waveform* - Last Room (2022) Hi-Res

The Connecticut DIY duo struggles to shed their influences on this newly remastered and reissued record, yet they still manage to bring a unique virtuosity and vitality to downcast guitar pop.

Coming up in the Connecticut DIY scene, Jarett Denner and Dan Poppa lacked community. They made friends online or with out-of-town bands passing through on tour, their local scene too stagnant to support their ambitions. The pair began performing as waveform* while still in high school, writing and recording hushed acoustic sketches from their bedrooms. Their early work reeked of their idols, namely Alex G, who they both clearly admire; it’s impossible to ignore the uncanny similarities between waveform*’s 2018 album library with Alex G’s Trick and DSU—the pitch-shifted vocals, the sparse guitar strums, the vague one-word song titles. Denner and Poppa expanded their range on 2019’s Shooting Star, elevating their withdrawn minimalism into melodic guitar pop that evoked acts like Hovvdy and Sparklehorse. On their newly remastered and reissued album Last Room, waveform* further explore the boundaries of indie rock without ever quite settling into a cogent identity of their own.