Until now, the two advances from “Held” that we had heard, had left us with mixed feelings. On one hand, “Love Some 1” exuded the same moist emotive nature that had led us to throw ourselves at his feet over “With U”, his EP from last year. “Held”, on the other hand, featured a more polished, blander, more hygienic sound that failed to cause the same emotional impact. Somewhere between these two lines we find Holy Other’s debut album for Tri Angle. The elusive Englishman has refined his formula for blending and slowing down elements of dubstep, garage, R&B, house and more melancholy pop, and the result is more “self-conscious”, but also cleaner and airier, more “pleasant to the ear”, which can be both good and bad. We’ll have to listen to it a few more times to be able to judge. What is clear is that “Held” reflects a more mature producer to us, one who no longer drowns his sorrows hidden among the shadows, but who shapes them, playing at modulating chiaroscuros, at times even venturing out into the light (there is the radiant “Past Tension” or the second, the better part of the aforementioned “Held”). Listen after the jump and remember that the album will be out this coming Monday.
