Hope Is The Last Thing To Die

Just when you needed something to pick you up, dust you down and send you into the weekend with a smile on your face and a bit of zest along comes David Holmes and a new song (out digitally on Heavenly and hopefully with physical to follow). Hope Is The Last Thing To Die, optimistic from its title inwards, arrives with a burst of noise, distorted bass and rattling percussion and drums. The 60s girl group/ Ye Ye vocals of singer Raven Violet ride on top and the sounds/ bass/  synths collide, tumbling over each other, building and then breaking down. There's a pause for breath with an interlude in French and then it all comes piling back in, Raven singing 'We are what we pretend to be' and 'Let's make some changes tonight' as the snare and organ break through. There are echoes of Unloved in the atmospherics and vox and a nod to his I Heard Wonders single from 2008, the events of May '68 and sharply cut fringes, Levis, desert boots and cobble stones. It's a four minutes forty- eight second long blast of energy and excitement, chaos and melody. 

If you want more Holmes was back at NTS four days ago with the latest episode of his God's Waiting Room show, the spiritual successor to Andrew Weatherall's Music's Not For Everyone. Taking in everything from Sun Ra to Ten Fe, from Daniel Avery to King Tubby, Kevin Ayres and Lee 'Scratch' Perry and with a new remix of The Vendetta Suite by David himself, it's two hours of satisfaction guaranteed. Listen at Mixcloud. Tracklist at NTS.