James Holden

Well yeah German house and some prog have moved closer together, but I think it's more that generally speaking DJs are playing good stuff from across the spectrum, certainly DJ sets are now more varied than ever.

I'm not sure to what extent Holden can still be classified a "prog" artist. The DJs that play his recent stuff (which is as weird and unpredictable as his set-lists) almost invariably play lots of German stuff too, and other prog DJs who get lauded for their "experimental" sets (Sander Kleinenberg, James Zabiela) just don't seem anywhere nearly as perverse as Holden is.

I find it fascinating that it wasn't until prog finally abandoned all pretense at being vanguard dance music and began to simply reference a certain greyscale trancey tech-house sound at the turn of the millenium (about the time that prog DJs started incorporating breaks tracks - perhaps acknowledging that their sound pallette had become so restrictive that mixing 4/4 beats and breakbeats became a way to manufacture variety and surprise) that a figure like Holden was able to emerge from it and finally live up to the style's initial rhetoric.

I really like James Holden's music. The whole Border Community crew have their own sound and have produced some amazing records. I think their full potential has yet to be realised though.

There is a definite shift to forgetting genre in house at the moment and some of the records being produced reflect this. Some recent tracks I purchased sound like hardcore and golden-era UKG with plenty of sub bass making the difference in the productions. Some 4x4 dubstep like anti-war dub also fits in very nicely. Bought the recently released James Holden Depeche Mode remix which includes a stunning dub version with hardcorey atmospherics and vibe about it. With his established skill and innovative sound he (and his label) are definitely ones to watch I reckon.

Tim F said:

I find it fascinating that it wasn't until prog finally abandoned all pretense at being vanguard dance music and began to simply reference a certain greyscale trancey tech-house sound at the turn of the millenium (about the time that prog DJs started incorporating breaks tracks - perhaps acknowledging that their sound pallette had become so restrictive that mixing 4/4 beats and breakbeats became a way to manufacture variety and surprise) that a figure like Holden was able to emerge from it and finally live up to the style's initial rhetoric.

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A teacher of mine once said that it's these zones of culture, the ones deemed obsolete or inherently corny to tastemakers, that are the ones to watch; out of view of the critical elite, with the "running room" necessary to push things in funny, or unpredictable directions. I certainly wasn't checking for prog house.

I should say that I think lots of the Border Community stuff it is not great--it privileges sheer sonics too much for my taste and comes off as lush for its own sake. Texture pour l'texture. Yet something like The Sky Was Pink (Icelandic Verison), as textural as it gets, does it for me. That's their big achievement as far as I'm concerned (I'm listening mostly at home though...)

I find some of the "DJ Tools" listenable in their own right--"Break in the Clouds (Beat Tool)" I think is amazing, for three minutes at least.

juliand said:

I find some of the "DJ Tools" listenable in their own right--"Break in the Clouds (Beat Tool)" I think is amazing, for three minutes at least.

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I agree that the tools are the really good stuff. The idea of a record as a tool is great also

JulianD your teacher wasn't Simon Reynolds by any chance? That sounds like his Theory of Vibe Migration.

I really really love the Jake Fairley Border Community 12" as Fairmont, so ridiculously emotional!

I see that one of my favorite production teams Spirallianz aka Midimiliz released a 12" on Border Community as well, as Extrawelt. They got herded into the psytrance ghetto though their sound is somewhere on the boundary of trance and techno. I'll have to check it out.

Apparently Minilogue (who've made "The Girl From Botany Bay" - not on Border Community but the most Holdenesque track ever including all actual Holden tracks, and pretty great to boot) have a history in trance/psy-trance too. Curious!

Minilogue is Son Kite. They are huge in the "psy" trance scene. I loved some of their stuff but then as it became less minimal/technoey and more "progressive" and melodic (as did the whole psy scene) I moved away from it. The melodies were never interesting enough and the whole thing turned from hypnotic to just boring. I never really understood the separation of some of these artists from the rest of the trance scene since their sound was so close. It's probably more the other way around with "psy" geeks rejecting everything outside of some circle.

minilogue/son kite - imo their sound has been progressive ever since they started, and the last album 'colours' had some fantastic house and techno on it.

and midimiliz/extrawelt never got herded into 'the psytrance ghetto' by anyone i know (although the spiralkinder tracks certainly indicated at the time that the sound might be something they enjoyed). in any case, as early as by the spirallianz stuff they were imo pioneering the genre techtrance (go figure) and nothing else. btw extrawelt are soon to drop releases on both traum schallplatten and cocoon records. will be big no doubt...

i remember DJ Narrows being chuffed that Pete Tong had asked for a copy of 'Saved Soul' when it was breaking (2001?).

does anyone know if any of the big house players have taken any notice in 'anti war dub' ?