Ok, suspend your belief for a moment and picture this. A Sega Genesis console walks into a bar and the only spot available is unfortunately right next to his arch nemesis, Super NES. Reluctantly he pulls up a stool and orders a beer; he’s had a severe drinking problem since his abrupt retirement. As he receives his lager, he's spotted, and, out of respect, NES lets Sega finish his beer. Immediately after, a full on verbal assault ensues that inevitably is followed by a physical show down that ends (hypothetically) the debate once and for all over who will go down in history as the 16-bit king. Now, I know you'd have loved to be in that bar to witness such a momentous event. Enter, friends, Toronto’s Holy Fuck, present to capture the whole thing on tape. You can hear it from start to finish on their latest release, LP.
Holy Fuck's arsenal incudes everything from broken Casio keyboards to a 35mm film synchronizer, along with basically any junky gem that can give birth to sound. While listening to the album, I envision a bass player and a drummer wailing away on their instruments while two other grown men play multiple video game consoles in the background in a torqued out lo-fi symphony. It adds up to a pretty easy pigeon hole: they're obviously card holding no-fi junkyard avant-garde gamer addicts.
One of the more astonishing facts about Holy Fuck is that they very rarely rehearse before a show. There is a very open-ended vibe when they perform; the band allows their own whims (as well as the crowd's) to carry the music to new places every night. It's a jam mentality: who in their right mind would play the same songs every night if he really didn’t have to? That's not to say that each of their songs doesn't retain core elements–sounds and grooves that are hit every night–but the real treat comes from the spontaneity served up between and leading up to each set piece.
I am of course writing this piece to expose you to Holy Fuck and their latest release, LP, but I would also like to stress the fact that with the album, you are getting the “just the tip” treatment we all love to hate. You really need to catch this band live to see with your own two or four eyes how these beat suite gamer grooves are made.
