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Aug 30, 2012The pace is slow, the mood is solemn verging on the sepulchral.
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Sep 7, 2012This kind of high-emotion, omni-genre electronic music is becoming the measure of artists working without geographical or scene ties and Held is one of the best examples
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Aug 30, 2012Held is a haunted forest worth getting lost in, but don't expect to be on your own for long.
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Aug 30, 2012Between the Held's strong opening and closing acts, it's apparent that Holy Other is still working in the world of the EP and may have jumped the gun on a full-length release.
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Aug 30, 2012It's one of the most powerful records to be released in a very long time.
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Aug 30, 2012It's short (36 mins), but deep and heady, the sort of record that worms its way into your head and stays there, leaving a faint imprint on your psyche.
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Aug 30, 2012In the wake of the recent bass explosion, there's no shortage of artists making similar music, but few of them are anywhere near as compelling.
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Aug 30, 2012In both musical and studio accomplishment Holy Other has come into his own as strong, individual, musical voice; Held is a strong display of this and is going to make a lot of people very happy indeed.
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Oct 4, 2012The effect is one of hypnosis and seduction, a type of black magic boogie that acts as the perfect catalyst for moments of intense intimacy.
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Aug 31, 2012The resulting wash of sound makes for an escapist experience par excellence.
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Aug 30, 2012Frustratingly, the one thing Held needs is the one thing their Tumblr-goth fans are short on: concentration.
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Aug 31, 2012The strength in Held lies in how it takes electronic modulation to a more challenging path, fully conscious over the fact that the genre itself benefits when it's more about the songs instead of serving as foreground listening.
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Oct 5, 2012His music is of the wholly sensual, painfully physical kind, and with Held he triumphantly translates his bruised intimacy to full-length format without losing any of its skin-prickling power.
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Sep 5, 2012Held is one of those albums where the moods and methods are a constantly moving target while the overall sound, somehow, comes out unified.... This is deep stuff.
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Aug 30, 2012For all its delicate psychological workings and spot-on embodiments of that feeling's senseless, aimless guilt, it's completely mesmerizing.
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Q MagazineAug 30, 2012The producer's spectral strand of electro-noir is as seductive as it is unsettling on his debut album. [Sep 2012, p.102]
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Aug 30, 2012It's almost too easy to become completely enamoured with the very sounds it's employing, rather than the mood it's ostensibly trying to convey.
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The WireOct 5, 2012It's like being in a church of flesh, a satin abattoir, an immersive video game of obsessive love--sickly, addictive, raw. [Aug 2012, p.46]
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Sep 10, 2012Held is as sputtering as it is spartan, and as such the perfect tome to the eternal wretchedness that surrounds human need.
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UncutAug 30, 2012It's very earnest. [Sep 2012, p.79]
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Aug 30, 2012Needless to say, it ["Nothing Here"] makes for an underwhelming close to an otherwise tenderly crafted and beautifully arranged debut album from a producer who has already proven his worth and will undoubtedly have plenty more bright moments in his future.