Andy Dufresne dug a tunnel to freedom with a tiny rock hammer. He had been in prison for 19 years. Holly Head frontman Joe Moss started writing ‘No Gain’ on a piece of paper he had to request from a police officer. He was in a cell for 13 hours. The aforementioned single, released a couple of years ago, includes the lyric: “Nothing in my life has made me trust in the people who run the country that I live in.” This sentiment was surely held captive in the mind of Dufrene as he crawled through hundreds of metres of shit. This sentiment was surely held captive in the minds of the Filton Four as they were sentenced to years in jail. Genocide is terrorism and trying to stop genocide is…terrorism? “In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it.”
Speaking of Holly Head’s output, Moss has said that “half is political commentary, and the other half is how I feel emotionally.” However, new single ‘I’ve Had Want’ is both sides of the Holly Head coin. Moss explains: “The music is different on this track, but it’s still about wealth inequality, racial hate and animal rights to name a few but, this time, it’s through a wider range of emotions than solely anger.”
So, let’s talk about the different music on ‘I’ve Had Want’. Joe Kelly’s bass makes Peter Hook, Mani, and Nikolai Fraiture seem as melodic as Let Me Be Clear Starmer. Paddy Murphy’s scuzzy and scratchy guitar harks back to early 2000s Deftones and My Vitriol. Oscar Wheatley’s drums are as bombastic as Bonham’s but buttressed with skittering little fills à la Tony Allen.
Holly Head have been described as ‘Fugazi with the groove of Donna Summer’. That’s pretty accurate, though on ‘I’ve Had Want’, Holly Head are hardly in happy disco mood. Joe Moss sounds as pleased as a person gifted with a parking ticket. In the video for the single, young people bop around in a field while the surly frontman looks on from the periphery. “Strong is the heart that keeps me in again / It’s all these days I’ve seen in softened tones that grates me.” It’s easy to give up on a world that has let young people down most of all. It makes sense to run for the hills and dance like nothing matters. But we must press on.
Free Palestine.
Holly Head gigs:
Fri 26 June: Rossendale, Gather Festival
Fri 3 July: Manchester, The Abbey
Sat 25 July: London, Bad Vibrations
Sun 30 August: Chester, Alexanders
Fri 4 September: London, The Lexington
Thu 24 September: London, Shacklewell Arms
Wed 7 October: Salford, Beyond The Music
Fri 22 – Sun 24 October: Rotterdam, Left of The Dial
Sat 31 October: Bristol, The Louisiana
‘I’ve Had Want’ is out now on Akoustik Anarkhy
Holly Head: Instagram | YouTube
Review by Neil Laurenson