It's a worldwide thing, the independent music scene and it is always a pleasure to review music from different countries and cultures. Not so long ago, we made the acquaintance of Serbian musician Predrag Nedic and were impressed with his music. Now, he has adopted the alternative persona of Keep Away From Heat.
"Helium Bliss" is the resulting album and it turned out to be an elegant and graceful addition to the electronica genre. There are ambient samples and some distinctly soulful vocals (as on "Rainbow Drops") to keep things from becoming sterile. In fact, "Rainbow Drops" is also the best song on the album having an almost symphonic feel to it. You can just imagine it over the titles of some art house movie. Maybe that is a common theme to the album. It is as if the songs have been written for moments and events in your life. Listening to "Wall" whilst driving in the darkness was definitely more affecting than hearing it in the daylight, for example. "Heavy Metal Birds" does stray too close to the Euro blandness of Jean Michel Jarre but it, fortunately, does not set a precedent. "Tear Me Apart", in contrast, shows how well Predrag Nedic can develop an idea into a convincing musical piece.
In summary, this album is a very decent example of the ambient electronica/trip hop genre. It has clearly been conceived with care and but, overall, it just seems to lack the passion and persuasiveness of something like PNDC's own album "Fading Away". However, it should find many fans within the genre (and it would also make a very nice soundtrack to something classy like an advert for Audi).