James Holden – At The Controls
Written by DJ Brian Babinec   
Monday, 15 May 2006

The Vitals

Label: Resist
Genre: Ambient, Progressive House, Techno
Number Of Tracks: 32 (2 CD Set)
How to obtain: www.amazon.com

Factor Scores:

  • Production Quality: 7.4
  • Programming and Arrangement: 7.9
  • Entertainment Quality: 8.2
  • Total:  7.8 – Good

Brian's Take:  

James Holden steps into uncharted territory with his new double-disc mix CD "At The Controls". This collection features a lot of the latest progressive and techno from artists like Nathan Fake, Plastikman, and Holden himself.

Holden opens disc one with an abstract chillout cut from Apparat, and goes through a five-track opening phase before getting deep into the mix. Petter's "Some Polyphony" breaks the ambience with an intense focus, and direction for the mix. Using this mix to help guide the evolution of "progressive" dance music, Holden explores several new sounds and styles throughout the CD, including several tracks of his own. A few prime examples include Nathan Fake's new track "Charlie's House", Midimillz' "Trace Function", and Issakidis' new track "Hotter Now". Holden's sound has gotten noticeably dreamier and more abstract. He continues, not following what's new, but helping shape the cutting edge of progressive. Disc two continues the trend of quality progressive and techno, bringing the collection to a close with AFX' "Everyday". In short, Holden is easily one of progressive's current kings of innovation.  To compress the mix to one word: genius.

If anything, the production was by far the most questionable aspect of this CD. A few of the mixes were a tad sketchy, but hearing the way the tracks were selected overshadows any potential doubts. Other than that, anyone who finds "artsy" progressive boring should take out a restraining order against this CD. "At The Controls" gets very deep, but this should be taken well by anyone who likes forward-thinking dance music.

To conclude, "At The Controls" takes the progressive genre a step further, into a realm unlike many other than Holden have touched. This is a quality collection, much so worthy of buying.