SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: PATRICK HOLLAND – INFRA

PATRICK HOLLAND
INFRA
VERDICCHIO MUSIC PUBLISHING

Montreal-based electronic music artist Patrick Holland is known for his soundscapes, crafted from, and merging house, techno, and ambient elements in unique ways. His music is characterized by intricate melodies and rhythmic complexity and has garnered widespread acclaim. He is also established a notable DJ career.

The world of electronic music is this push and pull of needing to be a producer and DJ (and vice versa). In 2019 Holland had a cathartic moment that led him to step away from DJing and to focus on working in his studio. For a time, he traded in long dance tracks for shorter tracks with a pop structure.

The album Infra is the latest output of his redefined and re-imagined creativity. The result is dance music and a shift away from his more pop oriented 2022 album You’re the Boss but still features this fresh approach of short and to the point tracks.

There are moments, not mimics, of both Bob Moses and the Boards of Canada on this album which glue the tracks together in a very satisfying way. Higher energy tracks such as “Daytime Disturbance” and “High Noon” weave in and out and are pulled back into the backbone of more electronica/ambient tracks such as “Blurry Trench” with its short pulsing keys, “Sitting in a Chair” with its church-like organs and the gentle guitar that drives the track “Blue” along.

In the chicken and egg scenario of figuring out whether one needs to be a producer or DJ, the Infra egg is golden and really who cares about the chicken.

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