Having missed his most recent mix CD ‘At The Controls’ for the Resist label, but with his position firm in my mind through his ‘Balance 005’ mix, listening to this album came as somewhat of a surprise. While Balance does showcase electro sounds, it also takes a rather progressive (in terms of genre) direction. On the other hand, this artist album is pure minimal.

Released on Holden’s own label Border Community, the CD version is deliberately pitched down to 110 bpm so “cheese DJs can’t pitch it up to fit their sets”, or so the bio reads. It’s kind of ironic given the tracks on this album don’t contain anywhere near enough hoovers to be of any use to a cheese rave DJ. Apparently the vinyl version is also different – featuring DJ Tools and locked grooves for the old school vinyl DJs. Given that the number of DJs who use vinyl seems to be rapidly decreasing these days, this move also seems bizarre.

From remixing acts like Madonna and Britney Spears to producing minimal electronica – Holden surely keeps us guessing. It’s no secret that this album is heavily influenced from the German minimal techno movement that has become so massive in the last couple of years. Holden has even chosen this outing to become quite experimental, and seems to be more made for the listener than dance floor. There’s even two minutes of blank silence titled ‘Intentionally Left Blank’!

There are moments of brilliance, weirdness and perhaps even moments of artistic over-indulgence but this appears to be Holden’s idea of a concept album, and perhaps you need to get totally immersed in it to realise his true artistic vision. Nevertheless, as an album for listening this may only appeal to the more experimentally tipped music connoisseurs. An interesting experiment…