Let's Get Killed

Genre: Breakbeat 1/5 I am a nice, fair reviewer, who generally doesn't have many problems with the music I'm listening to. This is my 171st album generated and listened to, and this was the first time in this exercise where I was plainly disgusted throughout the wide majority of the listen. I've listened to some bad Elvis Costello, some bad Bob Dylan, and some awfully mediocre 90s post-grunge, but this easily takes the shit cake. David Holmes' 1997 album Let's Get Killed is an exercise in dullness. A true techno dud with nothing redeeming, nothing that changes the form, and nothing that keeps you interested. The sampling is lazy and bad, the beats are monotonous and never-changing, and the effort to give himself (a white man from the UK) any form of NYC street cred is cringy, bizarre, and almost gentrifying. Nothing progresses, nothing excites, nothing is moving throughout the entire runtime. There's a song on the album, Freaknik, that starts with a man telling a story about being kicked out of a bar for dancing. He ends his story by saying "how am I supposed to release...this...ENERGY!", and it's immediately followed by 5-6 minutes of utter nothingness, in what appears to be the least energetic followup to a man screaming that I have ever heard. Radio 7, and its unbelievably lazy James Bond sample, is among the most aggravating tracks I've ever sat through. This is not good. A complete non-starter, not essential in any way, and takes up a spot that any other album in the universe should own. There is no purpose to have this album on this list. A waste of an hour that I will never get back.

This app claims to list "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". David Holmes named the album "Let's Get Killed". I would, to be honest, be happy if this had happened before I listened to this garbage

I expected to hate this and I didn't. It wasn't like ... super interesting or anything. But it was good background music to my morning. Easy to ignore but still providing a good energy. Honestly, if these were break beats behind a rap vocal, the songs would crush. As it is, they feel mostly incomplete. Still good tracks, though.I expected to hate this and I didn't. It wasn't like ... super interesting or anything. But it was good background music to my morning. Easy to ignore but still providing a good energy. Honestly, if these were break beats behind a rap vocal, the songs would crush. As it is, they feel mostly incomplete. Still good tracks, though.

This is like a soundtrack for a bad spy movie. Dance music made albumatic but it's giving me some Fatboy Slim vibes. I can see this with some strobe lights but I'm not quite having fun. The drinks cost too much, I'm somehow under *and* over dressed and the stink of hugo boss haunts the air. The slice of life vocal samples are really inspired but not grabbing. Makes me miss New York and also Fail to understand New York. The middle of the album is a huge improvement over the first few tracks. Especially the reworked James Bond Theme

Sounds like a soundtrack from a bad, low budget 90s movie about hacking.

Unimpressed and somewhat bored by this one. Some fun ideas here, but there wasn't enough variety to keep me interested throughout the long listen. I think this is mainly due to my lack of appreciation for the EDM genre in general: while I can understand why some might enjoy this style of music, it just comes across as polished noise to me while also having a tendency to become very repetitive. With 'Let's Get Killed', I felt like I was listening to a solid soundtrack for a Nintendo 64 spy game (I unironically felt this way even before reaching the 007 cover which ended up cementing these notions immediately). While some of the songs on here might be catchy when looking at it through this made-up context, I don't necessarily feel the same way towards them knowing they come from a standalone album, let alone one that is included on the 1001 Albums You Should Hear Before You Die. It would be fine in the background as it is pretty harmless outside of some vulgar language in the talking segments, but there was nothing enticing or memorable here that would make me want to come back to it in the future, especially considering the absurdly long track lengths present throughout the whole record. I can't say that I hated it, but it was pretty mediocre in my eyes. 2/5.

Offensively boring. The song Let's Get Killed was alright, but this whole album is just very mediocre beats played on repeat. There is zero progression throughout the songs. You'll have a better time clicking through samples on Fruity Loops.

This album was David Holmes second release and build on his previous album ("This Films Crap, Let's Slash the Seats"), with the emphasis on building immersive film scores/soundtracks, referencing Funky downtempo broken Beat's ("Let's get Killed") , Contemporary 70's Guitar melodramatic fusion ("My Mate Paul"), lively instrumental soul ("Gritty Shaker"), or even a reinterpretation of what the James Bond theme would sound like under the musical direction of David (Radio 7). There's even an expertly implemented stab at funky dance track ("Freaknik"), but as brilliantly devised as all this tracks are.....the one truly defining moment is arguably David's finest moment, the encapsulation of New York city night time life....The string, guitar, violin orchestrated arrangements of ("Don't Die Just Yet"), a 6 minute epic that showcases David impeccable ear for composition & creation of music, that is defiantly at odds with current trends in music, but remains a blissfully realised piece of music.

Let’s see. This isn’t music that you would listen to in the background like jazz. This isn’t music that I would expect one would go to a nightclub in college and try to dance to. This isn’t music that is catchy that you would later find yourself humming to one of the tunes. This isn’t music to sing to because, by and large, there aren’t lyrics, although some songs do rap over the musical track. So, I find myself asking, “what is the purpose of this album and why is it important that I listen to it before I die”? I don’t normally look up artists that I am unfamiliar with when one is generated and presented to me but I did look up Mr. Holmes. I guess I could see some of this being used for soundtracks and apparently he makes a good living doing just that. Radio 7 is supposed to be one of the outstanding tracks on this album. It’s a mystery to me how sampling the Bond theme and laying a drum track over it passes for clever. Aren’t you just leaning on the work of others like a crutch? It’s not like when Johnny Cash made Trent Reznor’s “Hurt” his own. Or when Sinead O’Connor did the same with “Nothin Compares 2 U” when she covered Prince’s tune. From my point of view most (alll?) of the tracks are pointless and monotonous. This music doesn’t really seem to have a purpose. Without a movie or a show to assist, what is the artist trying to say? I’m not giving another moment of thought to try to answer that question.

langatmig - unaufgeregt - ideenlos - nicht störend - unauffällig - endlos - wiederholend - gleichmäßig - einschläfernd - ...

Big beats are the best, get high all the time. Props to this album for sampling both Serge Gainsbourg and the James Bond theme. Unreal stuff.

What a find. I was aware of David Holmes as I loved his soundtrack to the film Out of Sight, starring a certain J-Lo. This pastiche of urban ramblings against a backdrop of urgent beats works really well.

This is the kind of gem that I somehow missed along the way.

big fan of some of the vibes (don't die just yet) others, like Caddell Returns, put me ill at ease

another redundant electronic album. the only thing mildly interesting about this album is the sampled “vignettes” that are used as intros on several songs.

Another. UK. Electronica. Act. How??? And here I am asking myself again with one of these albums: what is the fucking point? It's repetitive bullshit. There's no musical value to it. It sounds like rap beats without a rapper. There is no genre that is overrepresented more in this book than this.

I’m probably contrarian here, but this is the DJ style I prefer (over most EDM). I’ve been into David Holmes since Pi, and his stuff works for me (as annoying as it may be for others).

Another of those albums that I think is close to perfect. From the opening beat this album takes you on a gutter level trip through mid 90s New York. The sound collage that results still has me peeling back layers 27 years after its release

Sounded like a lot of artists I like - lemon jelly, chemical brothers, public service broadcasting. Really enjoyed having it on in the background.

Really good. The beats go hard and the production is great. The interludes are nice breaks from the album as well. Very cool!

Like being in the city. A story could be written for this album 9/10 5/5

i saw a comment on this being like "The NYC vibe album", and I GOTTA agree, there's a beautiful mixture of the different elements of the new york scene in the 90's. one song reminded me so much of the main theme of the incredibles haha. plus afterwards it autoplayed a song off of oceans eleven which he composed which was pretty nice as well :p

This takes me back to the clubs in the 90s. This album is very indicative of the 90s electronic clubs sound, bonus, the segue's between songs with the live dialogue is clever - especially with the James Bond Theme. 4/5

Trippy trance intro. Very cinematic sounding. Love the breaks, samples and ambience. Great pick!

Oceans 11 sound, cool bond theme as well.

Very much of its era, got vibes of early Fat Boy Slim and people like The Wiseguys too, lounge dance groove style. Also got some early dub electronic / DnB vibes. Middle of the road, never been hugely my thing but I did listen to this kinda stuff when I was younger so I can definitely get behind it and enjoy it. Think I've heard Gritty Shaker before on one of Dave Dews chilled ibiza style compilation albums, defo heard Rodney Yates before, absolute tune. 3.5/5 but gona round up to 4 cos feelin generous.

Lot of nostalgia in this one for me - takes me right back to first year uni. Love how cinematic the album feels. Could absolutely be a soundtrack to something, and it's no wonder Holmes went on to do so much soundtrack work. (He did all the Ocean's Eleven movies, amongst many others) Fave track - "Caddell Returns", maybe - it's not really about stand out tracks, it's about wandering around the neighborhood, soaking it in!

The good tracks here are absolute killers. But it suffers from incohesive voice sampling and This-90s-Album-is-too-long-itis, so it's not something I'm likely to come back to in full anytime soon. That James Bond song is fantastic though.

2/5

Not very interesting electronic

I could tell right out the gate this was gonna be a long hour. Not for me.... Boring, repetitious garbage...

Pleasant enough, although the best track here is actually by Serge Gainsbourg. Works well as background music.

Tight beats, but loose with all the chat shit in-between tracks. I could have done without that.

A pack of emptiness, a big nothingburger.

It’s a worse Nujabes album

This is one of the few albums I haven't been able to finish since I started this project. Not because I really disliked the music, but because it was so boring I couldn't stand it. The verbal monologues at the beginning of the tracks were a little interesting, but after that it was just repetitive backing tracks to a 2000s action movie DVD menu screen. Couldn't bother listening to the whole thing. 3/10

doesn't work for me

This record was clearly produced by someone who was looking to get killed.

BOOOORING. Do we really need more 90s British electronica on the list? No. I don't think we do. I think I've had enough of it by now. There is absolutely nothing special about this album to me. The sound is fine. It works for what it is. Unfortunately, what it is is uninteresting, at least to me. The skits, if you can call them that, are weird to me. They're not Ready to Die levels of bad, but they don't really serve a purpose to me. The album's pretty long, but it could've been worse. That's this album to me. It could've been worse. It's not quite at Haunted Dancehall levels of terrible for me, but it's still a very weak album pick for a list like this. Low 2/5.

If I was drunk/stoned after a night clubbing and wanted to vibe for the remaining wee hours, I'd stick this on. Since I'm neither of those things, this is repetitive and SO 90s

That aged badly…

This was actually a super annoying album to listen to.

Meh. This is more like 400 Albums You Must Listen To Before You Die and 601 Albums That This One Fucking Guy Likes.

Also ein paar tracks waren ganz cool, eben diese oldschool-hip hop beats, aber diesen Geheimagenten-LARP hätte man sich sparen können. Außerdem viel zu lang, jeder Song iwie nur eine einzige Idee über 5 minuten gezogen

So gar nix besonderes

This entire album is literally just an endless cycle of introducing a cool idea, but then repeating it in the same way over and over again, then moving on to the next idea before the previous idea even had the chance to become anything worth listening to.

Absolute crap.

"oh is this finally over?!" - me, when I realized the album had looped back to the beginning (still one of the stupidest features I've ever seen, Spotify)

Nothing really to hate, but it's only ambient music - maybe for movies? nothing for the 1001 list. 0 is not possible, therefore 1

Yeah, I'm not really sure what I'm missing here. I like a lot of electronic music, but this just faded into the background for me. I can't remember a thing about it, and have no interest in listening to it again. Oh well

mindless, lame, and repetitive noise. this book apparently struggles to find any good electronic/EDM albums when there's so much better stuff out there

Not exactly my jam

This album feels like a 90's NYC hip-hop album that may appeal to many but not to me.

Uncreative and repetitive.

Ctrl c + ctrl v

I like Electronica (used to LOVE it), but this is bad Electronica. 1.5./5

That was the biggest waste of time in ages. 10 minutes of this is worse than any torture ever devised.

This was so boring i almost fell asleep

There are two genres of electronica as far as I'm concerned: Stuff I Like and Stuff I Do Not Care About. This lands firmly in the latter camp, as I try to figure out all of the albums that didn't make the cut so that we could have a bunch of background music electronica.

Man, this was not good. Not even anything here was interesting like the samples. I mean, they made the 007 theme boring. How?

I dig the New York monologue at the top This is gonna be a long one, it’s only track 2 and I’m bored as hell 007? Lol Maybe I’m missing something but I’m not sure how this one made the list

Fuck that.

Honestly terrible. Literally noise with a beat behind it.

This is not my kind of music. At all. As such, I can't find anything I like about it. 1/5.

Wasn't a fan.

Whole lot of meh

Noped out after 3 tracks. I don't need to listen to music for 90s incels

1/5. Nothing but background music with some annoying "piece of shit motherfucker" talk.... Not one notable song. How does this make the list?

This album sounds like it has been clipped together from lots of film moments. The sort of music that fills a none scripted filler scene. Undoubtedly for me that doesn’t make an album to listen to.

Bored me to tears from start to finish. Background music at best

I loved this album

Wow people are so down this, I had never heard of the guy, but found it an interesting and chilled listen. Much better than the Malcolm McLaren let's steal black music and claim we made it popular. Similar to DJ Shadow

Hezkej triphop

i had never heard of this album or david holmes before - WOW i will be listening again and again!! 5/5, so grimy and groovy and i love the spoken samples. just learned that he did the oceans 11 soundtrack which makes sense

Pretty exceptional on this list, a film score artist

Very obviously influential on artists to come

Enjoying this album quite a bit. Quite entertaining.

Love this album

This was an unexpected listening gem

Unexpected pleasure

Genius IDM

I’m giving this a five because it passed me by at the time but if I’d have heard it when it came out I would have loved it. There’s a few tracks I recognise - at least a couple from Spaced - and the ones that don’t are funky or trippy or just generally cool. I might dare to suggest it’s a bit of its time, but I like it!

First heard this album in Oct 2024. Had no idea what to expect, just knew he was from Belfast. I was digging the album halfway thru the first listen, and have been loving the album on my third listen in a row. I hear Basement Jaxx, some N.O.W.

Amazing variety of 90s electronic sounds here. In spite of how different each song is it still manages to feel very cohesive. Part of this is probably the effective use of field recordings throughout.

Can’t believe I missed this in the late ‘90s. EDM jazz.

Brilliant. Exciting

Kickstarted me into discovering and diving into a whole new genre. Very calming instrumental music. Can easily have it on while working, thinking, or even sleeping.

💖 freaknik 🗣️ 9️⃣

very cool

excellent

fantastic!

Let’s get thrilled

Interesting electronic music - especially with all the real-life recordings. The moody music paints vivid pictures that make for a compelling listen.

My kind of music, surprised I haven't heard of it before.

So much my vibe

A lovely surprise - late 90s electronic - in a slight vein of the Chemical Brothers but at the same time it’s own thing - drawing from Reggae, funk and Jazz. The field recordings that litters the album really give a context to the whole record while the music itself is impeccable from start to finish. Enjoyed this one very well.

A real banger, some tracks were real long or short for what seemed to be no reason but definitely a good one

total bangers: +my mate paul + lets get killed + Radio7

What a peculiar album... Feels like every song is from a different genre and artist even. Got some psychedelic, some hip hop. Loads of really good instrumentals and funky sounds. It's a bit of a journey, I really liked it. Super chill at the end.

Pretty cool 90s electronica. A lot of fun. Cool look at that moment where hiphop and electronica were just starting to part and go their separate ways.