James Holden (producer) explained

James Holden
Landscape:yes
Background:non_vocal_instrumentalist
Alias:Ariane
Birth Date:7 June 1979
Birth Place:Exeter, Devon, England
Years Active:1999–present
Associated Acts:Rocketnumbernine, Zombie Zombie, Marcus Hamblett

James Alexander Goodale Holden (born 7 June 1979)[1] is an English electronic music artist and DJ. After beginning his career as a DJ and producer, Holden has moved extensively into live performance and founded his own record label, Border Community.

Early career

Holden grew up in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, and was first introduced to electronic music by a physics teacher at school.[2] Holden studied mathematics at Oxford University.[3]

He started his career in 1999 at age 19 and swiftly gained wider recognition with the release of trance single "Horizons", which he created with the freeware software Buzz.[4] This "crossover anthem of the summer of 1999" was picked up by Pete Tong, John Digweed and Nick Warren, quickly propelling Holden to a wider audience.[5]

In the subsequent years Holden released numerous singles and remixes on various labels including Lost Language, Perfecto Recordings, and Positiva Recordings. He was also one-third of Mainline (alongside Duncan Ellis and Hywel Dunn-Davies) and worked with singer Julie Thompson as Holden & Thompson. His remix credits for this period include artists such as Madonna,[6] Britney Spears, Depeche Mode,[7] New Order, Nathan Fake and Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid. In April 2006, his mix album James Holden At The Controls was Mixmags 'Album of the Month'.[8]

Border Community

Holden's label Border Community was founded in 2003, and made its debut with Holden's single 'A Break in the Clouds'.[9] Border Community has gone on to kickstart the careers of many young artists, including Nathan Fake, Fairmont, Luke Abbott and The MFA.[10] James Holden often performed alongside his labelmates at his Border Community label nights at Corsica Studios in London.[11]

His 2004 remix of Nathan Fake's "The Sky Was Pink" garnered attention for both Holden, Fake and Border Community. The track was described as containing "an epic universalism that fans of any genre coalesce around" and was placed at number 10 in the Resident Advisor 'Top 100 Electronic Tracks of the '00s'.[12]

In 2006, Border Community released Holden's debut album The Idiots are Winning. This album of "loose, twisted and atmospheric...electronic music" was described by The Guardian as "the most astonishing debut in electronic music since Boards of Canada's Music Has the Right to Children.'[13]

Live performance

In 2013, Holden released his second album The Inheritors, a "revealing and intriguing" album of "buzzy pastoral beauty and harsh rhythmic duress".[14] [15] After the record's release, Thom Yorke invited Holden to support Yorke's band Atoms for Peace on their US tour.[16] These shows consisted of Holden performing on modular synth alongside drummer Tom Page (of experimental electronic duo Rocketnumbernine and The Memory Band).[9] This transition from DJing to live performance would be a significant development in Holden's career and would spark a long term musical relationship with Page.[17]

The significance of Holden's embracing of live performance was clear to see in his third album, The Animal Spirits. Recorded at Holden's London studio Sacred Walls, the album saw Holden leading a five piece band spanning live drums, saxophone, other woodwinds and North African instruments.[9] This array of musicians allowed Holden to create a “spiritual jazz band playing folk / trance music” whilst keeping his "ever strident synth... front and centre".[17] The music was recorded live, without edits or overdubs, and was influenced both in sound and concept by the works of Don Cherry, Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders.[18]

Collaborative releases

Animal Spirits also drew on Holden's immersion in Moroccan Gnawa music. In 2014, Holden travelled to Morocco for a week-long artistic residency to study and collaborate with the late master Mahmoud Guinia, culminating in the collaborative EP "Marhaba"; one of many that Holden would release in this period.[19]

Other collaborative releases include Outdoor Museum of Fractals with Camilo Tirado, Three Live Takes with Houssam Gania and Long Weekend with Wacław Zimpel.[20] [21]

Selected discography

Albums

Collaborations

Singles

Remixes

Mix albums

James Holden (!K7)

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: James Holden Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More. AllMusic. 7 June 2024.
  2. Web site: The "T" Word: James Holden Interviewed . 2023-05-21 . The Quietus . en-us.
  3. Web site: James Holden - Biography - Artist . Resident Advisor.
  4. Web site: James Holden . https://web.archive.org/web/20110723025059/http://www.beatfactor.net/djs/james_holden/ . 2012-05-05 . 23 July 2011 . Beat Factor . The stuff everyone is really interested in begins aged 19, with a track called “Horizons”. Written during his summer holidays from his maths degree at Oxford University on a £500 PC and a piece of revolutionary music software called Buzz (a freeware internet download), this crossover anthem of the summer of 1999 propelled young James and his bedroom set-up into the top flight of dance music production. . unfit .
  5. Web site: James Holden (Biography) . i:Vibes . 2021-01-12.
  6. Web site: Tiefschwarz, Holden and Howells get together with Madonna . . https://web.archive.org/web/20191106145108/https://www.residentadvisor.net/news/7868 . 2019-11-06 . live . 2021-07-11.
  7. Web site: James Holden DJ-Kicks . . en-US . https://archive.today/20140312155033/http://www.dj-kicks.com/james-holden-dj-kicks/ . 2014-03-12 . dead . 2021-07-11.
  8. Web site: Rocklist.net...Mixmag lists.... Rocklistmusic.co.uk. 2019-11-06.
  9. Web site: James Holden: "This is folk. It's not bourgeois capitalist music.". Gasser. Florian. 2017-10-31. Groove. de-DE. 2019-11-06.
  10. Web site: James Holden Returns with 'The Inheritors'. exclaim.ca. 2021-01-12.
  11. Web site: James Holden To Launch LP At Corsica . thequietus.com. 2021-01-14.
  12. Web site: Resident Advisor: Top 100 Electronic Tracks of the '00s. rateyourmusic.com. 2021-01-12.
  13. Web site: CD: Holden, The Idiots Are Winning. John. Burgess. 1 December 2006. Theguardian.com. 2020-07-06.
  14. Web site: James Holden - The Inheritors. ra.co. 2021-01-14.
  15. Web site: James Holden - The Inheritors. pitchfork.com. 2021-01-14.
  16. Web site: Thom Yorke's Atoms for Peace shakes up Brooklyn's Barclays Center (9/27). consequence.net. 28 September 2013 . 2021-01-14.
  17. Web site: james holden & the animal spirits. bordercommunity.com. 2021-01-14.
  18. Web site: james holden & the animal spirits. pitchfork.com. 2021-01-14.
  19. Web site: James Holden on The Animal Spirits and Le Guess Who?. theskinny.com. 2021-01-19.
  20. Web site: James Holden Teams Up with Moroccan Musician Maalem Houssam Guinia on Live EP. xlr8r.com. 25 September 2018. 2021-01-19.
  21. Web site: JPeer Reviewed: Wacław Zimpel Interviews James Holden... And Vice Versa. thequietus.com. 2021-01-19.
  22. Book: Roberts , David . 2006. British Hit Singles & Albums. 19th. Guinness World Records Limited . London. 1-904994-10-5. 254.
  23. http://radioheadremix.com/widget/remix_widget_reckoner.swf?remix_id=2 'Reckoner' Remix

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