Balance 005
James Holden
(EQ)
Reported by Bing Tuesday, September 16 2003
In a world where so many DJ’s are playing exactly the same music, James Holden is a breath of fresh air. Balance 005 takes in a myriad of sounds and styles that on paper should never work. His magic is that effortlessly, it does. There is a lot of techno (not the hard banging stuff), a dash of electro and breaks, lots of straight up house, some twisted shit and of course that dirty word, progressive.
To me, Holden is the epitome of the progressive DJ. Not the DJ who churns out house from the progressive genre all night long, but instead, a house DJ who tries to progress from the boring and stale world of commercial dance into a world offering something more. This CD is quite experimental and may not sit well in the mouths of the masses. That is OK, because the best music is always the stuff that grows on you. If it is quickly accessible it is often also quickly disposable. I was going to write a track by track essay for this review, instead, I will just suggest you buy this for yourself when it is released in three weeks time. And give it three listens, give it a chance to grow on you as it is one of the coolest releases you will hear all year.
My favourite, standout tracks are MFA’s The Difference It Makes, Meta.83 Metalgroove ep, Nathan Fake’s Outhouse, Meek’s Happy, Jake Fairley’s Oshawa, Gill Norris’ Forme, Ficta’s Eli, Petter’s Tonediary and Holden’s own The Wheel.
|
|
|
