as a base for…
Multifactorial Dynamic Pathways
* 2020 Stock * Helicopter presents Multifactorial Dynamic Pathways by The Haters and Sissy Spacek. Performer – Charlie Mumma, GX Jupitter-Larsen, John Wiese.
Live At Super Deluxe / Tokyo
* 2020 Stock. Digipack CD * Helicopter presents Live At Super Deluxe by Hair Stylistics, Pain Jerk, and John Wiese. Recorded live 27 September 2018 at Super Deluxe, Tokyo, Japan.
Live at Akihabara Club Goodman / Tokyo
* 2020 Stock. 6-Panel Digipack CD * Helicopter presents Live At Akihabara Club Goodman / Tokyo by Toshiji Mikawa, John Wiese, and Seiichi Yamamoto. Recorded 24 September 2018 at Akihabara Club Goodman, Tokyo, Japan.
In Mono
* Deluxe digipak pressing for 2020! * Burning in hell with no relief. Nearly two full hours of scorched audio and blistering paralysis recorded in Los Angeles between 2002 and 2007 by the double flamethrower unit of Phil Blankenship and John Wiese. Compiling four original LHD albums onto two compact discs, featuring the complete recordings of Curtains (PACrec), Young and Restless (Blossoming Noise), Opaque (RRR/Pure) and Limbs of the Fawn (Misanthropic Agenda).
Even Still
* Deluxe digipak reissue for 2020! * Two-and-a-half hours covering the complete LHD vinyl discography recorded between 2002 and 2007 by the double flamethrower unit of Phil Blankenship and John Wiese. Pure West Coast destruction, maximum density and speaker shred. Includes tracks from these 7-inches: Asthma (Helicopter); Hands of the Priestess (Miisc); Fascination (Swampland); Hotel Fire (P-Tapes); Normandie (Tape Room); Lock Up (Helicopter); Los Angeles (Troniks); and Veiled (Helicopter), and t…
Night of the bloody tapes
* Deluxe, limited edition 6-panel digipak reissue of the defining The Cherry Point document * A Troniks / Helicopter co-release, 2020. Night of the Bloody Tapes by The Cherry Point provides a shattering drive-in experience of unrelenting horror & harsh noise nightmares fueled by Fangoria magazine, import laserdiscs, third generation vhs bootlegs, damaged contact mics, and DOD death metal distortion. Four tracks, over 40 minutes of static walls, electronic jabs and junk crashes compiled from a br…
Featureless Thermal Equilibrium
Helicopter presents Featureless Thermal Equilibrium by Sissy Spacek. New and revelatory full length album with a trio line-up of Charlie Mumma, Jay Randall, and John Wiese. A world of mesmerizing evocations and alternating realms. An unceasing kingdom of ash and scorch. Barbarous events augmented with glamour and suffering. A cruel attack on the unexpected success of the Rubik’s Cube. Recorded 13 June 2016 at Sonelab, Western Mass. Engineered by Mark Alan Miller.
Chapter Eleven
Wow! **4xCD, over 4 hours of music. Co-Released by Hanson Records and Helicopter** Easily one of the most essential releases of this year, Hanson and Helicopter Records stunning 4 CD box set, reissuing Robert Turman’s visionary 1988 release, Chapter Eleven, reveals its creator as one of the most important and neglected artists of that decade, while foreshadowing the work an entire generation of experimental artists that would emerge over the coming years. Truly staggering in scope and creative a…
L/L
Recorded on Sissy Spacek’s ensemble tour in January 2018, combining sets from Louisville with Tim Barnes, Bret Barry, and Margo Morley and Lexington with Robert Beatty.
Pitched Intervention
Recorded in Los Angeles in February 2018 and consists of two sessions with Don Bolles (The Germs, Ariel Pink) and Mitchell Brown (Gasp), and one session with Mitchell Brown and Joseph Hammer (Solid Eye, Joe & Joe, LAFMS).