Heldon was always its own beast and by 1976 it was thriving and roaring like never before. More work was being completed in a proper studio, the ex-Beatle's Moog helped strengthen the sound and direction, and Pinhas' rotating cast of collaborators was solidifying into something resembling a regular line-up, with François Auger on drums and Patrick Gauthier on synthesizers. The result was a darker, heavier, and more intense sound. The music opens with the prog-gone-skronk onslaught of Marie Virgine C, sounding rather like Robert Fripp being sliced into bloody chunks in Thurston Moore's basement. Auger is the star of Elephanta, in all its Moog-assisted polyrhythmic glory. On side two, MVC II offers six minutes of sinister dystopian squelch rock. It's followed by Toward The Red Line, an epic piece conceivably serving to connect the dots between Hawkwind's most freeform passages and the Detroit techno innovations of the coming decade. Needless to say, Heldon's influences had been transcended.
