DAVID HOLMES
David Holmes presents the Free Association
13 Amp Recordings
· And it goes like this….
· Inna gadda davida, baby, or something like that.
Thank the cosmos, the grand poobah, the little old lady who lives down the lane, maybe Little Bo Peep or whomever, but David Holmes is back and bluer then ever.
His previous record, Bow Down to the Exit Sign, seemed to signal the end of our illustrious Mr. Holmes – lost in the realm of Jon Spencer rock-hop, the highlight was his re-rub of "Compared to What." The low point? The rest of the album.
Bow Down lacked anchors, but singles like "Let’s Get Killed," "Gritty Shaker" or even "My Mate Paul" alluded to Holmes’s potential to carve a niche in the darker areas of the musical psyche.
With David Holmes presents the Free Association, he’s either struck his head squarely on a concrete slab or ingested a massive tab of acid. Whatever the case, Holmes successfully ventures into the dark art of carving minds with music.
Amalgamating sweeping arrangements, MCs and the supreme vocal stylings of Petra Jean Phillipson, Holmes has made an album that hearkens back to the days of Massive Attack’s Protection and Portishead’s Dummy. Combined with a touch of ’60s desert pop, à la Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra, the results are beyond mindbendingly brilliant.
There’s little doubt that Holmes has pulled a gem from the ether of his imagination and that this Free Association has reconnected some much needed psychedelia to the fraying edges of the musical subconscious.
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