Friday, May 14, 2010

Holy Fuck – Latin

Sometimes when we play new releases in the store I am immediately excited by them, but after repeated listens I find that my initial enthusiasm has waned and it wasn’t as good as I thought. When the aptly named Holy Fuck’s new album came on the other day I was quite excited. Their all-instrumental sound is a wild amalgam of refined melodic sensibility, electronic experimentation, shoe-gazing guitar rock and hypnotic dance music. There is ample use of modern technology, with loops and splices and samples, but there is also a pleasing (to my ear) attention to old-school details like noisy guitars, washes of feedback and lots of weird retro keyboard treatments. It is easy to see how fans of many kinds of music can enjoy this band. They have the non-stop buildup and release attraction of dance music, but there is substance to their tunes and their flourishes bring to mind the work of Kraftwerk, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Tangerine Dream and even Pink Floyd.
After listening to Latin in several locations and several states of mind, I can confirm that I not only still like it, I think I REALLY like it. Music for your head.
Paul Epstein

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