Holden started his career in 1999 at age 19, when he released the trance single “Horizons”, which he created with the freeware software Buzz.^[2] After this he released numerous singles and remixes on different labels such as Lost Language, Perfecto Recordings, and Positiva Recordings. He was also one-third of Mainline, which was responsible for the double single of “Narcotic” and “Innerspace”. He has also worked with singer Julie Thompson as Holden & Thompson. He grew up in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, before studying Mathematics at Oxford University.

Holden kicked off his record label Border Community with his own future single “A Break in the Clouds”. From then on, he has released remixes of artists from Madonna and Britney Spears, through Depeche Mode and New Order, to Nathan Fake and Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid. In April 2006, his mix album James Holden at the Controlswas Mixmag ‘s ‘Album of the Month’.

In 2006, Holden released The Idiots are Winning, described by The Guardian as “the most astonishing debut in electronic music since Boards of Canada’s Music Has the Right to Children.”

Border Community kickstarted the careers of many young musicians, such as Nathan Fake, Fairmont and Holden. James Holden often performs alongside his labelmates at one of his Border Community label nights at Corsica Studios in London.