HOLLY - Angel In The Rave (EP)

Every release from Holly is an extreme exercise in futuristic storytelling: if you want to hear the sounds your favorite artists will be using a year or so from now, listen to your latest friendly Holly outing. He’s forever existing at the forefront of music - not just bass music, but electronic music in its entirety. One could lump him into the same class of artists as Aphex Twin and Eprom without batting  an eyelash. It’s no surprise, then, that his Angel In The Rave EP is  leaps and bounds ahead of mostly anything else happening in bass music. The amount of genre-bending inside is immeasurable: every track nudges the bar higher not just for himself, but also for his musical peers.

Kicking off the EP, “IF YOU JUST A PUNK” is the most raw, unchained and intrepid version of Holly we’ve heard so far. Moving beyond the confines of bass music, this track seeks to destroy labels and genre restrictions: it is quite simply a slapper. If you’re looking to get your brain rearranged a smidge, throw this on and crank it up.

“Musikal Touch” is an exciting romp of booty-shaking, hair whipping, floor-filling garage madness. If you can manage to sit still during this, you might need medical attention. The first drop packs as much groove as our ears & rug-cutting feet can handle. The second drop serves real hard with a gritty bass stab paired with a quirky, pitch-bent melody that transforms the track into an absolute earworm.

“Ipanema” might be the most perplexing of the four tracks on this release. This colossal beast of a tune trudges along with a hulking beat before surrounding you with an enrapturing sonic atmosphere

built of sweeping pads and lush ambiance, all coming replete with laser beams and earth-scorching bass at the end. One thing Holly excels at is creating a false sense of safety. He can reel you in with some of the most beautiful, expertly composed sound design you’ve ever heard right before he digs in hard and wrecks everything you thought you knew about how music should sound.

“DYSPHORIA” is a ferocious entry in the catalog for both Holly and Rezz as artists. The two have been friends for ages now & it makes sense that the culmination of the two working together would set the bass music world on fire. The track pins the listener down with unconventional and aurally-pleasing percussive fills, whiplash inducing bass, and it’s all glossed over with the most brilliant, ultramodern cyberpunk sheen. The entire experience, speaking for this track and Angel In The Rave, is a downright masterclass in “how to make music that sounds like it totally came from 10 years in the future”.