At the Controls

Most house music is about layering broad strokes, finding the complements in sounds and beats and meshing them to create a solid sonic environment. Fine detail is needed to blend the edges, to align the notches where the music fits and to blur the spots where there may be bumps. If the genre is a well-tailored suit, the necessary skill is twofold: picking the right fabric and cutting/sewing it together well.Holden's double-disc set threw me off at first; I kept looking for the fabric, when almost all I found was meticulous stitching. What I was hearing was most certainly "electronica" (a pointless classification if there ever was one), but beyond that, well, it was anyone's guess. A first listen, to anyone not familiar with Holden and his work, will bend the ears as much as it does the genre.Therein lies the beauty of Holden's "At the Controls." Many of his contemporaries play board games with sound, moving by definable rules to a clear end goal. Holden's aural experiments are more like a Rubik's Cube: muddled and uncertain at first, but steadily realigned, patterns and cohesion arising only after seemingly random shifts and turns. There are a lot of colors on this cube: dark ambient fogs, industrial ratchetings, the siren-song of trance, and the unmistakable heartbeat of deep, deep house. In the hands of a lesser artist, they would certainly clash. Holden's eye for detail, however, creates a pastiche of achingly ethereal noise. With a master's ease, he bends and blends until out of the storm of sounds we see rays of the light behind it.The first record has a mostly metallurgical tone. Over the passively sweet vocals of Kate Wax ("Angel Blues"), Lucky Pierre's strings and muted trumpet ("Angels On Your Body"), the invigorating guitar of Death In Vegas's "Anita Berber," and the traditional trance inspirations of Midimiliz's "Trace Function," Holden casts a cool, neural net of iron and lead (found best in "Metro Pop," "10101," and "Perlandine Friday"). It's a dichotomy that at first seems like a contradiction, and which can make for some rather dark listening. However, by the time Holden whips out "Charlie's House" (by Nathan Fake), it's obvious that he's going for something far more transcendent. This is clearly the glorious climax of this record, a powerful combination of computerized crinkles and plain, old, uplifting joy.He carries this mood wholly over into the second disc, shifting that puzzle box of beats ever faster with songs like Motiivi: Tuntematon's "1939" and Ego Express's "Live and Sirius Prime," the colors and codas rising up golden and glowing in songs like Middleton's "Solemn Thirsty" and Slag Boom Van Loon's "Poppy Seed." By the time he reaches his second climax in the reprise of Plastikman's "Cor Ten," the album is almost fully realized, a precisely ordered collection of musical chaos. I say "almost" because, by the close of AFX's "Every Day," this puzzle box still has a few misplaced squares, a few turns that didn't work. These are found in his harshest and most mechanical tracks. The rigid rips of wiry static in "Nazi Trance F*** Off!" sound like a failed experiment in rhythm structuring, and "Hotter Now (Stripped Down Mix)" is SO stripped down that it plays like half of a song.Even these brief lapses, though, bear the stamp of Holden's need to orchestrate every last blip and nod of this almost unclassifiable album. Although the end result has its tiny patches, its ragged moments where the songs run bare, the whole thing is truly astonishing, a cloak of vivid life. I suggest you try it on; this suit wears well.

James Holden raises EDM to an art form. This album is one of the few that arrests me in my track, and I actually concentrate to listen.

This is as original as you get experimenting with different techno, house, acid styles. This could be the mix of the year along with ATB The DJ in the mix. It's just a joy to listen to. Plus, I took the advice of a previous review and listened on headphones, and it is banging. He even managed to incorporate a rock pop song by Malcolm Middletown. The tracklisting forgot Harmonia - Watussi, which is between the Holden tracks, so there are 14 songs on both cd's.

More of James Holden doing what he does best. Crafting tracks together that you would not expect to hear but delivered in the same manner that James carries through his mixes.

I just got to see Holden and Petter 2 weeks ago. I was expecting a really good live set (yes! live set from both guys!), but what a surprise because it was the best musical performance i have ever witnessed in anyones life. I have been to jazz jams, I got to see King Crimson, YES, punk jams, any kind of open air, closed air music festival I have been to and not one musical event has even come close.At The Controls is clearly way ahead of its time, it is higly experimental but still is very accesible. Dont turn this album away at first listen, its like a long jazz piece, you have to listen to it a few times to understand it. This album is highly intelligent, a true masterpiece. Every single second of the whole album has all these meticulous details, very artsy but never pretentious. Each track takes you somewhere else, its a great listen for anytime of the year.Once again Holden, thanks for the great music.I recommend every artist that is featured on this album (if you can find material of course) and if you like this mix try and get everything with Holdens name on it, Holden is raising the music bar with every piece he makes.Please check out border community music label for more great music. Dont miss out on Nathan Fakes 'Drowning in a sea of love' lp album, great music as well, and get all material you can find by Petter, he is a great producer too, with a perfect live set.Here are the highlight tracks:Petter - Some PolyphonyVox Sola - Metro PopHolden - LumpHolden - 10101Skugge + Stavöstrand - Medean - (This track is really something else!!)Nathan Fake - Charlies House (Apparat Remix) (This one too!)Lucky Pierre - Angels On Your BodyChrist - Perlandine Friday (Like the trumpet notes played here)Fennesz - Rivers of Sandand from disc 2Meta.83 - Opening TitlesPaul Kalkbrenner - GebrUnn GebrUnnMotiivi:Tuntematon - 1939Malcolm Middleton - Solemn ThirstyAphex Twin - Xtal (The best version I have ever heard)Milky Globe vs. Holden - Sun SpotsKalabrese - Aufm KloLazy Fat People - Big CityWater Lilly - Lottotron RebootTrans Am - Cold War (War Is Stupid Mix)Slag Boom Van Loon - Poppy Seed (Boards Of Canada Reprise)Egoexpress - Live At Sirius PrimeBlack Strobe - Nazi Trance F*** Off! (Holden Remix)AFX - Every Day (What a great ending)Get this now and dont forget to order Balance 005 and "The Idiots Are Winning", Holdens new artist album, its not a dj mix, all new Holden material.

This is another good album by James Holden. Once again one disc is slightly stronger than the other, and once again this all falls down to track selection. Generally speaking though, Holden has a much better grapse on what works as a set of tracks from the realm of minimalist house and electro-tech when compared to the slew of DJ's that have jumped on the mimimalist bandwagon over the last couple of years. It doesn't hurt that his studio mixing skills are way better than most also.There are some stellar tracks on disc 2 which are mostly frontloaded to the first 20-30 minutes of the set. This album had the potential to be great, but there are too many screecher tracks (for my tastes) on both discs that interupt the flow and groove of the set. Some people like this, but I liken the music (if you can call it that) of these tracks to the sound of bad feedback from an amp. Sounds just like rough noise to me.Disc 1 get 3.5/5 stars and disc 2, 4/5 stars