James Holden albums

2023

Imagine This is a High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities - 79%

Ok Mr. Holden, I'm taking your album title literally. I am imagining that this is a high dimensional space where anything is possible, and getting lost in these long sonic wordless soundscapes you have carves out for us. Your music does have the ability to entrance me I admit, songs like " Worlds Collide Mountains Form" gives me thoughts of traveling through time, where "Continuous Revolution " kind of excite and scare but in a good way. “Contain multitudes” makes all this look easy, and it does transport me to another plane of reality, which has become so trendy these days. Not your music though, you have been doing this for 20 years and though not prolific, always find something important to say (look at the beautiful “Common Land” and all it will do to influence other great electronic musicians of the times).

I wonder why there is always a song like "The Answer Is Yes " on your albums, one I just can never quite understand and it's kind of overlong- do you do this to not make something musically necessarily but to make some kind of point- saying you are trying to reach for the infinite and capture sounds that we can't even quite comprehended? There's a bit of nonsense to your music, and I like that. Though a little goes a long way, I do think this is one of your more enjoyable albums. I would not call this electronic background music though as it’s too engaging. It sucks us into a mysterious portal to another universe.

Best Songs: worlds collide mountains form, contains multitudes, continuous revolution, four ways down the valley