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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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!

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!

Oceans 11 sound, cool bond theme as well.

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.

So gar nix besonderes

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

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.

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.

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.

Ctrl c + ctrl v

Let’s get thrilled

fantastic!

So much my vibe

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

Molt top! Creació de imatges sonores

Amazing. New York Street sounds in the 90's with a eclectic sound. And he's Irish

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.

Spaced!

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

Glad I've found this one. Great electronic music.

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.

Een soort van instrumentale electro-jazz. Absoluut niets wat ik uit mezelf zou opzetten. Maar ik heb er vreemd genoeg wel van genoten (op de achtergrond). Eentje om te onthouden

Brilliant. Exciting

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.

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!

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.

💖 freaknik 🗣️ 9️⃣

very cool

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.

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.

excellent

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

ну из всего чила пока что самая годнота. прикольные внятные мотивы, настроение чувствуется, сэмплы довольно интересные (последний трек вообще эпик). Конечно, это всё ещё фоновая музыка, но хорошая фоновая музыка, за работой вполне могу включить, 7/10

Actually really solid and enjoyable throughout. It's hard to compare music like this to other genres, it's like apples and oranges.

Favorite track was "Rodney Yates"

Some really subtle and lowkey work, but it scratches a certain itch

Liked it a lot, will listen to more DH and going to go see him this summer I reckon.

Some great grooves. Interesting to find out he was behind the Ocean's trilogy soundtracks - I've always liked that music but did not know who was behind it. "Don't Die Just Yet" was particularly good.

Das fand ich ganz cool. Ist schon sehr dreist lieder die so einfach zu greifen sind sieben minuten lang laufen zu lassen aber seis drum, also hab im moment nicht wirklich drauf gewarter wanns aufhört. Musikalisch war auch viel ganz nett auch wenns teilweise imo bisschen zu sehr nach etwas klang was iwer beim kiffen anmacht. Das james bond ding war iwie dümmlich aber nicht dümmlich genug um es deswegen zu feiern

How on earth have I heard so many song off this album and not know this artist? Fantastic grooves, loved listening, will be playing again 8/10

Unexpectedly good to listen to. Love that the vocal samples were recorded by them on the streets of New York, adds something to the great tunes for me.

Really good.

Great for working

Heel vet, ga dit zeker op zetten tijdens het chillen, zijn tijd ook ver vooruit nog nog steeds relevant, gave mix van verschillende soorten edm

There were moments I really loved in this, some moments I could have done without, but it was always interesting and creative.

Really good stuff. Music with a sustained grooves

Wide screen filmicification. Beautifully done

Yay, so some more electronica. I think that this works better as a rhythmic background track than anything else. However, as a background track to a conversation with my wife, the comment that she made was something to the tone of "what are you listening to that just keeps repeating itself"?

Another new album to me. Closest thing I listen to regularly that's similar is DJ Shadow. I liked all the spoken sound bytes, it gave the album overall a very "scenes from NY" kind of feel.

Not much in the way of lyrics, sounds like a soundtrack great listen though

I warmed up to this. I'll need to listen again though. An unusual mix of different substyles.

Oontz oontz

Viiiiiibes

I enjoyed this more than I expected. It's solid chill house & was a great listen while I walked my dog in the dusk.

Très bien!

Nice album

Good music to listen while traveling

Sounds like early / unrefined DJ Shadow. DH went way overboard on the dialog samples. A little goes a long way, man.

Interesting. Great use of the street-recorded spoken word. Great background music for creating.

Groovin'

Better than expected

Overall a solid album, but too little highlights for a top rating.

On the one hand it's the sort of trip-hoppy, cinematic stuff I love. On the other, it's a bit polite and dinner party stuff. But I favourited three tracks so I clearly like it! You can see how he ended up with the James Bond job!

When thinking about my appetite for music without lyrics, a few contradictions appear. I'm not someone who focuses on the lyrics, if it sounds good, then I'd listen to it. Lyrics is just a bonus, or a part of the context for me. Good lyrics with terrible sound... I might just read poems instead. But music without lyrics seems... incomplete sometimes. It's seems difficult for songs -- if they ARE called "songs" -- like these to be a solid whole experience. But I do listen to songs without lyrics, or even without context. Pink Floyd's epic 20+ minute "Atom Heart Mother" comes to mind. The track is as nonsense as the title, yet I like it. But I'm still struggling to justify why, for example, I like classical music of Chopin or Beethoven but dislike something like jazz. What makes a wordless track listenable, at least for me? "Let's Get Killed" is an hour of electronica fiddling with an aim to create movie soundtracks, and I enjoyed it. I was moved by the beats and the instrumental fiddlings in this album. But why? My hypothesis is that some wordless tracks, like the ones in this album, takes me into an adventure. It makes me conjure images of scenes or emotions. The way a violin passionately rejoices, or the beats weave a sense of conflict. Whatever the reason. I like this album. Though I might only come back to it if I want a good background music. But still, it's energetic and quite fun for a background music (ignoring the conversation snippets, of course).

Surprisingly good

Danceable Lounge music

Not what I was expecting, had a couple of songs I recognised. I surprisingly enjoyed the album

Some nice electronic music, really enjoy the vibes in some of the songs while in others it can feel a bit too much at times. Generally works really well in the background

Really good stuff, not sure I've listened to an album before but always liked his music. Best song Don't Die Just Yet..

Good shit

I love this: it relaxes me, doesn't bore and the James bond theme cover fills me with nostalgia.

This resonates to a late 90s early 00s soundtrack. It's like quintessential of that time in mind. The field recordings of NYC pimps and drug dealers feels a little exploitative.

Snuck up and surprised me. Expected hiphop but got electric jazz-ish with a very solid beatline.

one of the coolest albums on this list so far. with albums only providing an audio experience, it's harder to string together a story or theme, unlike other forms of media. but you wouldn't think so with this album! david holmes did a great job using only electronic sounds and minimal, intermittent dialogue to create a story. it comes as no surprise to me that holmes has created the music for many movies and tv shows after listening to this album. i recognized holmes' name instantly because i am absolutely obsessed with the ocean's franchise, and it was such a treat to hear some of the ocean's soundtrack in this album ("gritty shaker", "rodney yates") in a slightly different format. i can have a small easter egg, as a treat. and the james bond number was an interesting homage, too!

Didn't know what to expect. Pleasantly suprised. Heavy RJD2 vibes

Really liked this 4*

I'd forgotten how good this album was, but then it was the late 90s. Love the way the genuine conversations are woven into the tracks.

Fun, carefree, vintage and summery 8.5/10

I liked it. I had head some of it before not knowing the name. Some of the street talk was amusing some annoying. The music was very cinematic and energetic. Good stuff.

Really solid 90's dance electronic record, really impressed with some of the compositions on here. Need to listen to some more of this guy's work