Today's London Metro club column. This is James Holden, a prodigiously talented dance music producer. He's actually moving dance music forward and although is part of that scene, is willing to challenge its conventions.
As ever when interviewing someone and then writing up a story, Holden had lots to say that didn't make the cut. For example why in the UK music seems so segragated (admittedly it's changing now, but why was dance music so segragated and tribal in the 1990s?), how he hates myspace (he only joined because a Walter Mitty character was impersonating him and leaving comments/feedback to music makers as Holden, AND demanding loads of money AND GIRLS as Holden's requirements for doing DJ dates) and finally how Holden in music terms is a 'girl in a man's body' largely because he has no truck with anal, snobby, chin-stroking producer's music and likes melody and vocals. Regardless of what elements he likes or dislikes, the key element here is he's following what he's into and representing himself rather than following trends and making music that he thinks people want to hear.
Interesting guy - I'll admit I'm not a huge fan of his music, but I can appreciate what he's doing and I have the utmost respect for his challenging thinking.
JAMES HOLDEN
James Holden appears to have it all: he's been the toast of the dance music since 1999, he has the jet-set DJ lifestyle and his esteemed label Border Community, begin a haloed End residency this Saturday.
In clubland Border Community's residency at The End is big news: the pioneering club’s residencies nights are reserved for dance music’s most respected names such as Layo & Bushwacka, Sven Vath, Erol Alkan, DJ Marky and previously Richie Hawtin and Laurent Garnier. Border Community’s End debut will feature Holden, his label-mate and fellow prodigy Nathan Fake performing a live set and intriguingly Kieren Hebden (aka Four Tet) in the lounge.
Holden, however, wants to cut down on DJing: ‘I’ve decided I’m too old to be away from home so much so I’m trying to find the balance between staying at home, making some music and having a normal life and going away to DJ’, he says. ‘I like having more time to myself to produce, so if I keep DJing rare, it makes it more special and I really look forward to DJing now - it doesn’t feel like work if you don’t do it regularly.’
At just 27 Holden is flying in the face of received wisdom and dance music’s tradition of DJing ‘til you drop. Yet it’s precisely this kind of renegade, single-minded thinking that is responsible for the softly spoken, classically trained, Oxford maths graduate rising to dance music’s highest echelons.
Holden first pricked ears and dancefloors with the exquisite progressive trance single Horizons single in 1999 (voted as one of the Top 100 dance records by Mixmag readers). He’s since reinvigorated dance music – particularly trance and progressive house - with beautiful, painstakingly detailed productions oozing gentle melodies, fuzzy harmonies, dubwise beats and quirky, ethereal pop.
Now Holden’s fully focused on producing timeless dance music, and building on Border Community’s outstanding reputation for avant-garde electronic music that defies categorisation. ‘I decided to DJ less because I did a mini album [The Idiots Are Winning] at the end of last year and suddenly remembered that I I wanted to make records rather than play other’s people’s,’ he explains. ‘When I’m old and looking back I’m not going to remember parties, but I will remember albums.’
'The production standards in dance music can be quite low, people tolerate too much rubbish - the cult of the underground is used to justify throwaway inane music,’ says Holden, highlighting dance music’s saturation with instantly forgettable, disposable music. ‘What we wanted to do with Border Community was to only release music that we would like in five years time.’
We’re really conscious that we release music that isn’t aimed at the DJ anymore,’ concludes Holden. ‘We’re aiming for proper records, with proper songs by proper artists with a personality rather than just fodder.’
Sat, Border Community, The End, West Central Street WC1, 10pm to 7am, £16, £15 door. Tel: 020 7 419 9199. Tube: Holborn
