March 2, 2009 10:28

The Strokes, Babyshambles side-project to release album

Helsinki to release full-length effort before 2009 ends

Helsinki, one of the musical side-projects of Babyshambles bassist Drew McConnell, are planning to release a full-length album before the end of 2009.

The band, which features a rotating group of musicians including members of Noisettes, The Pan I Am, The Strokes' Albert Hammond, Jr., Fionn Regan and Kid Harpoon among others, are planning a 12-track album – with ten of the songs already recorded.

The video for one of the songs, 'Ribtickling', which features McConnell as well as members of The View, can be watched exclusively on NME.COM by clicking on the video below.

McConnell told NME.COM, "Helsinki is an entity that came into being unwittingly, a cloud of friends who at many points over the last two years found ourselves gigging and recording a handful of my songs for disparate reasons, ranging from charity endeavours to just finding ourselves in the same city with a few days to kill with itchy fingers.

"We've now cut 10 studio tracks and plan to record two more and release a Helsinki record before the end of the year."