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Rating: Just listen to track number four to fall in love with this album: Free Ass O-C-8 could be James Brown who, instead of coke, chose an overdose of morphine or a dub version of a piece by Parliament from dear George Clinton. "David Holmes presents The Free Association" came out three years ago and Rumore immediately elected it as album of the month for December 2002. And it makes perfect sense because dear knob-twister Holmes from Belfast, Ireland succeeded where many others failed: he recreated a wonderful black sound that navigates between smoky club atmospheres, house attitude, kraut-rock schizophrenia, and blaxploitation soundtracks (and it's no coincidence to talk about soundtracks for a DJ/producer who has worked and continues to work for Sodebergh and Clooney).
The opening "Don’t Rhyme" no mo is a true funk rap between Gil Scott-Heron and the Wu-Tang Clan. Wooden heart is futuristic and crooked soul, as if Billie Holiday and Luigi Russolo had managed to collaborate. "Everybody Knows" is the anxious but danceable vocal single that DJ Shadow can't seem to find. Le baggage and La dolce vita are the best wicked and restless trip-hop heard around since the release of Protection by Massive Attack and they aim exactly where Dizzee Rascal wants to succeed. And how can we not talk about the marvelous fatty swing of "Sugarman"? A wonderful brass refrain that almost moves me, a very warm voice, a super elegant string carpet, and halfway through a noise intervention that not even if Einsturzende Neubauten had happened to be in the studio...
This is a real black album! An album that tastes of gin, of creamy bass lines, of sweaty nights dancing, of hashish, of sex... It’s an album like you haven't heard in a while and at the same time a very modern album. This is an album that is a shame not to buy.
Tracklist
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