High Fidelity: James Holden Presents His Top Death In Vegas Moments

Electronic music can be built in different ways. Constructed uniquely out of different textures and phrases, each producers vision is different. Ahead of the Death In Vegas live show, the first in a very long time, here on Thursday 22nd, James Holden picks his four favourite Death In Vegas moments from over the years and explains what their music has meant to both him and his Border Community label. #1 ‘Dirge ‘- Has to be, whether that's an obvious choice or not. I remember I was still a kid when I heard this, on my clock radio on Mary Anne Hobbs' show or something. I just stopped what I was doing… mind blown. The dark of it, the raw hypnotic power - it was exactly the record I was looking for but didn't know it. #2 ‘Blood Yawning’ - from the live @ Brixton disc. Would put the whole album as my favourite if I could, but this track was one I kept coming back to, one of the many seeds of the music-you-can-dance-to-that-isn't-dance-music idea that's occupied me and my label-friends for so long. #3 ‘Reigen’ - but really Satan's Circus, the whole album, I gave up trying to pick a song. I remember liking it when I bought it, then forgetting about it until I came back to it sometime later looking for stuff to DJ with and realising how relevant it was again. Literally half of it is in my laptop's Traktor folder. ‘Reigen’ particularly is a track you can hear the influence of all over current British post-dance - it's like a perfect benchmark of how to reference kraut / early 80s synth stuff in a modern way. #4 Witch Dance - is just magic. I love how a room changes when you play it; it has this intensity that sort of demands attention whilst still being a study in understatement. I could have picked any track from ‘Trans-Love Energies’ and explained why it's a favourite though... Catch Death in Vegas live in Room One with DJ support from Andrew Weatherall and Stopmakingme on Thursday 22nd September. Tickets & info here.