The start of Holy Fuck's new album sounds like big things happening. '1MD' opens the album on a building crescendo of distorted melodies. It is initially calm but it quickly becomes apparent that this is merely the calm before the storm.
And a storm it is: 'Red Lights' barrel-rolls in like a professional hit man, slinky bass lines and snappy drums painting the sky. And it's obvious that Holy Fuck continue to create a kind of music that many try to make but few succeed in delivering.
There are echoes of Gang Gang Dance, !!! and others here but no-one manages to create quite the same psychedelic acid trip and make it sound so real. Latin is an album that builds to a fever pitch - midpoint track 'Silva & Grimes' is rabid driving music for thunderstorms, incessant and rapid fire and faster than anything that precedes it. It feels like a kind of climax on first listen but that's only because you don't know what is still to come.
'SHT MTN' is low-slung, squealing and industrial and then 'Stilettos' is pedal-to-the-metal-with-the-top-down. Closing on 'P.I.G.S.' only increases the sense of bewilderment. This is mechanical art-rock for destroying cities. A solid groove builds and eventually hits a melodic breakdown midway through before heading stratospheric. This is music for space, not puny-Earth - it sounds like an ode to the majestically uncontrollable power of the Saturn V. This is being strapped to five-megatons of explosives and flicking the match.
Latin is not just a selection of fantastic tunes, it's a epic journey sandwiched into 40-minutes.
BP x
Latin is out now, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links].