PREMIERE: Straight Jacket by Bob Holroyd

As one of the UK’s foremost electronic composers and producers, Bob Holroyd has been making music over a period of four decades. His work has covered a broad spectrum from cult club classics and DJ’ing festivals to soundtrack work for major film & TV productions and a variety of music libraries. Holroyd’s solo projects have also explored intersections of ambient music and found sounds with neoclassical, electronica, and jazz. Take for instance The Cage which was used to soundtrack a groundbreaking architectural exhibition at the 2018 Venice Biennale or Football Chants & Nursery Rhymes, Holroyd’s tenth studio album the title of which derives from a conversation he had with a friend.

Holroyd had with a musician friend who commented on what type of music people say the like in relation to what they actually buy. This sentiment also extends to record labels who imply they are looking for something new and different yet seemingly release the same kind of music. “Although they think something different, all people actually want is football chants and nursery rhymes”.

The irony of that metaphor echoes throughout the fourteen intricately textured collages and soundscapes that patiently unfold. Aptly characterized as “the antithesis of the immediate social media driven world”, there is a restless undercurrent to the music, but only just enough to create a satisfying tension against its refusal to be hurried. Holroyd gives ample space in his shape-shifting compositions for elements of piano, strings, percussion, and horns to inject narrative thrust to the proceedings.

There is nothing mindless about Holroyd’s Football Chants & Nursery Rhymes. It can’t be pinned down and won’t be rushed but lend your ears to it and it will pull you into its vortex and keep your attention. As a taste of what’s to come, you can immerse yourself in the noirish ruminations listen of the deeply contemplative “Straight Jacket”, the album’s next single available here in an exclusive premiere.