The Holy Family - Go Zero (2023)

The second album by underground rock-and-beyond shapeshifters The Holy Family comes complete with a heavy concept for the psychedelically inclined, and pairs this with music which does this justice and then some. Go Zero follows up the British group’s widely praised self-titled debut from 2021 and – says foundational member David Jason Smith – “is based on a hypothetical theory that there is no such thing as ‘the future’. We are continually moving forward into our past until we arrive at our birth – creation – the Tree Of Knowledge… or ‘Going Zero’, as I’ve termed it.” It figures, then, that over some 40 minutes the five musicians conjure a sound that exhibits an affinity with great experimental totems down the ages, in a manner that’s avowedly forward-facing and stamped with their own identity.

Though The Holy Family’s musical inspirations are multitudinous, and rarely if ever obvious, the lyrics nod to a distinct literary source – namely ‘Vorrh’, the trilogy of fantasy novels by cult British author Brian Catling, who died in 2022 while Go Zero was being assembled. In these books, the Vorrh is “an impenetrable sentient forest, older than mankind, believed to house all knowledge” – and in the same way that the name The Holy Family references an Angela Carter work, Smith explains, “the track titles ‘Chalky’s Eyes’ (had been eaten by flies) and ‘The Watcher’ are direct references to characters in the book.” With Go Zero, The Holy Family have returned with an album that unfurls elegantly, even while big time discombobulation is occurring.

Tracklist
1. Crawling Out (3:22)
2. Bad Travelling (5:50)
3. Chalky's Eyes (6:07)
4. The Watcher (6:13)
5. Hell Born Babel (4:52)
6. Go Zero Suite, Pt. I (0:48)
7. Go Zero Suite, Pt. II (10:19)
8. Go Zero Suite, Pt. III (4:14)