Blind On A Galloping Horse serves as David Holmes’ first solo album since 2008’s The Holy Pictures.
A 14-track interrogation of the last decade, time spent watching a decaying, fraying Britain visibly buckling in real time while tending to his own battles with mental health. Holmes’ soundtrack to this inquiry is at times claustrophobic, often euphoric, driven by the rattle and snap of analogue drum machines, wild oscillations of droning analogue synths and the voice of Raven Violet which beguiles and commands in a way that could part oceans.
On this record, there are songs of hope for an age of uncertainty; love songs to leap the barricades to and, on ‘Necessary Genius’, a comprehensive roll call of the great and good - those ‘dreamers, misfits, radicals, outcasts’ that we’ve lost and just a few who’ve managed to cling on in the churn of the 21st century. And there are elegiac electronics evocative of an endless Europe where pulsating, crackling rhythm tracks fuse with dreamlike textures and the underground pulse of psychedelic therapy to form something unique that feels nothing less than radical.
A 14-track interrogation of the last decade, time spent watching a decaying, fraying Britain visibly buckling in real time while tending to his own battles with mental health. Holmes’ soundtrack to this inquiry is at times claustrophobic, often euphoric, driven by the rattle and snap of analogue drum machines, wild oscillations of droning analogue synths and the voice of Raven Violet which beguiles and commands in a way that could part oceans.
On this record, there are songs of hope for an age of uncertainty; love songs to leap the barricades to and, on ‘Necessary Genius’, a comprehensive roll call of the great and good - those ‘dreamers, misfits, radicals, outcasts’ that we’ve lost and just a few who’ve managed to cling on in the churn of the 21st century. And there are elegiac electronics evocative of an endless Europe where pulsating, crackling rhythm tracks fuse with dreamlike textures and the underground pulse of psychedelic therapy to form something unique that feels nothing less than radical.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: It's no wonder we (the shop) or we (Manchester) have taken to David Holmes, with the snappy post-industrial synth-gloom of 'Necessary Genius' referencing Tony Wilson by name and by design. It's yet another bit of evidence that Holmes' musical skills know no bounds. Rich, evocative works throughout and produced as you'd expect, perfectly.TRACK LISTING
1. When People Are Occupied Resistance Is Justified
2. It's Over, If We Run Out Of Love
3. Emotionally Clear
4. Hope Is The Last Thing To Die
5. You Will Know Me By The Smell Of Onions
6. Necessary Genius
7. Yeah X 3
8. I Laugh Myself To Sleep
9. Too Muchroom
10. Agitprop 13
11. Stop Apologising
12. Tyranny Of The Talentless
13. Love In The Upside Down
14. Blind On A Galloping Horse