The best recording artists create their own personalized, unique sound with their songs or compositions, their musical ideas and their mastery of the tools of the studio. Jeff Jagielo and Squarewave do this. No, they are not as well known as some of rock’s great bands like Radiohead or The National, but their records and Jagielo’s recording skills and musical ideas are equally masterful and stunningly inspired. Without a doubt, Squarewave, which hails from Wisconsin in the U.S., is one of the best bands in rock that not enough people know about, but need to hear.
Squarewave’s new record, Hazy, available for downloads, and on CD and audiophile 180 gram vinyl, is at once, moody, atmospheric, elegiac, spooky, driving and yearning for lives that might have been or could still be. Chiming guitars, bell-like pianos, and haunting vocals combine with spare dry drums, bubbly synths and unexpected musical turns and timbres to create an audio canvas that is, in the end, uniquely and purely Squarewave. Recorded at Squarewave’s personal studio, Jagielo’s mastery of studio technology, blending textures and ambience is something to behold. The stellar sound rivals essentially any studio in the world. In the end descriptions only go so far—you really have to hear it to ‘hear it.’
Squarewave on Hazy is comprised of Biff Blumfumgagnage on violin and vocals, Patrick Connaughty on guitar, keyboards and vocals and Jeff Jagielo on guitar, keyboards and vocals. Patrick and Jeff first joined forces in 1995 in Jeff’s band Ivory Library. After Ivory Library disbanded Connaughty and Jagielo continued making music and debuted as Squarewave in 2006 with the album Dullhead. The band followed with Faint Glow in 2007 and Throwing Stones in 2008. Nine years later Connaughty and Jagielo emerged in 2017 with A Tighter Knot.