Holy Wave
- bizzarre
- 2 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Holy Wave announce new album 'i'm DADA' out July 10th via Suicide Squeeze & share new single "‘s33.u.in/HAL"
Holy Wave have been key players in the Austin, Texas rock scene for over a decade. Today, the band announce the new full-length, i'm DADA, out July 10, 2026 via Suicide Squeeze Records.
They have also shared the single "s33.u.in/HAL", which evolves from shuffling verses to a heavier climax. Recorded in coastal Mexico, it teases the energy of an album that is equally surreal and propulsive.
On the single, Holy Wave's Ryan Fuson shares:
“‘s33.u.in/HAL' is like a prayer to the God of shortcomings, a child God that we are raising to one day be our savior. It was one of the first ideas we worked on for the album, but also one of the last songs we finished. I was listening to a lot of Wagon Christ at the time and wanted the song to basically be a Wagon Christ rip-off, but it just didn’t feel right.
Big surprise, that was a tall order. So the song was shelved to the ‘maybe the next album’ part of the new song catalog. Then, late in our demoing phase, Joey and Julian showed up to practice with some ideas for it. We played around with them, and the song literally just started to write itself.
We finished that day with essentially the song done, sans lyrics and some finishing details, and it instantly became one of our favorites. I still hope we put out the other version some day, but this is by far the better of the two.”
In Ensenada, Mexico, where the Pacific horizon cuts a clean, unwavering line, Holy Wave recorded their latest full-length, i’m DADA, a record that feels both expansive and newly concentrated for the subterranean pop four-piece. Stepping outside the United States was less a retreat than a shift in perspective, creating distance to recognize a new sound that had been slowly taking shape among them. i’m DADA quickly revealed its character: more propulsive, more candid, and their most structurally deliberate work to date.
Working alongside experimental duo Lorelle Meets the Obsolete at their studio El Derrumbe the sessions folded community into the album, though its emotional core had already formed over months of pre-production. Half of Holy Wave is Mexican, with roots in the El Paso border region, so recording in Ensenada felt intuitive and relaxed. Joo Joo Ashworth, mixing engineer and longtime friend, also provided a pivotal presence helping crystallize the album’s rhythmic language and subtly expanding the band’s sound. The songs began reflecting conversations about fatherhood and partnership, breakups and estrangement, the queasy acceleration of AI, and what it means to remain present and principled while the world lurches unpredictably forward.
This tension is not announced but absorbed into the music. Holy Wave stretches their familiar sense of woozy atmosphere into something leaner and more direct. There are more loops and samples woven throughout than before, grooves that feel constructed, cyclical, hypnotic. Some tracks drift toward dub’s elastic spaciousness; others pulse with cinematic downtempo gravity. There is a fresh sense of momentum throughout the record, rhythms that pull forward, dream-saturated textures, sheets of fuzz, and softly suspended vocals.
“dewey’s dirge” unfolds patiently: hazy guitars bloom, a softened motorik pulse moving steadily beneath. The vocals remain submerged, widening rather than exploding. It feels expansive and reflective, a comedown hymn that trades drama for immersion. “i’m DADA,” by contrast, locks into a lean, circular groove. A tight drum figure, rubbery bassline, and clipped guitar phrase repeat until they begin to feel animate. Lyrically, the song circles the complicated devotion of fatherhood, written in a brief pocket of rare solitude for a parent: Always loving (Try to do what’s right) / Always learning (There’s never enough time).
“s33.u.in/HAL” plays like a transmission caught midair, faintly mechanical, immersive without ever fully resolving, capturing the album’s central sensation: the act of trying to communicate clearly through static.
If earlier Holy Wave records often felt defined by their sense of drift, i'm DADA feels newly grounded. The album doesn’t abandon immersion; it disciplines it. Grooves settle, repetitions accrue weight, and the music is composed and unshaken amongst its heavier themes. What emerges is not reinvention but a sharpening, with Holy Wave sounding less like a band drifting through atmosphere and more like one deliberately shaping it amongst the chaos.
Picture by James Oswald
Pre-order album here
Tour dates
25th July - Houston, TX @ Axelrad
27th July - New Orleans, LA @ Siberia
29th July - Nashville, TN @ Row One
30th July - Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
31st July - Asheville, NC @ Eulogy
1st Aug - Durham, NC @ The Pinhook
2nd Aug - Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall
4th Aug - Washington, DC @ Pearl Street
5th Aug - Philadelphia, PA @ Milkboy
6th Aug - Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right
7th Aug - Somerville, MA @ Deep Cuts
8th Aug - Montreal, QC @ L’esco
9th Aug - Toronto, ON @ Garrison
11th Aug - Detroit, MI @ Lager House
12th Aug - Milwaukee, WI @ The Argo
13th Aug - Chicago, IL @ The Empty Bottle
14th Aug - St. Louis, MO @ Sink Hole
15th Aug - Kansas City, MO @ Record Bar
21st Aug - Austin, TX @ 29th St. Ballroom
4th Nov - Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress
5th Nov - Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon
7th Nov - Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy & Harriet’s
8th Nov - San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
10th Nov - Santa Cruz, CA @ Moe’s
11th Nov - San Francisco, CA @ Kilowatt
13th Nov - Seattle, WA @ Baba Yaga
14th Nov - Vancouver, BC @ Wise Hall
15th Nov - Portland, OR @ Show Bar
17th Nov - Boise, ID @ Shrine Social Club
18th Nov - Salt Lake City, UT @ The International
20th Nov - Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive
21st Nov - Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad
