James Holden – 'The Inheritors' review
James Holden’s first LP since 2006 should be hard work: after all, a 75-minute album recorded live on home-made analogue synths that veers between acid techno and free jazz while maintaining a ramshackle, almost post-rock aesthetic is never going to trouble Random Access Memories for radio play. But The Inheritors contains more than enough character to command attention: like a creaking carnival roller-coaster, its rickety runaway gallop is its crowning virtue, with tracks frequently one stray bleep away from meltdown, but so well engrossingly paced that there’s barely chance to worry.
Indeed, when The Caterpillar’s Invention peaks, its clattering drums and honking sax drones recalling some bastard soundclash of Godspeed and Battles, the only option is to savour the wicked deviancy and await the next lurch. Such a sprawling and refreshingly natural approach offers a depth and thrill that, in the context of 2013’s electronic music, with its order, precision and cleanliness, is a godsend – The Inheritors’s muckiness, danger and unpredictability is a delight.
9/10
