Holy Fuck Make Waves with Latin
Holy Fuck return to the center stage after three long years with Latin, the band’s third full-length release that picks up where 2007’s LP left off. Holy Fuck create bizarre and often suffocating mental images transposed into music so intensely that listening to Latin leaves you in a post-nightmare stare, with cold sweats and fractured memories of your biggest fears incarnated.
It’s certainly a challenge for instrumental musicians to keep their audience’s attention, especially if, like Holy Fuck, your primary audience is indie pioneers. The band has somehow managed to create an album that appeals to seasoned noise fans and also saturates the minds of its key demographic with gusto. Once it’s on, there is no chance it will be turned off till it’s all over.
If there’s one thing electronica has to be good at, it’s creating perfect interchanges between key tracks. That is something Holy Fuck do with ease. The way the opening track “1MD” flows so directly and skilfully into the ultra funky “Red Lights” summons images of tributaries flowing effortlessly.
Latin is an album that can be danced to both conservatively in a club and almost spastically in the safety of a bedroom, flailing in front of a mirror. It also contains a rare trait for instrumental indie releases: It is almost touching at times and allows for quiet contemplation when most would be pushing for that extra thump of noise.
Holy Fuck have gotten to where they are today on a heavy dose of talent and an expert ability to throw contrast together and make it stick. Though this album will probably not be remembered as a modern classic, it will certainly be held as an example of what can be done with an understanding of how best to shape sound. Latin confirms Holy Fuck a place in the top tier of instrumental indie rockers, and rightly so.