James Holden - The Illuminations

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  • It was tempting to interpret James Holden's The Inheritors as a rejection of the dance floor in favour of the looser constraints of the LP format. Even its danciest moments—the title track, say, or the high octane "Renata"—had a grotty waywardness likely to turn off all but the boldest DJ. But Holden has long seemed as creatively invested in his DJing as he is in production, and "The Illuminations" feels like an acknowledgement that he won't be retiring from the booth just yet. The album version of "The Illuminations" was a gorgeous soft-focus synth jam, its cracked, spiraling arpeggios sounding like some half-rusted Cluster imitation. The 12-inch version retains that endless woozy ascent but streamlines it, making room for a hypnotic techno pulse. Those scalpel-sharp hi-hats and squalls of white noise, flickering ceaselessly like strobes on a dance floor, are a world away from the muck-caked percussion on The Inheritors. The result is an awesomely intoxicating piece of rabbit hole techno—trance-inducing, yes, but working to a different criteria from the music Holden was making in his salad days. The "Arpsolo" and "Drumsolo" give free reign to each of the track's two elements in turn—for optimum DJ functionality, one imagines, although it has the added benefit of revealing the gorgeously idiosyncratic detail in both parts.
  • Tracklist
      A The Illuminations (12" Version) B1 The Illuminations (Drumsolo) B2 The Illuminations (Arpsolo)
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