patoftherick - space time

Patoftherick

Space Time
self-released; 2013

3.6 out of 5

By Sean Dennison

Patrick Mulholland, who sounds like he should only exist in fictitious literature about growing up, is this Irish guy who carelessly makes all these punky, punchy instrumental songs in his bedroom in Belfast before breakfast. At least the nervous energy found in Space Time makes me think he recorded these before having anything to eat. Always excitable, these seven songs of commanding guitar and bass rock are frantic but always fun. Mulholland switches between bass guitar and upright bass throughout the album and leaves the drum work to garage band. At some point do you think people will start crediting instruments to machines? I almost think it's fair.

I'll start right off and tell you this music is not boring. Mulholland has a knack for experimenting with a wide variety of genres over the span of barely 18 minutes. I know powerful hooks, a sense of rhythm and melody, employment of tone and timbre and all of that are hallmarks of good music, but it's like Mulholland accidentally finds fun hooks and chord changes and just goes with them. It's not even as if Mulholland is just starting; he played guitar in a band called The Bobcats for a while. Now for all purposes he's just starting out again. There's quite a lot going on here, from the a hardcore leanings of "Pepper" to the erratic weirdness of "Elisabeth,” Space Time covers a lot of ground in little time. Mulholland might sound comfortable trying out new styles, but he sheds them soon as possible. It's a weakness, but it’s the kind you want to see a musician overcome. And even if the album ends up not sounding confident in trying to shape itself in any particular genre, Mulholland's guitar-playing     comes off as sure, even snobbish. The way he licks out licks out a riff and lets it hang there before going in for the kill on another is what makes this album worth a glance…listen…you know what I mean.

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