David Holmes – Bow Down To The Exit Sign

I will never understand how this album slipped out of music consciousness. It's a hell of a ride, from the thumping funk of Compared To What to the thrashy Velvet Underground punk of Sick City (and that's just tracks two and three). It bites harder than any of Holmes' other albums, especially in the furious drumming of Incite A Riot, and has great collaborators in Bobby Gillespie, Jon Spencer, Martina Topley-Bird. And yet... try to find this album on streaming services or on CD anywhere. It's one of a number of albums which suggested an exciting new direction for indie/dance in the aftermath of Britpop, and like most of the others it likely got lost in the sludge of samey balladeers that dominated Xfm at the turn of the Millennium. It's well worth revisiting now, sitting somewhere between the paranoid indie disco of Vanishing Point-era Primal Scream, the atmospheric beats of Tricky, and the twisted funk of Childish Gambino's Awaken My Love.

If _Lets Get Killed_ was an ode to New York, then _Bow Down Before the Exit Sign_ is David Holmes’ ode to 70s soul, rock and funk. His cover of "Compared to What" lays on the bass thick as molasses, while on "Sick City," he gets his rock on with Bobby Gillespie. Jon Spencer brings his blues to "Bad Thing," while chaos reigns on "Incite a Riot." "69 Police" pulls things back together, and Martina Topley-Bird lends her vocals to the densely dark "Outrun." She returns on "Zero Tolerance" which thrashes about a bit more. Holmes takes a breather with "Hey Lisa," a sweet, string-laced groover, and "Jackson Johnson" brings the album to a close along the same vibe. Quite a departure, but an interesting one.