NIGHT VISION
Jan 1, 2003 12:00 PM, By Ken Micallef
With soundtracks, Nike ads and much-ballyhooed artist records to his credit, David Holmes has reached what most sample and vinyl spinners covet: the top. Holmes' 1997 record Let's Get Killed (Go! Beat) was a collection of New York fables that captured Gotham in all its urban madness. A former DJ from Belfast, Ireland, Holmes carried the old-school funk vibe to George Clooney's star-making vehicle Out of Sight, as well as the Rat Pack remake Ocean's Eleven. Still hungry, Holmes struck remix gold with U2, Primal Scream, Kruder & Dorfmeister and Saint Etienne. But whether Holmes is a DJ or a composer remains nebulous.
“I hate that word, composer,” he says, visiting New York to work on the soundtrack to Analyze That. “I don't know how to class myself. I just act on instinct.”
Holmes' previous records — This Film's Crap, Let's Slash the Seats (1500, 1995), Bow Down to the Exit Sign (1500, 2000) and Come Get It I Got It (13 Amp, 2002) — combined Let's Get Killed's tumescent grooves with a filmic approach that raged and riled. With his latest, The Free Association (13 Amp, 2002), Holmes submerges samples into the sound of L.A. session hipsters who realize his dark vision. Sleazy, groovy and raucous, The Free Association is Holmes on cruise control to the heart of darkness.
When entering the heady world of soundtrack work, Holmes depends on his DJ instincts to create music that follows a narrative progression. “The whole thing is based on vibes and emotions,” he explains. “You have to think on so many different levels. You have to think what is happening 10 minutes ago, what is happening now and 10 minutes from now. The picture tells you what to do, where to use punctuation, when to pull back on the horns, when to bring in the bass, when to groove — all those things. In between, you are playing around the dialogue. But sometimes, when you remove the picture, you have these interesting arrangements that you could never have thought of if you were just making music for yourself.”
Cool and collected, Holmes was a subtle presence at a recent performance of The Free Association at a private Manhattan location. He pulled his sweatshirt hood over his head, thumbed the turntables and checked his singers. The mood seemed not that far from his days wandering the streets as a typical DJ with tape deck in hand.
“Let's Get Killed was tough,” says Holmes. “I had to make a record that sounded like me,” he recalls. “That was my leap into being an individual. That whole process was about taping people in NYC. I made ‘My Mate Paul’ [borne from a sample of ‘Smoky Joe's La La’ by Googie Rene], which became the basis for how the album should feel. From there, I found my other samples, but the album took awhile to finish because my mom died while I was making it. But that is a record I still like. I will never forget walking the streets of New York, out of our minds on acid. People were melting in front of us. That we got anything recorded is a miracle.”
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