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10.0
100705
10.0 |
The Skinny
One of the most complex, immersive and impressive albums of the year
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9.0
100710
9.0 |
Loud And Quiet
Dramatic, colourful and Holden’s fullest-sounding work yet, ‘The Animal Spirits’ is another positive mutation for a musician who, you sense, is only just getting going
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8.5
100702
8.5 |
The 405
Throughout it all Holden acts as the pivot, his layered production and soundmixing the epicentre providing the lucidity and poise which withholds such dashing pluralism from disarray
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8.5
100712
8.5 |
The Quietus
It’s a series of rave palimpsests where something is a bit Vangelis, a bit Guru Josh, a bit theme from The Equalizer
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8.0
100713
8.0 |
Uncut
The Animal spirits is earthy and tactile. Print edition only
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8.0
100714
8.0 |
Q
Fans of his early output will continue to wonder why he's forsaken immaculate prog house so completely: those up for the trip, conversely, will just be keen to know where he's headed next. Print edition only
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8.0
100715
8.0 |
Mojo
A bewitching brew of experimental jazz, droning electronics and raw, progressive rock. Print edition only
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8.0
100755
8.0 |
Resident Advisor
The Animal Spirits is as close as he's come to transcendence
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8.0
100775
8.0 |
The FT
Spiritual but not ethereal, wild yet also mesmerising in its focus, it is an impressive testament to Holden’s artistic restlessness
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8.0
100700
8.0 |
The Line Of Best Fit
A triumph that makes rigidly electronic textures seem so last year
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8.0
100701
8.0 |
Crack
Aesthetically the trappings may have changed, but The Animal Spirits is James Holden in head-turningly impressive form, applying his mind to a new modality and conjuring up beautiful, baroque and beguiling results
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8.0
100711
8.0 |
Exclaim
On his third LP, James Holden establishes a sound wholly his own, allowing The Animal Spirits' gorgeous, absorbing and wonderfully unkempt mix of psych, jazz, folk and electronic to infiltrate the listener's psyche
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7.4
100706
7.4 |
Pitchfork
Electronic producer James Holden has remade himself into a bandleader on his new album—a collection of self-described “folk-trance” recorded with improv ensemble the Animal Spirits
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7.0
100716
7.0 |
Mixmag
With a new band alongside him, he fills ‘The Animal Spirits’ with haunting brain-melters that fuse modular synths, jazzy musicianship and trance-like rhythms
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6.5
100821
6.5 |
Spectrum Culture
Proof of just how far Holden has strayed from even the loosest bonds of club music
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6.0
100703
6.0 |
The Observer
A dizzying fusion
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6.0
100704
6.0 |
The Guardian
Mixes minimalism, astral jazz and the rhythmic textures of north African gnawa music. The results are often joyous
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