(Resist/Inertia)

James Holden is a unique figure in the dance world. Eclectic, weird and always that touch on the left hand side of centre. After setting a difficult benchmark with his Balance 005 compilation, the mathematician-DJ returns with a double cd which in typical Holden flavor, is so different that you are forced to love it, or hate it.

CD 1 opens with the spacious and enchanting sounds of Apparat’s ‘Wooden’, a beautiful ambient number with some surreal, echoing vocals and beats that fall into Plastikman’s Cor Ten. I will warn from now that these disks are not intended for a main room dance floor, perhaps for meditation, reflection and personal time, but as a whole would do little but bore a 1.00am ‘happy’ crowd. There is little ‘mixing’ as such in the first half of this disk with many of the tracks eloquently melting into on another like the etheric ‘Angel Blues’ of Kate Wax into the ‘Anita Berber’. The energy lifts a notch around this mark as ‘Some Polyphony’ craws and sneaks into the mix in a bizzare ecstasy of blare. This is one of my favorite tracks in this album and shows once again the versatility and consistency of Petter as a producer.

Although, there is not a selection of big room monsters in this first CD, or particularly tight mixing, the artistry is found in the track selection and ability to weave some sort of journey with such assorted tracks and differing ‘genres’. In fact the cliché journey just seems like a dive into murky minds of psychedelic fractals with no set rules or respect for a ‘normal’ CD. ‘Trace Function’, ‘Median’ and ‘Lump’ all deserve a particular mention in the first disk as they in their own rights, they are quality tunes that have their place, time and home in this cd as well as in the bags and decks of DJ across the globe.

CD 2, takes off at higher pace than the fist disks with immediate beats and druggy drones of ‘1939’ and Paul Kalkbrenner’s ‘Gebrunn Gebrunn’. Somehow the hugely dreamy and down tempo ‘Xtal’ by Aphex Twin is squeezed in before the tribalesque sounds of ‘Afum Klo’ take us over. There is a really unique sound that is produced in these two CDs. A sound that is innovate and daring. A sound that attempts to evolve what we expect and understand to be a mixed CD. There is a new paradigm being formed, one that has no place for standards and average club tracks. As ‘Big City’ by Lazy Fat People gurns through my speakers I feel that even though this may not be the best selling CD, it will nonetheless be a guide and generate ideas for new producers and DJs to say “oh….so we don’t have to mix like that”.

Holden’s own production and label, Boarder Community feature well in this double CD. His mix of Blackstrobe’s ‘Nazi Trance Fuck Off!’ is a definite highlight and in classic warped, skylarking, twisted style sums up much of what this CD is like. My mum reckons it sounds like Pink Floyd, I reckon it sounds like an awesome collection of sounds that people call music.