David Holmes
This Films Crap Lets Slash The Seats
(Go!/1500)
First off, I'm going to tell you that you get a hell of a lot of music with this release. At two discs, which clock in at almost 140 minutes combined, it's a lot of music to digest. Within that over two hour span, there are a lot of good sounds and a couple tracks that are very noteworthy. However, as he does on his second album (this, his first, was released in 1995, then re-released later with a bonus disc of mixes) Let's Get Killed, the disc suffers a bit from the songs simply lingering on too long in several different parts.
As one could tell by the title of the album, much of the music on the disc seems like it could easily play as the soundtrack to a film. Especially the first track "No Man's Land," with chiming bells from a distant tower and flutes over a beat that will make you feel like you're drifting over the cold coast of Ireland. He drops the first of several acid-driven tracks with the tripped-out "Slash The Seats." He hits the dancefloor running with the pounder "Shake Ya Brain" before he completely changes styles with the laid-back loungey feel (and female vocals) on "Gone."
On a track that sounds like something inspired by Plastikman himself (with a rather fitting title), Holmes goes into a rather minimal dancefloor style on "Minus 61 In Detroit." It's a super-long track with a slow progression that works better than a few of the other longer numbers on the disc simply because it seems to know where it's going rather than lingering about and replaying the same bits over and over again. Perhaps the only track on the disc that really fits with the dark cover art (that looks like it came from a serial killers private art collection) is the rather haunting "Inspired By Leyburn." After starting out with a bit of rambling ambience (with a nice dirty guitar bit over it all), a super-grimy beat rumbles in and gives it some backbone.
Although the second disc is sort of a bonus, it does have some great tracks. Although it's dominated by remixes of the track "Gone" (including the excellent one by Kruder And Dorfmeister, also available on their K & D Sessions release), the real winners are the other tracks included. Two of these is the slick drum and bass reworking of "Freaknik" from Let's Get Killed, called "Mosh It" (that was also on a Jockey Slut comp a couple years back) and the sinister sounding "Connencting Flight Syndrome."
Since it's Holmes first album, it is a little different than his newer releases, and so even if you've liked his newer stuff, it's definitely not a guarantee you'll like this. As mentioned above, some of the tracks could have probably benefitted from a little bit of trimming, but there's also a lot of pretty good music to be heard as well, especially for a debut.
Rating: 6.5
