Our featured album this week is “The Ending Of An Age“, the brand new record by Austin new wave/synthpop project Holy Wire (aka Alain Paradis).
Holy Wire has carved out a place by transforming early post-punk and cold-wave sounds into hi-fi synth-pop. Paradis created Holy Wire, drawing inspiration from his time living in Park Slope, Brooklyn. After ending a turbulent relationship and moving away from his social enclave in Bushwick, he spent nights drinking at the local bars and darting around the city meeting women through dating apps. “I always lacked a sense of belonging,” says Paradis, “it just felt like this cosmic wash of winter darkness.”
After wandering around Brooklyn and participating in a few bands, Paradis’ long search for community brought him to the music scene in Austin, Texas, where he settled in 2021. Since its inception, Holy Wire has opened for The KVB, Urban Heat, and Xeno and Oaklander.
Produced by Abe Seiferth (Nation of Language, Yeasayer), the record features ten polished new wave and synth tracks. The music hangs on a precipice where robotic drums, rigid basslines, and synthetic blips out of a soviet laboratory give way to a gauzy, dreamlike chorus. Icy synths ebb and flow, instilling a sense of perpetual winter.
Favourite tracks: A War I Never Win, I Still Feel Alone All The Time, Forgive Me, Phantom Nihilism, Worse For Wear, The Ending Of An Age…
‘The Ending of an Age‘ is out now via A la Carte Records. Buy it here and stream it below.
The Ending of an Age Tracklist:
1. A War I Never Win
2. I Still Feel Alone All The Time
3. Lost
4. Forgive Me
5. Worse For Wear
6. Fault Lines
7. The Ending Of An Age
8. Twenty Six
9. Phantom Nihilism
10. Other Lives
Photo credit: @goldcatstudios
