James Holden and the Animal Spirits - The Animal Spirits

Pitchfork 74

Electronic producer James Holden has remade himself into a bandleader on his new album—a collection of self-described “folk-trance” recorded with improv ensemble the Animal Spirits.

The Guardian 60

(Border Community)

Inspired by Don Cherry and Pharoah Sanders’s jazz-world fusion experiments with Moroccan gnawa music, former trance DJ Holden attempted his own crossover with Floating Points and former Sanders collaborator Mahmoud Guinia on the 2015 12-inch Marhaba. Forging those connections left him longing to play with a band of fellow explorers: hence new crew the Animal Spirits. The gnawa influence is strong in the dizzying build of Pass Through the Fire, but it’s just one element in a giddy maelstrom of cosmic prog, krautrock, techno and psych-folk. Occasionally, as on, er, Thunder Moon Gathering, things get a little pastichey, but it’s worth it for sublime moments like the title track, where lines between worlds and times blur.