Helicon and producer/DJ Al Lover have dropped new single “Backbreaker” the track is off their forthcoming collaborative e album, Arise. available February 13th 2026 via Fuzz Club Records.

Helicon’s Declan Welsh adds: “Lyrically, it’s a simple poem about how love, despite the agony, is a pleasant pain and that it is a ‘privilege all the same to feel it when I hear your name’. It’s a mantra, something said to yourself when you are in the midst of a doomed spell of hopeless affection. That even if all it is is the overwhelming feeling, that feeling is one of life’s greatest experiences in and of itself.”

On his contribution to ‘Backbreaker’, Lover says: “This one was especially fun for me. I grew up going to drum & bass parties in my late teens and early twenties. It was never a huge part of my identity, but I always loved the music. As I dug deeper into the genre, the importance of the Amen break and how entire branches of electronic music were built around that single drum pattern. It all became endlessly fascinating. Blending that world with rock has been done before, but not quite in the way we approached ‘Backbreaker’. The aggression and intensity of both genres fit naturally together, and the psychedelic edge that emerges when they collide feels like its own new space.”

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.”

Helicon 2026 Tour Dates

07/02/26 – Edinburgh, UK @ The Voodoo Rooms
26/02/06 – Sheffield, UK @ Sidney & Matilda
27/02/26 – Manchester, UK @ The Deaf Institute
25/04/26 – Leek, UK @ Foxlowe Arts Centre

Pre-order Arise by Helicon HERE