Houndstooth Vinyl & CDs

Review: Katie Gately's second album "Loom" is a very different beast to its predecessor, 2016 debut full-length "Color". Deeply personal and recorded during her mother's ultimately unsuccessful battle against a rare form of cancer, it sees Gately reflect on grief and loss in a surprisingly confident and musically alluring manner. The assembled tracks make extensive use of both densely layered vocal textures and her own distinctive lead vocals, elements which she mixed with ear-catching melodies, woozy electronics and beats that were crafted in part from recordings she made of Californian earthquakes. You'd expect it to be tonally dark given the subject matter, but it's actually far more bold, beguiling and melodic, drawing just as much influence from more pastoral styles of music as Gately's usual experimental electronics and intricate sound design.

Review: Katie Gately's second album "Loom" is a very different beast to its predecessor, 2016 debut full-length "Color". Deeply personal and recorded during her mother's ultimately unsuccessful battle against a rare form of cancer, it sees Gately reflect on grief and loss in a surprisingly confident and musically alluring manner. The assembled tracks make extensive use of both densely layered vocal textures and her own distinctive lead vocals, elements which she mixed with ear-catching melodies, woozy electronics and beats that were crafted in part from recordings she made of Californian earthquakes. You'd expect it to be tonally dark given the subject matter, but it's actually far more bold, beguiling and melodic, drawing just as much influence from more pastoral styles of music as Gately's usual experimental electronics and intricate sound design.