Holy Wave’s i’m DADA: An Austin Guide to the New Album

Release

i’m DADA at a glance

Release date

July 10, 2026

Label

Suicide Squeeze Records

Album

10 tracks · Austin psych rock · recorded in Ensenada and Los Angeles

Holy Wave’s Bandcamp page and Suicide Squeeze’s release announcement agree on the essentials: i’m DADA arrived July 10 with 10 songs, beginning with “US 54” and closing with “dewey’s dirge.” It is the Austin group’s latest full-length after Five of Cups in 2023.

KUTX describes i’m DADA as Holy Wave’s seventh album and selected “First DAE” for its August roundup of notable new Austin music. The station’s coverage places the release inside a local career that has stretched beyond a decade, not as an isolated debut from a new project.

Artist

Why Holy Wave left Austin to make it

Main sessions

Recorded at El Derrumbe in Ensenada, Mexico

Production

Additional recording and mixing at Studio 22 in Los Angeles

The band recorded the core of the album at El Derrumbe with members of experimental duo Lorelle Meets the Obsolete. Suicide Squeeze says the distance from the United States gave Holy Wave room to recognize a more concentrated sound that had already been taking shape during pre-production.

That location also carried a personal connection: the label notes that half of Holy Wave is Mexican, with roots in the El Paso border region. Joo Joo Ashworth recorded the sessions in Ensenada and at Studio 22 in Los Angeles, produced and mixed the album, and helped focus its rhythmic language.

Artist

The Austin connection never left the record

Mastered at

Cacophony Recorders · Austin

Credit

Mastering by Erik Wofford

The sessions traveled, but the final production step came home. Holy Wave’s official album credits name Erik Wofford as mastering engineer at Cacophony Recorders in Austin. Wofford’s studio is part of the same local recording ecosystem Trackside documents through its studio and talent directories.

The wider context is local too. Suicide Squeeze calls Holy Wave a key part of Austin’s rock scene for more than a decade, while KUTX has documented the group since at least its 2016 Studio 1A appearance. i’m DADA extends that Austin history through a deliberately international recording process.

Guide

A more rhythmic kind of Holy Wave

Listening frame

Loops · samples · dub space · motorik motion · suspended vocals

The album does not abandon Holy Wave’s hazy guitars and submerged vocals. Instead, it organizes them around firmer cycles: loops, samples and repeated grooves provide momentum, while open space keeps the music from feeling crowded. The result is less about a dramatic stylistic break than a sharper use of the band’s existing atmosphere.

That distinction matters when listening front to back. The textures still drift, but the structures do not. Bass figures, drum patterns and clipped guitar parts return until they feel like characters in the songs, giving the record a steadier internal clock than a purely ambient psych album.

Guide

Three tracks that open the album up

Start here

“s33.u.in/HAL” · “First DAE” · “i’m DADA”

Begin with “s33.u.in/HAL,” the first song announced with the album. Its shuffling opening grows into a heavier final section, making it a useful bridge between Holy Wave’s atmospheric instincts and the new record’s more forceful architecture.

Then move to “First DAE,” the compact track KUTX highlighted for its breezy psychedelia and the uneasy conversation beneath it. Finish the short route with the title track, where a circular rhythm supports writing about parenthood, responsibility and the fear of losing yourself inside a role. Together, the three songs reveal the album’s range without skipping its central ideas.

Guide

What the record is actually wrestling with

Themes

Parenthood · partnership · estrangement · technology · staying present

Suicide Squeeze’s notes trace the songs to conversations about becoming a parent, sustaining partnerships, surviving breakups and estrangement, and staying principled while technology and public life accelerate. The record rarely presents those subjects as declarations; they appear inside repetition, interrupted communication and uneasy calm.

That is why the album’s title works on more than one level. “Dada” can sound like an art-school disruption, a child’s word or the self-description of a father. Holy Wave lets those meanings overlap, turning a playful phrase into a compact way of describing adulthood, absurdity and responsibility at once.

Event

Holy Wave’s Austin Halloween return

When

Saturday, October 31, 2026 · 5–11:45 p.m.

Where

The Far Out Lounge · 8504 S. Congress Ave., Austin

Bill

All ages · the Jesus and Mary Chain · Protomartyr · Holy Wave · DAIISTAR · Blushing · more

The Far Out Lounge’s official ticket page lists Holy Wave on a seven-act Halloween program headlined by the Jesus and Mary Chain and also featuring Protomartyr, fellow Austin psych band DAIISTAR, Blushing, Commercial Breaks and DJ Tropicana Joe. KUTX independently lists the same date, venue and all-ages policy.

The event runs from 5 p.m. until 11:45 p.m., so it functions more like a one-night mini-festival than a standard three-band club show. Holy Wave’s new material should sit naturally between the bill’s post-punk, noise-pop and shoegaze edges while giving the night a clear Austin anchor.

Guide

Plan the night before Halloween gets crowded

Know before you go

Limited parking · rideshare encouraged · all sales final unless canceled or postponed

The venue says parking is limited and encourages rideshare. With seven announced acts and a six-hour-plus schedule, arrive with enough time for entry and do not plan around a single unconfirmed set time; the current ticket page publishes the overall event window, not an artist-by-artist schedule.

The show is all ages. The venue also says sales are final unless the event is canceled or postponed. Check the official listing again before leaving for South Congress, because lineup details, ticket inventory and performance times can change between publication and October 31.

Guide

The working-musician takeaway

Studio lesson

Change the room · keep the identity · credit the full chain

i’m DADA is a practical example of how changing the recording environment can sharpen a band without erasing it. Holy Wave carried its established chemistry to Ensenada, brought in trusted collaborators, finished production in Los Angeles and returned to an Austin engineer for mastering. Each place served a defined role.

For Austin artists planning a record, the useful question is not whether everything must happen locally. It is which collaborators and rooms serve each stage best. Trackside’s studio and talent directories can help compare recording, production, mixing and mastering options before a session becomes a travel plan.

Quick answers

Holy Wave i’m DADA frequently asked questions