photo courtesy of the artist

L.A.-based band Inner Wave has announced the coming release of their fourth and latest album, Appotosis, on September 30th by releasing a music video for album track “Take 3.” Inner Wave are managed by Cosmica Artists + Records.

The track begins with a thick, honky, effortlessly funky bass line rolling alongside a languid but insistent four-on-the-floor drumbeat, both sharing space with polished, delayed synth mallets. Frontman Pablo Sotelo’s vocals are pleasingly lethargic in the way his syllables land in the pocket with the four-on-the-floor groove. Sotelo’s vocals are accompanied by delicate, echoed guitar strums and mournful, siren-like, infinitely stretched synth lines that seem to underline the melancholy and emotional fatigue of his vocals. Plucked synths that dominate during the chorus add an extra layer of dancefloor gloss that wouldn’t be out of step at a local club some night this weekend. The icing on the cake is the lush middle section that leads the song into it’s conclusion, which has an “everything but the kitchen sink” feel, while managing to remain stately in its unraveling.

The track is special in that its music video also marks Sotelo’s directorial debut. It’s a fairly simple affair, but full of symbolism for covid quarantiners. The singer spends the bulk of the video standing camera center, viewable only from the waist up, and wearing a simple white tank top. Footage of vintage road scenes are projected onto the upper part of his face (an enigmatic but potent visual, to be sure), which alternate with multi-exposed versions of himself. Some are lit from the front with a blood-red glow, some from behind with a single blinding white light, revealing a sea of fog at his feet. It’s definitely a pick for best use of minimal prop resources, and the shot where Sotelo slowly struts across the multicolored stage wearing a full military gas mask apparatus is a not-too-subtle nod to the Covid pandemic. It’s an effectively narcotic video for a lush and hypnotic track that accurately reflects the breakdown of time and space that the covid crisis created, and another artistic document to note the events of the past year and a half. Gabe Hernandez

There is a vintage sound that comes across in LA indie quintet Inner Wave’s latest single “Eclipse” (streaming below). Maybe it’s the way Pablo Sotelo's voice shifts into falsetto during the repeated line “Try, it’s right there for your eyes,” or the way the synth beats start to drive the song into groovy, psychedelic territory. Either way, listening to the song is like losing track of time—it’s mellow but not boring, catchy but not conventional. Hear Inner Wave play tracks like this live a the Constellation Room at the Observatory on August 25th. - Lilly Milman

Congratulations to Inner Wave for winning the Reader's Poll portion of our LA 2013 Best Emerging Band Poll. The fans have spoken, and Inner Wave has risen to the top. Delicately walking the line between experimental psychedelia and indie pop, Inner Wave encompasses that youthful free-spirited ocean-splashing west coast sound. The all male quintet fill their songs with layers of guitars and quirky synth melodies, all while lead singer, Pablo Sotelo croons with raw passion like his voice is being beamed in from a bygone era. Their debut EP, III, is an impressive offering filled with pop gems and mature musical ideas. I'd give their potential for blowing up in 2014 a "Local Natives," you know, on a scale from "Your Dorm-Mate's Ableton Side Project" to "Lorde." Stream III below from bandcamp.