James Holden

James Holden definitely helped shaping my taste in my teens, building the foundation of what is me musically, up to this day, almost 20 years later. I was 12 years old when my record collecting love/obsession started, starting with Paul Van Dyk, Tiesto, ITWT, Matt Darey etc. I found the www.trance.nu forum around 2001 (dunno if it still exists?) where I first started to notice the hype around this young guy called James Holden. Some dc++ sessions later, and his catalogue at the time was in my headphones. His brilliant sense of melody helped me feel comfortable, although his productions were (already then) more sophisticated than what I was used to with the above mentioned Euro-Trancers. But little did I/we know that this was only Holden's babysteps as a producer and DJ. Soon he would totally blossom and become not only a great musician with an enormous potential, but even become THE cutting edge, THE guiding light for a whole world of ravers. What he did with Border Community, the Balance-mix and really everything he touched between 2002-05 (ending with his suspense-masterpiece of The Darkest Star) is in my eyes still cutting edge. It's original, it's technically brilliant, it's extremely danceable, and above all, it's emotionally captivating. It's all that, track after track after track! A Break In The Clouds, The Wheel, Breathe On Me, Nothing, Come To Me, Fancy Arse, Janeiro, Safari, Fine Day, and surely a lot more. To be honest I don't think I've ever had a DJ-set in the 120-130 bpm range without bringing a handfull of Holden's old tracks. And I shit you not when I say that every single time I drop it you instantly create a sensational moment on the dancefloor. I've seen people become all loved up to Janeiro, A Break In The Clouds and Fine Day, and I've seen people lose it to Breathe On Me, Fancy Arse and The Darkest Star. And my greatest secret: Ogenki Clinic - First Light. It took me years to track down a digital lossless version of this early masterpiece of Holden and Main Element. The ultimate sunrise-track, with the most beautiful synth lead I know of.

I consider myself to have a very open mind regarding music, but unfortunately nothing Holden, nor Border Community, has released since those formative years have ever caught my attention. I did buy The Idiots Are Winning and tried and tried, but it's just too damn cold and "elitist", and I even watched Holden play live with The Animal Spirits while peaking on a great acid session at Ozora 2018, but it was just OK.
I totally understand Holden's reaction after being treated like a God for some years, where too much expectations must've caused a lot of mind ghosts within him, and obviously I wish him to create the music he likes. But my personal interest is long time gone for his current music. Luckily his old treasure is so big that I'll never get tired of it, and I'll probably never get tired of occasionally entrancing my crowd with one or a couple of his masterpieces in the perfect moments out in the forest parties of Scandinavia. And I'm still hoping for a danceable comeback.

For me personally James Holden is (was) one of the most innovative and intelligent progressive trance producer ever. For me his mid 2000's tracks alongside with early Max Graham (Airtight!), Airwave ,M.I.K.E. and Oliver Lieb works really well represent this genre. Just listen to his remix of Solid Session's "Janeiro" or his " Come To Me (Club Mix)

From my point of view this man has had a big impact on dance music. In 2003 he got away from "progressive" music, and started to focus on tech-house. At first there were his own tracks like "A Break In The Clouds" were a combination of quality production, good melody and emotion and experiment. And secondly he was able to find fantastic producers, who weren't well known, to release gems for his own label Border Community. Doing that he set a standard for quality tech house we saw in the following years. Also his "progressive" tracks, especially "Nothing" are fantastic. The only problem is that since he stopped making progressive music, we hear very little about him.

First James Holden was a pure progressive artist. Since 2005 he created a wider vision of music and since that moment I was addicted to his music. There are so many different styles in his sets. Influences of ambient, electro, IDM, (tech)house, techno and many more. But he picks out the right tracks and creates an incredible mysterious, euphoric and dark sphere which gets into your body and your head. Tracks like Lump, the sky was pink & planet 7 are superb. The Border Community label is also excellent. James Holden is always developing and you can say he is the future..

Another very gifted talent in the art of making music however his djing skills doesnt come anywhere near the magic he can put out when producing. He is notorious of trainwrecking time after time, perhaps that is the reason why his Essential Mix of 2002 was pre-recorded on a laptop. Altho it should just be a matter of time before he has mastered the knowledge of a good mix because without exaggregating, he seems to be one of the most musically gifted people around.