Few could have predicted the path
James Holden
's career would take when he emerged as a progressive trance wunderkind at the end of the '90s. Following
Pete Tong
-approved hits and remixes for
Madonna
and
Britney Spears
, he founded
Border Community
and helped launch the careers of
Nathan Fake
Luke Abbott
, then began releasing glitchy experimental techno that alienated his early audience. However, his euphoric, genre-blending mix CDs and Krautrock-influenced albums like 2013's
The Inheritors
attracted open-minded listeners, and a tour with
Thom Yorke
's
Atoms for Peace
moved
Holden
's focus away from DJing and towards live performance. With subsequent releases like
The Animal Spirits
,
embraced spiritual jazz and Moroccan Gnawa (the original trance music), as well as progressive electronic and new age.
Imagine This Is a High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities
, his 2023 full-length, looks back at his formative influences while keeping the spiritual vibe of his later work. It's a lot closer to ambient techno than trance, but it's a different category than either, with loose, improvisational structures and modular synths that sprawl over the rhythms. The kick drums, when present, are never the focus of the tracks, but they gently tug the billowing arpeggios along. "In the End You'll Know" is like a more caffeinated
Cluster
track that does, in fact, come close to trance territory, but still maintains a rawness and spontaneity rarely present in the genre. The pulsating midtempo shuffler "Four Ways Down the Valley" laces its rippling waves with tangy distortion, and "Worlds Collide Mountains Form" is an unexpected prog-folk diversion with rustic violins, meaty bass guitar, and thumping drums. "You Can Never Go Back" features galloping tabla drumming over haunting ambient house melodies (think
KLF
and early
Orb
deep cuts) and light breakbeats.
is perhaps the furthest-out release in a discography full of inventive, inspired music, and it's some of
's most exciting and impressive work. ~ Paul Simpson