pH10

...Some music is meant to make you organize and protest. Some is meant to make you sit in deep contemplation. Then there’s the music that’s made so you can have a good freakin time. pH10 is all about making the latter and they do it better than almost anyone else out there.... - Adam's World

...So pH10-the Brooklyn duo of Recone F. Helmut and SyBO-have achieved something surprising and admirable with Well Connected. There are bass lines here so deep, so heavy, and so grinding that outside of their natural setting in the dance club-where they would bounce the olives in martini glasses five blocks away and threaten sensitive bowels with involuntary convulsions-you’d expect them to sound, and even forgive them for sounding, a little misguided. They don’t, though. Why not?.... - Pensatos Magazine

"...These road-tested purveyors of seizure-inducing beats and chest-rumbling bass are set to propel listeners into their dark, savage world at an astronomical BPM..." - Urb Magazing

"To understand pH10, start by imagining The Beastie Boys growing up on Slayer rather than Afrika Bambaataa. Then, you'll need to figure out how records created with no electric guitars in site manage to be this damn heavy. Finally, a lesson or two in overdriven analog circuits at the community college is in order. - Alternatively you could just pop in one of their disks, start shaking your ass and it'll all come to you naturally" - Time Out London

“The lead-off single, “Enter The Underground,” featuring the vocal stylings of Pete Miser and Jamalski, stands as living proof that electronic acts can also bring the rock” - Git Pop Magazine

"With an electro heavy metal riff over a dropped-tempo breakbeat to start things off, you're not quite sure what to expect, but just as soon as this thought starts fleeing from your conscious, your head starts bobbing and you start to get it. This is just easing you in. And then the anticipation builds, and even though that nervous twinge in your stomach starts to flutter back and forth, you don't want it to stop. Then...then...the sirens come in and I-45 and Prodigal Sun drops a flow over the gritty-glitchy break-hop "Bulldozin.'" and, from that moment on...it does...not...stop. While Well Connected is a definite testament to the ever-growing production prowess of ph10, the evolution of this beat-maker is never more evident than in "Enter the Underground" and "Serious Delerium." ph10 veteran resident emcee Pete Miser joins Jamalski in a wicked scratch laden future-retro jungle track. The vocalists stay comfortably within their pockets all the way up to "Serious Delerium," when you hear RZA telling Bill Murray "caffeine causes serious delerium," a state of intriguing mental unease magnified by the ferocity of the drums and bass tossed at us from every which way and widget! Throbbing electro jungle dub beats and gritty basslines that shake the dingleberries from your raving ass. Get it." - Katori Magazine

"This a killer bass bin breaking record that will quite easily punish any system it's played on… The songs on Well Connected make up the dirtiest dance floor friendly record possible... filled with gargantuan hooks that DJ's will find irresistible and your feet will find impossible to ignore. An exhaustive beat frenzy that shows there's no stopping PH10 on its global conquest of the dance floor." - First Coast News

"pH10’s Well Connected is an invigorating blend of hip hop and drum n’ bass… The disk is full of banging, exciting dance floor scorches and pretty much any one of them would be good enough to get me on out there with wallet chain flying." - UrbNet - Urb Magazine

... this is some funky stuff, and no matter what kind of notions of cool you subscribe to, you need some funk in your life.

Recone Helmut is the nutjob behind PH10. On his last record, Quarks and Gluons, he alternated being fun and frantic with boring and “classy” downtempo tracks. Thankfully, he decided to abandon the latter and plight his troth to the former. He’s through being cool. This is always a great move. Cool people can’t be bothered to shake an ass. They’re always strumming and crooning, kind of like the dorm folksinger in Animal House...and Recone Helmut wants to be John Blutarsky.

Recone made some good moves here. He took on a rapper named Pete Miser, who rocks like he’s igneous whenever he shows up. It’s pretty rare for a d’n’b rapper to have good quotable lines, but Pete Miser gets off a few good ones. My favorite is probably the one about how he’ll get your girl breakin’ up with you like service on a free phone—but he also adds a political dimension with delicious cheap shots like “Dirty, like George Bush campaign tactics.” He also brings a touch of multiculturalism to the form: “Half white, half Chinese, now stop askin’.” (Memo to self: try to find a copy of his record Radio Free Brooklyn.)

But it’s not all about Pete Miser either. The slowing down of d’n’b marked its decline as the Flavor Of The Month, so Recone bumps things back up into stompy dance fun. “Red Arrow (Punk as Fuck Mix)” is not exactly as punk as fuck, but it is fun and boisterous, and would be a great Bad-Company-UK-ish dance track if it didn’t keep grinding to a halt and then re-starting. (Maybe that’s the punk part, I don’t know.) “2600 Funkus” could be a Roni Size homage, with its acoustic bass sample and its refusal to fear a little repetition if it’s in the service of a greater cause. And the live version of “T.P.C.” (which doesn’t really sound all that live to me) shows how this group might function in a live context, big fat beats and slithery little beats and some chords that sound like Godzilla farts, all wrapped around weird vocal samples about how the phone company is psychotic. (Is this from The President’s Analyst?)

Helmut has figured out how to use vocal samples as a means rather than as an end. This is punched up in “Helmut Theme,” which uses a bunch of great samples from Spaceballs; frankly, anyone who samples Spaceballs is always going to get high marks from me, but this track is just fun and zippy and cute, not “cool” in the least but it’ll get the party started. - Stylus Magazine

Brooklyn-based drum and bass mavericks ph10 describe themselves as the 'Penn and Teller of live PA'. Clearly not taking themselves too seriously, Helmutvision, their first full-length CD in over two years is quite a showcase, not just for their trademark humour, but also their refreshing talent with more than a little social comment thrown in.

Producer Recone Helmut takes us with his mad band of genius DJs on an electronic odyssey that displays diversity, wit and an exciting sound that is all their own. The Intro, featuring Jase Mason, is a dynamic opening to the album, bristling with intense energy and an addictive quality that will have you returning to this track again and again.

The haunting track Needless to Say, featuring Pete Miser, shows a melodic, intriguing side to the ph10 coin, in fact, throughout the album, they explore such depths and heights that they, unlike many other drum and bass acts, comfortably avoid the trap of being too one note.

Helmut's Theme is a return to their irrepressible humour, with the sampled announcement, 'Make way for Dark Helmut!', this bouncy track is cute and scratchy, but with a dark core. (Like Helmut himself, I wonder?)

T.P.C, the live track on the album, is brilliantly produced, featuring the hypnotic sound that typifies ph10. These guys clearly had a lot of fun producing Helmutvision, and it's an uplifting listen.

Not without hints of the Beastie Boys about them, they are somehow more mature, and certainly as, if not more, exciting to listen to. They're out there on their own, and the way they're going, they're probably going to take over the world. - Fly Magazine UK

Helmutvision's "Intro" starts out with atomic beats, editing, scratching and rap. Next up, drum and bass take over the second track which features Pete Miser - one of the pH10 components. "Find Strength" is a brief moment in deep darkness with spoken word and wrenching synths. "Helmut Theme" brings out the big beat weaponry - then drum and bass returns with "2600 Funkus", a more minimalistic track. "Think It Through" is a faint reminder in vocal style of a BT favorite - "Madskillz" from the album Movement In Still Life. "The Red Arrow" is well done drum and bass with beefy synths and "4PM" is deep, down, and funky. "Tough Love" throws in some spoken philosophy such as "the expression one wears on one's face is far more important than the clothes one wears on one's back" - yet there is a humorous side to the seriousness of the statements. Toward the end of the album, the live performance of "T.P.C." shows that pH10 can rock it live as well. "T.P.C." is a dark, thick, drum and bass track which is a seven-minute-plus performance recorded at the Rhinecliff Hotel in November of 2002. Dispersed hints of humor are thrown in throughout the album and are an unexpected and welcome placement. Another cool twist is that the album sleeve includes the equipment Recone Helmut used on the album such as Emu samplers, Roland and Emu synthesizers, and Alesis Drum modules. The techie in me is always curious as to what equipment is used and it was a cool concept to have included the info rather than have to search through an article in a magazine. Helmutvision is technically sound in all aspects from sound design, editing and production to the final stages of mixing and mastering (of which the mastering was done by Alan Douches at West Westside Music) while still keeping an emotive force in the music. Slick, phatt, and diverse, Helmutvision should intrigue those interested in a mix of big phatt beats and drum and bass. - Raves.com