- Lush, melodic house to help you lose yourself.
- Patrick Holland's new live set at MUTEK this year felt like a moment he's been working towards for the last couple years. A move from Vancouver to the East Coast precipitated a change in sound, touching on hip-hop, garage and even progressive house. His tracks became dense, loaded with details and bold melodies, bringing his signature catchy basslines into a new context. The dreamy "Sofware," the lead cut off the fourth EP for his Verdicchio Music Publishing label, captures this approach: cutting between house, techno and downtempo, it's a dance cut made for lying down and listening in headphones, letting the lush melodies float around you.
Both A-side tracks, "Sofware" and "Dead Channel," feature gentle basslines that prop up Holland's fluttering world of wiggly synths and sighing pads. The drums amble as melodic hooks coalesce above. The beatless tune, "Boingo Myth," showcases Holland's love of pads and his increasing knack for tension and drama. These factors are also present in "Scroll Up," one of Holland's finest tracks yet. A little sad and a little uplifting, its hesitant pitter-patter, classic house organ vamps and Burial-esque vocal sample come together in a gorgeous seven-minute swirl that invokes Sasha's Involver by way of Italian dream house. But you don't need to know all those references to understand why Holland's take on dance music is special: the warm production, Technicolor instrumentation and warm arrangements say enough. It's why his music will only reach bigger and bigger audiences, like the massive crowd that greeted his MUTEK performance this past summer.
TracklistA1 Sofware
A2 Dead Channel
B1 Boingo Myth
B2 Scroll Up