Tag: Holy Wave Interloper

Top 35 albums of 2020: #’s 20 – 16

We’re into the top 20 albums of 2020 (out of the nearly 80 new albums I reviewed last year). Who made the cut? Read on…

#20: Matt Karmil – STS371

This EDM record is full of throbbing bass, oil slick beats, and ambient / psychedelic synths. It works its way under your skin and moves your bones.

#19: Ultraflex – Visions of Ultraflex

Cover that looks like a 1980s New Age CD? Check. Synthwave keyboards that could fit right into a sci-fi film? Check. Sexy Replicant vocals? Check. Visions of Ultraflex manages to be both a neat synthwave album and one of the best make-out records of 2020 at the same time.

#18: Oh Sees – Metamorphosed

This album is “only” five tracks in length, and the first three are under two minutes each. The other two, however, make up for the rest of the album’s time length of over forty minutes. It’s a mix of punk rockers and prog-psych-krautrock jams that shows how deftly Oh Sees can move back and forth between styles.

#17: Holy Wave – Interloper

Holy Wave came back with a fine addition to their catalogue. Interloper blends psychedelia with some shoegaze and surf elements and is full of songs about not fitting in or being comfortable anywhere. That alone could sum up 2020.

#16: Oh Sees – Live at Big Sur

Yes, two Oh Sees albums in this list. Live at Big Sur was their second live-streamed show of 2020. They played at the Henry Miller Library and dove deep into their back catalogue to play stuff they hadn’t played live in years. The encore was a barrage of covers, many of them Black Flag tunes.

We’re over halfway through the list! Come back tomorrow for more!

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Holy Wave – Interloper

Austin dream-psych rockers Holy Wave‘s new album, Interloper, is a great blend of surf drones, shoegaze touches, and mind-trip riffs. The weird album cover art sums up the sound of the album fairly well – abstract to a degree, expanding and shrinking at the same time, and full of riddles.

Opening with a song called “Schmetterling” (German for “Butterfly”) is a good choice for the record, as the song spreads its silky wings and flutters out of your speakers with a happy, warm, Zen groove (“The sound of destruction sounds just like creation.”). “R&B” sings R&B lyrics (“I knew I wanted to be with you when you kissed me, and now these lips are just for you. I only have eyes for you.”) over psychedelic guitar chords and synthwave keyboards.

The Beatles-influenced title track is an ode (or possibly a lament) to the different worlds of touring the world and hanging out at home. The prominent synth work on it is quite good. “Maybe Then I Can Cry” is great psychedelia and a song about lost loves and holding onto memories. “Escapism” has the band hushing us as the psychedelic butterfly wings warm in the Texas sun and then take flight across an herb garden in some lovely hippie woman’s backyard.

However, on the next track they declare “I’m Not Living in the Past Anymore.” It’s a hot synth-rock track and a highlight of the record with the band pleading for us (and themselves) to stay in the present and embrace all there is, was, and will be. “No Love” is a dreamy track, not unlike a Slowdive tune (who are known influences on the band) with its vocals and instruments sounding like that butterfly now gliding along a lazy river that flows near a club playing a mix of acid jazz and psych-rock.

The title of “Hell Bastards” sounds like it’s going to be the theme song to an obscure European WWII movie from the 1960’s, but it’s actually a cool krautrock song. The beats of “Buddhist Pete” (the longest track on the record) get into your shoulders and make you move. The closing track, “Redhead,” drifts into your ears, settles in your brain, and stays there like a butterfly perched on your arm.

An interloper is someone who becomes involved in a place or situation where they’re not wanted or don’t belong. It’s easy to feel like that, especially in 2020, and even in a “normal” year if you’re in a touring band. Holy Wave probably felt like interlopers scores of times while touring, and Interloper is a great narrative of them being out of place at home and abroad.

Keep your mind open.

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