HOLY OTHER - “HELD”
The horror. Holy Other is evidently still creeping around in the shadows, this time with a full-length album entitled Held due out at the end of this month. Based on the auditory light leaks we’re seeing from the album, namely the release of “Love Some1” and this eponymous track, it appears that the Manchester warlock’s sound has matured even further since the release of his With U EP. Remind me never to review anything like Holy Other in the dark of the night again, because I have definitely looked over my shoulder more than once during the course of writing this. Ominous beats stumble along without missing a stroke, laden with sheets of warped, oozing atmospherics and his signature dose of ghostly, guttural vocal sampling. At about the two-thirds mark, the song takes a decidedly sentimental turn, much like that of “Feel Something”, the closing track on his EP and our recent “top song of the past year” choice. The heartbeat of the song slows to an almost glacial pace, while the doom, panic, and paranoia subside in favor of a heartfelt solo piano and eternal plea of pitch-shifted reconciliation. “Held”, over its six-minute span, shifts from the imaginary soundtrack accompanying an aggressive haunting to a swansong aria set to music penned by the forlornest of scorned phantom lovers. We didn’t think Holy Other’s one-of-a-kind approach to music could possibly be improved upon, and we have been set straight. With “Held”, it is increasingly clear that this artist’s flirtation with audio and the metaphysical is truly a cut above, and for that we are ecstatically excited. Do tha right thing, and do whatever you have to do to ensure that a copy of Holy Other’s Held belongs rightfully to you on August 28th via Tri Angle Records; and if you can catch him during his upcoming American tour, do so.
