Holy F*ck - 'Latin' (Young Turks/XL) Released 10/05/10

We live in an age of immediacy. There are days when everything’s a bit too in-ya-face for in-ya-face’s sake. The ubiquity of the mainstream glut can often overshadow everything else with volcanic supremacy. It’s refreshing then, to hear a Holy **** record every once in a while.

Everything builds gradually when Brian Borcherdt and Graham Walsh are at the controls. On the whole, they don’t necessarily create an impression that everything’s been calculated and measured, sample by sample, bit by bit. There is however, an audible sense of soul behind the moments of noisy chaos.

Melody certainly plays it part in shaping this album. ‘Red Lights’ harks back to !!!-esque funk with its warm weather bassline and sprinkling of synths, before subsequently giving way to some gentle groans of distortion. In typical Holy **** style, it rounds off with a clattering percussive crescendo.

Similarly, ‘Stay Lit’ combines electronic bleats with an unnervingly chilled selection of keyboard effects, prior to everything being drowned in a fuzzy haze of distortion and riffage.

Despite these early high points on the record, repeated listens to ‘Latin’ reveal ‘Lucky’ to be the LP’s standout four minutes, characterised by some arresting turntable-style scratches and industrial power chords at the very beginning. Group vocals slowly begin to resonate their way through the dramatic shifts in chord pattern, while the feedback’s volume variation makes for a dizzying, compelling listen.

Holy ****’s multi-faceted approach makes it difficult to compare them to many other artists. While the structure of the faster tracks on ‘Latin’ (‘Silva & Grimes’, ‘Stilettos’) brings to mind David Holmes’ ‘Holy Pictures’ work from eighteen months ago, there’s still that invigorating originality about HF which shone out of their debut back in 2007.

With ‘Latin’, the Canadian collective have proved themselves, once again, to be the ultimate purveyors of the sort of racket which stations itself between white noise and playful magnificence.