David Holmes Presents: The Free Association

Holmer’s latest guise, The Free Association, were borne out of a desire to take the DJ’s mix album Come Get It I Got It (on which they guested) on the road.

With a core quartet of Holmes, the sleazy/bluesy voiced Petra Jean Phillipson, MC Sean Reveron rockin’ the mic (so to speak), and Paul Hilton on programme whizzkidding, The Free Ass. have committed themselves to compact disc and hit the touring trail. David Holmes Presents, recorded over ten days in a basement in LA’s Sunset Marquis, is their debut collective release.

From the get go, it is fairly clear that The FA’s rules ethos is simply ‘break them’. Here’s a bloke playing vinyl and taking dirty soul and blues vocals, ’80s key synths, country riffs and laying them over a structure of electric urban rhythm.

David Holmes’ sampling choices are organic and natural, not synthetic. There’s a warm, analogue feel to his sounds, they gel without effort, creating mindblowing hook after hook. Each song is made up of sonic animation cells, with Holmer’s role to instinctively layer pieces of the picture over one another. The effect is mesmerising. A sparkling gem of a creation.