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LET’S GET KILLED
David Holmes
(1200/A&M)

Billed as Belfast DJ David Holmes' aural postcard from a summer spent mining the throbs and pulses of New York City, Let's Get Killed succeeds as a vessel into which the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-everything spirit of the Big Apple is crammed. The follow-up to his '95 UK-only album, This Film's Crap Let's Slash the Seats, and his work as remixer-to-the-stars (he revamped U2's "Discotheque"), Let's Get Killed offers a sweetly schizophrenic variety. From the Latino bass and horns of "My Mate Paul" and "Gritty Shaker" to the cheeky, breakbeat remake of the Bond theme (far superior to Orbital's recent take on The Saint theme), Holmes brings the contrasting noise of Hell's Kitchen, the Bronx and Harlem to this record. Interspersed with conversations the visiting DJ presumably lifted along his travels, Let's Get Killed is neither a breakneck dance record nor a trip into spacey ambience.  Laced with jazzy fusion, scratching turntables and laser-guided melodies, it's a little bit of everything. Just like New York.             (Matt Sebastian)

In a nutshell:  An aural melting pot.