James Holden | Artist

James Alexander Goodale Holden is a British electronic music artist and DJ born 1979 in Exeter, UK. After beginning his career as a DJ and producer, Holden has moved extensively into live performance and founded his own record label Border Community. After studying mathematics at Oxford University, Holden gained recognition with the release of trance single "Horizons", which he created with Buzz freeware. This "crossover anthem of the summer of 1999" was picked up by Pete Tong, John Digweed and Nick Warren, quickly propelling Holden to a wider audience. In 2006 his debut album The Idiots Are Winning was released on the Border Community label. This album of loose, twisted and atmospheric electronic music was described by The Guardian as "the most astonishing debut in electronic music since Boards of Canada's Music Has the Right to Children. Holden has gone on to release four studio albums to-date, plus the excellent The Animal Spirits (2017) under the band of the same name, which comprises Holden, Marcus Hamblett, Etienne Jaumet and Tom Page. Standout albums include The Idiots Are Winning, The Inheritors and The Animal Sprits. The Animal Spirits drew on the influence of Moroccan Gnawa music which Holden has been immersed in since travelling to Morocco in 2014 to study the style with the late master Mahmoud Guinia. Holden has also remixed tracks by artists such as Madonna, Britney Spears, Depeche Mode, New Order, Nathan Fake and Kieran Hebden.

Artist Website: jamesholden.org

Featured Albums: James Holden

Related Artists: The Animal Spirits

Video Clips: Live in Budapest, Thunder Moon, The Animal Spirits