The cover of Holy Wave‘s new album, i’m DADA, flat-out tells us “This is gonna be magical.” #Accurate
Recorded with their pals Lorelle Meets the Obsolete (with whom they’d also collaborated on their excellent album Five of Cups) and Joo Joo Ashworth of Froth, Holy Wave headed into the desert to not only record, but also to dive into heady subjects like fatherhood, finding and losing love, being present in an age where everything is grabbing for your attention, and, as you can guess by the album cover, art and its place in a world where programs that claim to make art “accessible” just make it cheaper and soulless.
“US 54” refers to a highway that cuts diagonally through New Mexico’s southwest corner and sets the album, band, and us on a journey that you know if going to open up some philosophical stuff. The cheekily named “s33.u.in./HAL” has wild, fuzzy guitars and slightly creepy samples while they look for meaning in caveman diets, self-help video streams, and other stuff that they secretly know is meaningless.
The bass groove of “happy song” lets you know it might not be all that happy, and then you hear the grumpy hornets-like guitars and think, “Yeah, maybe this title is ironic.” The keyboards and synths on “first DAE” are bright, shiny, and fun while the lyrics speak of chastising oneself for not figuring out something in a relationship that might not even be your fault (“No ‘How do you do’s?’, no ‘I love you’s.'”).
“lull” draws you in with its muted vocals and intriguing sounds, and soon you’re in a trance with the whole band. The title track is a trippy one, often sounding like it’s melting in the New Mexico sun. Dadaists loved deconstructing and reconstructing art forms, and the track (and album) sounds like something they took apart, put back together, and created a new thing. “unison” is another good example. Weird, space age synths mix with tight drumming, what might be an accordion or harmonium, and vocals sung through an inter-dimensional mirror. “too one” is what you hear when you walk through that inter-dimensional mirror.
“to other” is a synth bliss-out as you float through the new dimension Holy Wave have created. They’ve taken chords and sounds and stretched, shaped, and soothed them into something you’re not sure you can describe (again, like Dadaist art). The album ends with “dewey’s dirge,” a song that begins with “So long, farewell, goodbye…” and the band turning up the volume, echo, and fuzz instead of going out on a mellow note.
When I interviewed Holy Wave back in May of this year, they told me they almost called the album Art Department since they all have different forms of art they enjoy and create outside of music ranging from film to food. They love collaborating and how such team-ups help everyone create something they and we didn’t expect.
They’re Dada, after all.
Keep your mind open.
[Don’t forget to subscribe.]
[Thanks to Andi from Terrorbird Media.]