Holy Wave

When the Austin, TX quartet Holy Wave crafted their 2023 album Five of Cups, they had just emerged from the pandemic lockdown, crawling back into a world they hadn’t been sure would still exist when they were mired in the darkest days of 2020. Though the album functions both as a statement on surviving an uncertain era and as a standalone piece of art untethered to a specific timeframe, there was a curious and exhilarating evolutionary step between the band’s awakening from quarantine and the full-length album that spoke to the turbulent opening years of the ‘20s. In early 2022, Holy Wave embarked on their first tour in the wake of the lockdown—a West Coast run that ended in LA. With no shows booked for the way home, the band decided to spend a few extra days in LA recording at Studio 22 with their friend Tomas Dolas. While a few of these recordings would eventually be released as digital singles or part of split 7”s, the session contained a certain magic that warranted presenting the full tracklist as a complete mini-album. So it is with pleasure that Holy Wave presents Studio 22 Singles and B-Sides.

The 7-track EP opens with Holy Wave’s modern classic “Chapparal.” Originally released as a digital single in July ’22, “Chapparal” embodies Holy Wave’s distinctive brand of psychedelia, conjuring both the lazily drifting trails of smoke in late night hangouts and the optimism of early morning sun rays through an open window. Previous digital single “Cowprint” appears here too, bringing its downtempo cosmic-country vibe to vinyl for the first time. Studio 22 Singles and B-Sides also features the kosmische-infused “Time Crisis Too” from the band’s split 7” with Chastity Belt and a previously unreleased version of “Bog Song,” the latter which underscores how Holy Wave’s brand of psych rock owes its pleasantly disorienting aura not to studio trickery or protracted jams, but to their knack for weaving earworm melodies through counterintuitive chord progressions and woozy instrumentation.

But the choicest nuggets on Studio 22 Singles and B-Sides are the new surprises. Lead single “Father’s Prayer” harkens back to lysergic ’60s artists like The Zombies, unfurling a charming pop tune bolstered by electric piano and dizzying mellotron sounds. The instrumental “String Performer” is a gorgeous exploration of cascading piano and e-bowed guitars sure to entrance fans of Brian Eno’s ambient albums and Robert Fripp collaborations.

Taken as a whole, the songs on Studio 22 Singles and B-Sides capture a band basking in the joy of making music together after fearing such pleasures were a thing of the past. Made with no ambitions beyond seizing the opportunity to commit these long-gestating song ideas to tape, it’s a document of triumph and friendship, as well as a heady journey into territories of the strange and sublime.