ARTICLES
2006 Top 10s and 20s
2006 Artist Picks

ALBUMS
17 Pictures
Angina P
Ateleia
Benni Hemm Hemm
The Boats
Cappablack
Celer
Dead Letters Dead Words
Deceptikon
Deerhunter
Denzel + Huhn
Displayaz
Dollboy
Drone
Eluvium
Emanuele Errante
The Eternals
Fear Falls Burning
Marcus Fjellström
Fonoda
Funkstörung
Goldfrapp
Gyroscope
Robert Henke
James Holden
The Idealist
Anders Ilar
Landing
LCD Soundsystem
Library Tapes
L Pierre
Lullatone
Tor Lundvall
Mad EP
Mahogany
Melodium
Mem1
Daisuke Miyatani
Mole Harness
Momus
Monoceros
Mormo
Mothboy
Original Hamster
Pierson & Horton
Prince Valium
Radical Face
Retail Sectors / Yaporigami
Rylander & Elggren
Scott Solter Plays PIM
Sideshow
Silicone Soul
Skream
Splinters
Mark Templeton
Thread Pulls
T. Raumschmiere
Tycho
Ultre
Virculum
Xela

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
AudioArt 03
Cumulous
Dubstep Allstars Vol. 4
Eriksen / Toft / Utarm
Katapult VA Vol. 3
Let's Lazertag Sometime
Mr Geoffrey & JD Franzke
Skagen / Halvorsen / Toft
Tectonic Plates

3"/7"/10"/12"/EPs
Gabriel Ananda
Robert Bardini
DAT Politics
Dead Letters / R. Sundin
Dogmixer
Benjamin Fehr
Fenin
HL
I Make This Sound
Zoë Irvine
Kyriakides and Moor
Lamont & 2tall
Ljud. & Piloten / Kama Aina
Jacob London
Sam Mcqueen
Miskate
Ryo Miyashita & Hiiragi_
[nara]
New Faces
Of / Greg Davis
Charlemagne Palestine
Phon.o vs Litwinenko
Portable
PostPrior
Samarah
Nicholas Sauser & Ditch
Someone Else
Hannes Teichmann
Tractile
Andy Vaz

IMAGES
F.S. Blumm

James Holden: The Idiots Are Winning
Border Community

Border Community head James Holden brings an irreverent and idiosyncratic sensibility to melodic tech-house on his full-length collection The Idiots Are Winning. What's most compelling about the material is that it at times threatens to veer out of control, as Holden seemingly allows room within the tracks for the machines to misbehave and even gain the upper hand. Rejecting an overly clinical and sanitized style, Holden often opts instead for digital dirt and unpredictability. By gracefully floating a panoramic synth melody over a bubbly skip, “10101” strikes a normal enough pose but it's the exception to the rule. In smeary clodhoppers like “Corduroy” and “Idiot,” bleepy ostinatos move in and out of sync, blurring and then coming into focus. A skeletal stomp grounds “Idiot” but it too teeters on the edge of collapse as Holden showers it with shifting layers of bleepy melodies. Adding to the wooziness, the instruments morph too with synths shape-shifting into faux-harpsichords and back again. In “Flute,” clockwork patterns try to maintain their grip on a fixed tempo but eventually are besieged by a plethora of rootless noises and melodies that threaten to destabilize it while “Idiot Clapsolo” almost runs out of gas altogether. Holden further sidesteps conventional techno with a couple of Aphex-styled cuts. Distorted vocal effects in the opener “Lump” and “Lumpette” make them sound like tracks that escaped from the Richard D. James Album sessions. The Idiots Are Winning is a captivating outing that's marred only by “Intentionally Left Blank,” a two-minute momentum-destroyer that's a needlessly perverse gesture Holden should have omitted.

January 2007