Err..the planet just exploded sir...

David Holmes became a person of interest for me during my 1996-99 university years (of which I have previously referenced, I started to broaden my interest in Electronic genres in particular), and it was a chance purchase of his first - and intentional one of his second - albums that I want to focus on here.

Much is written about Northern Irish born producer, DJ and composer Holmes' ability to craft a good movie soundtrack - most notably Out Of Sight and the trio of Ocean's 11 to 13 - but it was his initial output that paved the way for this opportunity to work on such projects.

Holmes' debut has in my opinion the best and most attention-grabbing title of any album: This Film's Crap, Let's Slash The Seats, and it was on this loose and frankly amused basis I parted with my not-at-all-earned overdraft to buy the 1995 CD album. The cover art alone is reminiscent of the beautifully crafted opening credits of the now legendary David Fincher directed crime thriller movie, Se7en.

No Man's Land starts in a foreboding manner with the chime of a clock and echoing footsteps, before heartbeats pulse across the speakers and we are transported into an ethereal, waving synth and electro-pipe refrain, slowly building to introduce a marching beat. This feels both tribal and also slightly dystopian in its aesthetic, and to Holmes' credit you can see why he went on very quickly to producing soundtracks due to the variety of textures he uses in the 12-plus minutes of this opening tune alone. It is captivating.

Onto Slash The Seats, which goes in at a grittier level with some deeper breakbeats and distorted bass. Using a series of voice samples from the cult 1974 film Dark Star (written by and starring Alien writer, Dan O'Bannon) we are treated to a progressive techno feast complete with computer bleeps and blips and a sense of dread an unease throughout.

Shake Ya Brain is a fascinating example of a track that's hard to tune into at the outset due to its syncopated beat structures, but it is nonetheless danceable. It takes you a good 90 seconds to tune in and find the beats to tap along to, but that's what makes it clever. Named after a club night Holmes used to DJ at in Belfast in the early 90's, this tune begins with the echoed voice repeating "Shake Ya Brain", as the cymbal taps, beats and bass hone into view. This is more of a pure club track at the core, especially with its breaks and elevated BPM.

I love Got Fucked Up Along The Way as it feels like the musical experience of being inside someone's head on hallucinogens, borne out through sound. The guitar strings and swirling high notes make it a dizzying experience.

After the chaos comes the calm, so the following track changes up the style next with one of the most beautiful compositions, and probably my favorite, Gone. Here, Holmes uses his love for Jazz to create an aesthetic that focuses on plucked electric guitar strings, double bass, shuffling drum beats and beautiful vocal helmed by St Etienne's Sarah Cracknell. Simple and melancholy, it talks of escape and isolation:

I'm gonna hide She don't even know I'm gonna run away

and you can never go on anymore

The Atom And You takes us again into a different aesthetic, with drums being the prevalent instrument here. This track has a dystopian feel to it, and a somewhat ghostly quality prevails as things unfold. The cymbals crash and bass notes poke at the marching beat, whilst synth noises swirl and whoosh around the rhythm.

Here we move to pure techno; Detroit techno to be precise. Holmes' nod to the genre is bang on point from the beep-beep-beep-bop opening to the insistent beats, its up there with the best of anything the likes of Joey Beltram, Dave Angel or Johnny L conjured up during their careers. It was the first track I heard from this album taken off the 1995 compilation Techno Nights, Ambient Dawn (which incidentally is well worth a listen and features many other classic artists from the era). I love it.

Inspired By Leyburn has a fascinating guitar line running through it which was done by Steve Hillage of System 7, who also played guitar on the live version of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells. The booming bass, echoing tones and shuffling rhythm has this one feeling funky as well as drawing from Trip-Hop.

We close with Coming Home To The Sun which uses some of the same signatures and samples from No Man's Land. It also has the most beautiful Gregorian chant performed by Irish folk singer Cara Robinson. This one has a touch of the 90's New Age act Enigma about it, and is a lovely way to close out the album.

This album has been (unfairly in my opinion) characterized as a soundtrack album to a film that doesn't exist, and Holmes' predominant career that followed actually proved he could hone his craft in that area and be successful. For me, this stands up in its own right as a wonderful example of mixed Electronic aesthetics and styles coming together in a way that shouldn't work, but does.

...and we're not done yet...

Just wait until you see what he did next.

Part 2 coming soon.

Badger x