About Bell Helium

Bell Helium is a NYC based rock project that makes its lonely residence outside the boundaries of the 21st Century’s obsession with genre purity.

The best rock bands of the late 1960s and ‘70s took influence from whatever music spoke to them, whether it was rock and roll, soul, jazz, blues, funk, folk, music hall, classical, country, reggae, bluegrass, schmaltz (and whatever else) and blended them into a style of music authentic to each band. These bands, like The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Yes, The Doors, The 13th Floor Elevators, Grateful Dead, Miles Davis’s electric bands, Captain Beefheart, Funkadelic, and The Rolling Stones, were generally called “rock” bands. But two decades into the 21st century, “rock” has come to mean something more narrow: generally a retro, dumbed down, box-ticking set of gestures and nihilistic attitudes, with a stiff, plodding, and aggressive feel (or more accurately, no-feel).

Probably the clearest indication of our addiction to genre purity is the fact that you can’t get anywhere in the online universe without a tag — nobody finds you without one. So if you’re a band with similar objectives to those classic bands of the 60s and 70s — to use whatever musical influence is authentically of interest to you — you’re screwed.

It seems the best tag is, unfortunately, "classic rock." Which suggests old and retro, but on the other hand, it does have a kind of accuracy, since it points back to a time when "rock" was broader than it is today. Though I imagine people looking for "classic rock" might be looking for something other than what Bell Helium is about.

So the next available tag might be "AOR,” which originally meant "album oriented radio" (now, "album oriented rock"). It was an indicator of context, namely the independent and college radio stations that played album tracks other than singles in the 60s-70s time period. So AOR came to mean the kind of music those stations played. Later, unfortunately, it came to have a connotation of "lite" or "radio friendly."

"This project from New York guitarist James Beaudreau harkens back to the past through its soulful jamming. It stirs up the moodiness of The Doors with hints of The Grateful Dead if they were fronted by Joni Mitchell. Delightfully glamorous. ...This assured metropolitan project has strong echoes of Steely Dan -- even early Chicago (minus the brass) in parts -- and two not-so-secret weapons in powerful singer Anne DeAcetis and fleet-fingered guitarist James Beaudreau. It's the lightest listen this month, but Bell Helium's cool grooves and airy production make for a high time." -- Prog Magazine

“It’s a yacht rock kind of sound…it’s a Laurel Canyon sound, which I also love, but it’s got more to it than that…the vocals here are lovely soul vocals, really nicely done…and that really adds something, it really anchors [the songs] and gives them a warm feel, too…and the guitar and electric piano sparring, trading solos—which is a feature of the work they do—is something very special…well it’s a great debut…wonderful…so do seek it out. Wanna take you higher? Bell Helium will.” -- Steve Swift

"As soon as the opening track Don't Tell Anybody starts playing, you can feel there's something happening here... [the record] falls right in-between West Coast soul/AOR of the 1970s and 70s smooth jazz-fusion, with subtle keys and guitars, while the rhythm section does a splendid job in keeping things quite groovy. ...the whole vibe of the record is amazing." -- Strutter Magazine