Blind On A Galloping Horse – David Holmes Featuring Raven Violet – Released November 10th 2023
After a hiatus of 15 years, Belfast-born DJ, producer and composer David Holmes has released a new album featuring the talents of vocalist Raven Violet.
Though he’s remained busy composing movie soundtracks and working on other projects, Blind On A Galloping Horse is the first proper studio release from David Holmes since The Holy Pictures back in 2008.
The 14-track album is, in essence, a meditation on all that’s happened since. A daunting task, for sure, but David Holmes manages it with style.
It’s fair to say a lot’s happened since 2008; the years of austerity following the banking crisis and the simmering resentments that ensued, including the one-two combo of Trump and Brexit, followed swiftly by a global pandemic and an avalanche of fake news and crackpot conspiracies.
In the comparatively quaint years of the post-9/11 era we still allowed things like nationality and religion to actively divide us. Whereas these days we just sit back passively and have algorithms do that for us.
These omnipresent algorithms exist to corral us into our narrow little enclosures and keep us there because life’s much easier when all fit into pre-defined taxonomies with no glitch-inducing oddities bouncing around causing trouble.
Or at least it’s easier for the rich and the powerful, the ultimate beneficiaries of our self-regulating system of managed “disruption” and digital feudalism, where all physical spaces are converted into revenue-generating platforms.
And this is why it’s so important to have fearless artists like David Holmes gumming up the machine.
One can imagine, for example, a disproportionate number of circuit burnouts at the Spotify scumbag factory as the machine tries desperately to anatomise his incongruently funky back catalogue in a futile attempt at appending labels to it.
Yeah, good luck with that.
Rave Rebel Songs
Ever the musical omnivore, Holmes grew up on a varied diet of music, absorbing everything from soul, funk, punk and pop. He first made his name as a techno DJ, then later as an eclectic dance producer before finally graduating to movie score composer.
Those dance music roots are still in evidence but now exist as but one aspect of his prodigious pallet of influences, alongside sugary synthpop, agitant punk and swirling acid protest ballads.
Even the poppy tracks on Galloping have a palpable lyrical heft to them. Raven Violet’s voice may sound ethereal, but she still strikes hammer blows.
Her tone commands attention while her lyrics demand action, as each new song blossoms with slogans of empowerment, guiding beacons in our bewildering maze of omnidirectional dystopian lunacy.
Music with this power is rare enough these days. And in electronic music it’s even rarer still.
Sure, a few of my other 90s-era heroes haven’t given up the good fight, Massive Attack and Orbital instantly spring to mind. But even they can’t match this album’s lyrical punch.
Blind On A Galloping Horse is music as commentary, music as a statement, music as power.
It’s 50% art, 50% activism and 100% quality.
Taking A Stand
David Holmes was never one to shy away from political statements ever since No Man’s Land, the opener from his debut album This Film’s Crap Let’s Slash The Seats.
Coming from a city known for its divisions, he’s long championed the unifying power of music, shunting the culture wars aside in favour of true class struggles aimed at ending discrimination, oppression and inequality.
Interspersed throughout the album you’ll hear voices of the disenfranchised and dispossessed, from Palestine to Ukraine, while track titles run the gamut from thought-provoking to conservative bear baiting.
Take the opening track When People Are Occupied Resistance Is Justified.
That’s a potentially incendiary statement at the best of times, especially coming from a musician from Northern Ireland. But it’s even more controversial as bombs rain down on Gaza.
Once upon a time, this could be the title of a debate; When People Are Occupied Resistance Is Justified – discuss.
And the best, most thought-out and logical argument wins. That was how things used to work.
These days the loudest shrieking lunatics win, so the only resistance movements we have today are those resisting progress.
An Album That’s Actually An Album
When People Are Occupied Resistance Is Justified isn’t just a political statement, of course, it’s also very much a musical one.
At over ten and a half minutes long, this sprawling intro track deliberately bucks the attention deficit disruptor, music-as-content trend and proudly proclaims that this song is the first track of an album.
In the same way that Shine On You Crazy Diamond, from Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here, is the first track on an album.
It’s something of a lost art form, the album, yet another casualty of the streaming era. Holmes has endeavoured to remind us why technological change does not necessarily mean progress.
His new album challenges us to forgo instant gratification in favour of patient listening promising a more meaningful, rewarding and enduring musical experience in return.
Necessary Genius is another standout track. An infectious, electro-pop ditty that pays homage to all the people Holmes proclaims as “creators, believers, necessary genius.”
It’s more than just a shout-out track, though, it’s more a roll call of sorts, or perhaps more accurately a rallying call for all the…
“Dreamers,
Misfits,
Radicals,
Outcasts,
Outsiders,
Oddities,
Revolution,
Working Class icons…”
To stand up and be counted.
In the age of the almighty algorithm, we’ve somehow forgotten that being quirky, creative and not fitting in is a good thing.
We’re not on this earth to exist as a droning hivemind of hostility, generating sweet honey for tax-dodging billionaires.
We’re meant to be individuals, messy though that is, seeking ways to work together, impossible though that may seem sometimes.
Sometimes all we need is a little inspiration.
Through Raven’s soaring voice, Holmes namedrops the individuals, groups and movements he believes in, including refugees, rock and roll, Northern Soul and Rastafari.
He also mentions Sinead O’Connor, with whom he was working before her untimely death, alongside a diverse group of activists and musicians such as John Coltrane, Nina Simone, Terry Hall and Andrew Weatherall…
Speaking of Weatherall, the album pays further tribute with the track I Laugh Myself To Sleep.
This song was written by Weatherall, but never released. So technically speaking, this track’s a cover version, though Holmes makes certain that The Guvnor’s rock and roll irreverence shines through.
Really love the guitar riff on this one and the overall gritty vibe.
Another standout for me is the track Too Muchroom, firstly because it’s got such a fantastic chorus, “if you’re not living on the edge then you’re taking up too much room.”
It’s also the one track on the album that’s closest to traditional techno, with a steady 4/4 kick and a 303 adding some driving, whirligig acid.
Agitprop 13 serves as the perfect reminder why Holmes earns those Hollywood bucks. This delicate instrumental piece truly is cinematic.
Named for Soviet propaganda, it’s a melancholic meditation on the plight of Ukraine featuring the voice of a Ukrainian refugee speaking at the end of the track. (Not sure what she’s saying but we can’t help but empathise regardless.)
Having revisited this album several times now, I’ve decided this track is my favourite.
Musically, it’s a flawless diamond, refracting multiple influences across its complex crystalline surface.
Turning it this way and that you might notice some Ennio Morricone, Danny Elfman, Phillip Glass or perhaps even Mike Oldfield.
Twist it another way and there’s some Tangerine Dream, some Can, some Black Dog, some Screamadelica … in fact, the more you observe it the more you’ll spot refractions of influences within influences…
Which describes David Holmes in a nutshell.
A Very Necessary Genius
Somehow we sleepwalked into an apathetic age of algorithmic “flatness”, where music exists merely as a two-dimensional backdrop.
A world of inoffensive tech-co jingles and ever-streaming oat milk latte lo-fi beats to study to.
Music on demand but never demanding. Never challenging. Mortally terrified of ever upsetting anyone for fear of being ostracised or demonetised.
Just digitally disseminated homogenised drivel driving revenue for rights holders with none of that messy humanistic expression stuff getting in the way.
Except David Holmes isn’t interested in generating content, he’s more concerned with creating art.
Blind On A Galloping Horse is that most rare of artefacts in the 21st century, it’s a carefully constructed album intended to be listened to from start to finish.
Moreover, it’s an album with a clear message, a genuine, bonefide concept album created to snap us out of our digitally induced stupor and remind us of the power of collective action.
As an established artist with a decade-spanning fanbase, David Holmes has the luxury of controlling his own platform, a platform built atop a strong foundational fanbase spanning decades.
It allows him to express his views as he sees fit since it’s easier to raise awareness of issues when the public already has an awareness of your existence.
Younger producers don’t necessarily have this luxury and so remain tethered to the algorithmic wheel of woe, churning out updates to stay relevant while whoring themselves out for clicks.
Meanwhile, the more our cultural landscape becomes colonised by the digital, the more we tend to pull our punches, fearful that by taking too unpopular an opinion we put targets on our chests.
And as the plurality of voices becomes silenced, the only ones we hear are those of misguided extremists.
This album loudly shouts fuck all that, demanding we face the fear, stand up and make our voices heard.
It does what art is supposed to do, reminding us of our humanity, celebrating our diversity and reassuring us that it’s ok to be different.
Art is meant to be provocative. Its job is to stir up emotions. If it’s not being controversial and offending someone then it’s not doing its job.
So be weird, be courageous and be vociferous. And know that you’re not alone.
When you stand up others will follow, and then others still. It’s how revolutions begin.
Dreamers and outcasts are the engines of the world, driving progress through imagination and new ideas.
And as long as we’re living under the AI-enabled, vulture-funded, high-rent, human-bulldozing boot of Algorithmic Babylon, resistance is most certainly justified.