With applied communications

Also credited as Max Wood

Solo alias of Max Wood (Washington, D.C.), lo-fi / anti-rock art-pop built from discordant vocals, found sounds, and deconstructed gestures. Luke Francis Walton mixed the 2024 comeback EP Has a Midlife Crisis, subsequent singles, and the 2026 LP applied communications bites the big one; Riley Knapp mastered. Bandcamp Daily named that LP its Album of the Day on September 25, 2026. The selection is the album’s. Uhhh Sort Of (2005) was teen outsider-pop that Pitchfork put on its 15 worst releases of 2005 list; Has a Midlife Crisis (2024), billed as 17 years in the making, is beat-driven alt-pop.

Early run: Africa Baby, Yeah Yeah Yeah (2004) and Uhhh Sort Of (2005), basement-pop computer collage. Pitchfork called Uhhh Sort Of emotionally exposed but famously hostile; it landed on the 15 worst releases of 2005 list.

Comeback: Applied Communications Has a Midlife Crisis (Apr 2024), billed as 17 years in the making, more accessible, beat-driven alt-pop while keeping the idiosyncratic core. Chorus.fm: off-kilter pop with Casio, drum machines, random electronic elements, discordant melodies and key changes. Bandcamp tagline: noisy screamy mostly electronic pop music.

2026 LP: applied communications bites the big one (September 25, 2026), nine tracks. Bandcamp Daily named it Album of the Day the day it came out (Luke Jackson). The review is about the album and does not name Walton. Wood’s release post names Scoobert Doobert mixing engineer and Riley Knapp mastering engineer, and calls it his first new LP in about 20 years.

Walton’s role is mix only, not produce. Mixing credit runs from the 2024 EP through later singles and the 2026 LP. Shazam lists lobsteriscos rocketiza with Max Wood vocalist/songwriter, Scoobert Doobert mixing engineer, Riley Knapp mastering.

See also: Press & credits · Catalog