Let's Get POLLed! (Being a poll centered on Let's Get Killed by David Holmes, to release THIS ENERGY!!!)

Rodney Yates, despite it being a big rip of Aphex's Gentle People remix.

I dunno, it was close between the Serge, but went for my mate Paul...

no love for this album?

I loved this album when it came out, but I haven't listened to it for years. Gotta vote for "Let's Get Killed", it's brilliant in its simplicity - just drums, a bass, a couple of simple synth lines, and that odd sample, but it all works.

gritty shaker

Interesting point made by James Murphy recently. I'd always heard that he and Tim Goldsworthy despised Holmes's lack of musical chops while making Bow Down to the Exit Sign but Murphy now says that he actually admired it:

"David was this guy who wasn’t really an engineer, he wasn’t a musician, he was just an ideas guy. I was flabbergasted. Here he was calling people like Richard Maguire from Liquid Liquid and getting that done. I was dumbfounded! You just called? And he was like yeah. It was really an eye-opener: why am I not just doing these things I want to do? Why am I sitting around moaning about how things aren't the way I want them to be when I should just fucking do it? It just seems easy. David was a real role model in a way. He just does things. He’s got balls. He was like, fuck it, I’ll do it. I was like, 'I’ll practice with my band for 6 months before we’ll play a show and you don’t even play an instrument and you’re making your third album! I’m an idiot.’"

Like James Lavelle, Holmes just went "Well I like all this cool shit and I'm pretty personable so I'll just corral a load of talent and get them to make the record while I sit there directing it." Obviously that can only go so far - it strikes me as a very late 90s dance-scenester approach to recordmaking that doesn't really happen now. At least, I can't think of an example off the top of my head. But I like the idea that Holmes's chutzpah was one of the springboards for the DFA, LCD, etc.

Re: Let's Get Killed, the remix album had some great stuff on it: Arab Strap's Don't Die Just Yet (aka The Holiday Girl) and Fridge's Head Rush on Lafayette, which sounded like Orbital. Both reissued on the recent best of.

I loved this album when it came out, but I haven't listened to it for years.

^ yep - listening to it for the first time since 2000 except for one time when it was on at a friend's place and I said "oh, what is this" and he showed me it and I sheepishly admitted to myself that for all I used to love it I could probably only recognise one or two tracks off it

I wish I'd been slightly proactive regarding sending out demos in the late 90s - seems like the golden age of labels going "oh shit, we need some electronica, stat" and throwing money at people who have a vague knowledge of electronic music and a slightly cool record collection and (possibly) nothing else. If this really is a case of that, then it's a case where it's worked pretty well. Still probably voting for the obvious radio-played track, that being "Gritty Shaker"

Ohshit, Rodney Yates I forgot about you

between Gritty Shaker and Rodney Yates, think that filter sweep noise on Shaker takes it, but better listen to the rest before voting

I enjoyed some of Holy Pictures, but haven't heard this one.

I met the guy who is sampled saying 'i don't mosh...release this energy'. He moved to New Orleans from NYC after this album. He was coming to our night at Cafe Brazil and I recognized his voice. Crazy coincidence.

I love this album. David Holmes is still underrated. His last album was great. I've got the vinyl box set 'Stop Arresting Artists' but I'd love to have it on CD. Did they ever release those mixes on one disc?

THat band of his is called "I see you" rather than "ICU", right?

Oh, and "Killed- Remix" album?

The remix album is the Stop Arresting Artists vinyl box that brotherlovesdub refers to. The Fridge, Arab Strap and Mogwai ones are on iTunes via The Dogs Are Parading: The Best of David Holmes.

Oh yeah, I remember that. A bit pricey, as I recall.

I have a nice couple of promo remix 12" singles for Gritty Shaker..

v illuminating post by dorian upthread

an extremely late-90s kind of bro, david holmes

wonder who actually produced this lp. some of it's right good, like 'my mate paul'

he was obviously a hustler, getting the 'out of sight' soundtrack and stuff, but i reckon he was more adept than james lavelle. lavelle got terrible reviews as a dj: holmes i saw, and he was good. not that i had that much to compare him against.

BDTTES isn't on spotify, annoyingly

while i like this album, i actually prefer his free association stuff.

wonder who actually produced this lp. some of it's right good, like 'my mate paul'

Discogs will tell you http://www.discogs.com/David-Holmes-Lets-Get-Killed/release/3297

Tenniswood and Kooner in there.

I'm assuming Holmes did at least do most if not all of the work on his earlier Techno stuff.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Don't Die Just Yet because it introduced me to Melody Nelson for the first time. It's since become one of my favourite albums.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Yeah!

Just listening to This Film's Crap Let's Slash the Seats for the first time in about 15 years and I'm surprised how well it's held up. Still rooted in techno, nicely produced by Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns from Sabres of Paradise, compellingly gloomy and atmospheric, plus guest spots from Sarah Cracknell, Jah Wobble and Steve Hillage. Doesn't have anything like the rep of Let's Get Killed but it's nowhere near as dated as some 90s dance albums - plus, unlike Let's Get Killed, it never suffered from overexposure on ads and trailers.

the remix album had some great stuff on it

mogwai's rmx central use of "good morning captain" iirc, tho havent heard in many years.