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With the current blitz of electronica bands popping up with their synths and various other electrics, its nice to hear that Holy Fuck have not conformed to the same old formula for this genre. Taking their sound from children’s toys, the modern age laptop has been discarded with the intent to bring a fresh view on electronic beats, and still be able to keep the body moving. But has it really been worthwhile? Or is just a holy fuck up?
The overall sound of the album is dark, however it also manages to cater for those who enjoy a bit of foot-tapping funk. Lasting over fifty minutes and only consisting of eight songs, these aren’t short blasts, each song is a long journey and with no vocals it is very easy to get bored.
Opener, ‘Tone Bank Jungle’ starts with an intriguing beginning that effortlessly captures you in its rhythm, before you know it you will be up and moving, it manages to keep you going for the six and a half minutes, before being thrown into next track ‘Korock.’ However, this does not sweep you on to your feet, its not as inventive in the sound and you will soon be slumped back in your seat. Following on from this, the gloriously titled ‘Korg Rhythm Afro’ lowers the tempo slightly, and its quirky beeps wash over you, in quite a decent track.
At the half way point is ‘Casio Bossa Nova,’ its thunderous bass is met with dense layers of swirls and stabs of various other noises, but you cant help but think that it is the same minute of music being repeated over and over again. Next up is, ‘Toneback Computer’ which has a fusion of spiralling diminuendo, along with steady drumming to keep the pace up, but again it fails to keep the inventive start going till the end, and interest is soon lost. The same can be said for the next two songs, ‘Bontempi Latin’ and ‘K. Rhythm Part 1’ both have great ideas but clocking in at over ten minutes for the two songs, they have been stretched for far too long. Final song, ‘K. Rhythm Part 2’ has a chilled out approach in the first section, then you get driven into its swarming heart, and manages to actually last the nine minutes without boring.
With the majority of the songs being inventive, but too long and over-stretched it is more likely that the Holy Fuck sound should be truly enjoined live, where the listener can have an atmosphere to enjoy it.
