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Currently on a tour that stretches from New York to Paris to London and having been accredited with one of the top three performances at the Glastonbury Festival this year, Toronto’s Holy Fuck are already creating waves beyond the church font whilst making headline writer’s dance with glee. Their reputation as a must-see live band is becoming as common knowledge as Britney’s underwear redemption, but how would this all sound on recorded debut LP, ‘LP?’
Claiming not to rehearse or arrange before hitting the stage, Holy Fuck wrote the songs for their album live on tour, going into the studio to record what had taken shape. Unfortunately on tape, this live jam, in places, sounds like a live jam. Opener ‘Super Inuit’ is a mass of tribal drums and hypnotic synths, but could offer so much more at a lower BPM, knocking on the door of gabba as it is. There is however, much to follow. ‘Milshake’ is put simply brilliant. Starting with the filthiest of basslines (we’re talking pure dirt) it takes a bouncy turn and an acidy dip before blissfully slipping into the driving throb of ‘Frenchy’s’, whose Nu-Rave overtures could have quite easily made it a Klaxons B-side in another life. ‘Echo Sam’ is Ronseal woodstain-tough, an industrial heavyweight that comes contrasts the infectious sunshine-pop of ‘Lovely Allen.’
Still, there are times when Holy Fuck are crying out for a notepad and a pen. ‘Royal Gregory’ (it’s driving bassline), ‘Safari’ (it’s non-nonsense pounding techno beat) and ‘The Pulse’ (it’s early 90’s bleeping) all have elements for tracks destined to be more than fillers but somehow they all lose their way, with only the smallest rearrangement needed - remixers are going to have a field day.
Holy Fuck decided to strip away hi-tech gear in favour of half-broken kid’s toys manipulated by guitar peddles and distorting cheapo mixers in a bid to recreate their raucous live sound. The resulting creation is a blend of the simplistic and the deep, the pounding and the beautiful, the innovative but also the dated. Whilst not wanting to hide behind laptops and walls of synthesizers is admirable, it wouldn’t have been submission to have spent a bit longer behind the mixing desk.
