The Toronto quartet is back with their homemade electro on Deleter, released in mid-January on Last Gang Records. On their excellent preceding album, Congrats, released in 2016, they visited more emotional areas without sacrificing any of their characteristic dynamism. The 2017 EP Bird Brains proved to be their most intentionally techno recording, something that Congrats’ last track, “Caught Up”, hinted at.
Forgetting this technoid impulse, Holy Fuck take some of their better-known paths on their current opus, while remaining faithful to their exploratory habits.
The album opens with the tonic “Luxe”. New on the album is the voice of Alexis Taylor, the singer from Hot Chip, for whom Holy Fuck opened during their tour last September. Two other vocal collaborations are worth mentioning: that of Angus Andrew, singer of Liars, on “Deleters” and “Free Gloss”, and that of Nicholas Allbrook, leader of Pond and ex-member of Tame Impala. Although they will undoubtedly delight fans of these bands, their voices are not a decisive contribution to the balance of the album. Relegated to the background, they undergo the same treatment as Brian Borcherdt’s vocals, which are found here and there, as usual, on certain tracks.
Deleter‘s interest lies elsewhere, in the intuitive and often pleaseing assembly of complex layers of sound, giving a sonic amplitude coupled with an almost relentless feverishness. The band’s music results from the symbiosis of traditional and analog instruments, resulting in a rough and inventive sound. Holy Fuck combines the casualness of great talent with the adventurous spirit of krautrock, shaped in a resolutely contemporary way.
