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D.W. Holiday:
Technical Difficulties, Under the Influence
Space Pop. The unexplored frontier. Absently throwing the term around, one million reviewers, listeners, wannabes, posers, and musicians basically bastardize two things I usually like a whole lot: Space, and Pop. But when a band lists their major influences as Pink Floyd and The Flaming Lips, you know they might just be onto something. Technical Difficulties, Under the Influence launches right away into the WTF atmosphere with slow, barely walking beat drums over and over again and a four-note guitar line minimalism. Then suddenly the track opens up with strangely bent frequencies and guitars going SQUEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeerrrr. Thats right. Squeer. Sounds like space to me. So hooked, I was not at all phased by the bands second track, Cowpoke, opening up like a scene from any given western, acoustic guitars overlaying the heavier electric sound in a strange western theme. Kick in the vocals. All the anguish of a Ryan Adams with none of the whine. And thats what really sets this album apart from other entries in the were a band, pay attention to us category of indie music: D. W. Holiday DESERVES your attention. Theres certainly a message here, amongst all these improbable but working scene changes and these genre-hopping delights. But that message is nothing self-serving or critical. Its in the music. It IS the music. Listening to this album is like floating away, like meditation. Close your eyes and listen deep. Be taken completely away. This album was written somewhere between when you lay down in bed and when you finally fall asleep. But when it comes down to it, theres something even more about this album than just the escapist aspects of a good Space Pop effort. Music can be heartbreaking. At their very best, on TDUTI, right with the ghostly vacant piano, the echoing guitars, the distant scratchy vocals, there is a point in the mix, just as the music fades to slowdown drag-out key changing, where my heart breaks. D.W. Holiday: Technical Difficulties, Under the Influence. Theres nothing more to say about the album than this: musically superior. Superb. Borderline brilliant.
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