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Loom

by Katie Gately

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Digipack with a clear tray and horizontal slot printed booklet

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    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      £10 GBP or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of Loom via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      £16.99 GBP or more 

     

1.
Ritual 02:58
2.
Allay 04:56
ALLAY I am running through your streets in circles I am jumping through your rings with wings I am reaching for the wings of a circus I am ticking like a well taut sling I am running through your streets in circles I am jumping through your rings with wings I am living in a womb made of dirt and dust and I am flirting with a silent ring You could try to hold the beast back, but it holds you closer Try to hold a yeast down, but it rises faster I am running through your streets through your streets through your streets Lives a beast ... There’s no swifter way... to draw a bum to her bait And no time to race... aches that know their outpaced When it meets you... there’ll be blood too When it feels blue...you’ll succumb to There’s no swifter way... to draw a bum to her bait Not too soft to trace….a loom threads through your lace When it sees you... you’ll be lamb stew When it feels new... you’ll be long doomed
3.
Waltz 05:17 video
WALTZ When you see me I am already gone When you see me I am already gone When you see meat I’ve all but turned to stone Send this dream landscape into my veins Oh, oh send it through! Send this dream landscape into my veins Oh, oh send it through! Evil laughter You were born four days before we met Four days before you came to learn my name You were born four days before we met, Four days before I came to learn my – Dance dance dance! In a sofa made of coffin Dance dance dance! In a sofa made of coffin I’ll rake you and take you to task with a sneer Then sway as I place you across a sad mirror I’ll hate you and state you a fiend insincere Then eat all your porridge and call you my dear I’ll scream through a forest: “I’m done with your claws!” Then tickle my temple with all your four paws I’ll shiver and shriek at the thought of your walls! Then giggle and gather my coins for your cause A hunger that’s wider and thicker than tricks Tripping your grandma to get to her scripts A hunger that’s fickle and spotted with ticks Lock all your cupboards I’m here for my fix
4.
Bracer 10:31
BRACER I sailed away, discomfort was allayed I set a date, a desertion of this wave But where where where were you? And where where where was my use? Sordid was my yard Swollen and charred And where where where were you? And where where where was my use? Scream through a choir of two... you said: The path of a feral penchant is paved in silence Silence And then, back again, the rain... oh how it came And then, back again, the rain... oh how it came And where where where were you? And where where where was my use... I was about a silly man’s string, I was about I was about a silly man’s string, I was a bow Sin sin sin sin sin for the win Sin sin sin sin sin for the win ! .. Take my sin and shove it into yours Take my sin and shove it into yours! .. Ooh ooh da dee da dee Crowded, hollow, shouted a road Crowded, hollow, shouted a long, long road Beast gonna take your light away Beast gonna haunt your home Beast gonna rip at the slightest fray Beast gonna rock and a roll Hoo hoo! I’m gonna hold my will to my heart You can decrypt it and rip it apart I’m gonna hold my will to my heart I’m gonna hold my will to my heart I want it, I need it, I’ll take it, I’ll keep it I want it, I need it, I’ll bake it, I’ll eat it I want it, I need it, I’ll fake it, I’ll thieve it I want it, I need it, I’ll bait it, I’ll beat it He wanted it, he needed it He threw a fit, he blew a skit He flaunted spit, he beaded sweat He twisted red, he bled and pled She wants it, she needs it She’ll take it, she’ll steal it She wants it, she needs it She’ll take it, she’ll steal it OOOOOooooooooooooo!
5.
Rite 02:29
6.
Tower 06:05
TOWER Sweet downcast, sweet downcast, Sweet downcast needs to take a seat If I could take you into my arms, I would hold you in this little front, this little front yard And I would dig a hole, dig dig, dig dig dig, dig and yes sir You would fit, you would fit, you would fit You would fit, right there into it If I could take you into my arms, I would hold you to the ground I would hold you, I would hold you, I would hold you til you drowned Sweet sweet dead souls Sweet sweet dead souls Gonna roll and a roll, and a roll and a roll If I could take you into my arms, I would hold you in this little front, this little front yard I would dig a hole, dig dig, dig dig dig dig and yes sir And yes sir you would fit into it I can sweat a little of the wreck my darling I can sweat a little of the weight I can say I waited with a baited bargain Baited bargain, beg your pardon, waiting for your edge to fray Oooo oo ooo They say, they sa-ay He always sat alone
7.
Flow 06:13
FLOW Just as you let yourself go I’ll be a shape outside your window Just as you shake your head no I’ll be a pill your forced to swallow Hungry for what they call flow Hungry for what they call flow And if you knees shake It means you are awake And if your hands swell Nobody can tell But I won’t let you hate yourself no more I won’t let you hurt yourself no more ‘Cause I’m hungry for what they call flow I’m hungry for what they call flow There’s nowhere to hide from a heart this big There’s nowhere to hide from a heart this big … I called the house of the Lord He had a swollen sword He said run run run from the wall Ain’t got no room in this hall I called the house of the Lord I called the house of the Lord But there’s ain’t nobody home Choose light
8.
Rest 02:59

about

Following remix work for Björk and Zola Jesus, productions for serpentwithfeet, and her debut album on Tri-Angle, American experimental musician and producer Katie Gately moves to Houndstooth for her sophomore album Loom, dedicated to her mother, who passed away in 2018. “My mother’s voice is in this record, her picture’s in the sleeve notes. This record is for her” says Katie.

Katie’s mother was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of cancer shortly after seeing Katie perform for the first time, and Loom was made during her mother’s illness. To solidify the enormity of a loss like this, Gately has added the seismic rumble and aural grit of real earthquake recordings in her productions – alongside her signature adventurous sound design and earwormy melodies – to signify how grief like this is like the shifting of the earth. “I felt like my world was being shaken,” says Katie. “I was losing the person who created me, and it seemed an appropriate time to sample earthquakes.”

Where her debut album Color, (2016) deployed fractured rhythms, fierce licks, bold samples and her signature paintbox pop hooks, Loom reveals crepuscular textures. Her voice is more forward in the mix, often densely layered in choral laments above a coarse foundation of hard and brittle sound design, the latter of which is rooted in her film school training. As well as earthquake sounds, Loom includes more samples, chosen for their associative power, peacocks screaming, pill bottles shaking, a coffin closing, wolves howling, a shovel digging, a paper shredder, stone grinding and heavily processed audio from her parent’s wedding.

At the time of her mother’s diagnosis, Katie was near completion of an entirely different album, but says that very quickly she realized she “didn’t have the bandwidth to make that record anymore.” She returned from LA to her family home in Brooklyn and started again, completely rebuilding the album around the track ‘Bracer’, which was her mother’s favourite. She made it while she couldn’t sleep, and the result is a record she says is powered more by heart than mind, with sucker-punch richness and keening vocals that are unflinching. “The process is blurry to me now,” she says. “I don’t know if I’d recommend it, but I didn’t have time to worry about perfecting things, I was just working when everyone was asleep – it was the only time I had.”

Her lyrics are rooted in the events she was experiencing, but describe personifications and abstracted feelings. ‘Flow’ is written from the perspective of her mother; in ‘Allay’ she speaks as the cancer; in ‘Tower’ she inhabits the medicine that confronts the cancer. “They’re darker in tone,” she explains, “but I see beauty in that.”

‘Waltz’ and ‘Bracer’ are tracks she describes as being like a brother and sister: “They’re about the same thing, about being disoriented and wanting to check out with a substance – I used whisky.” ‘Waltz’ spins in on itself, whereas ‘Bracer’ reaches for a series of climaxes that drop out before they can peak.

The three interludes, ‘Ritual’, ‘Rite’ and ‘Rest’ are a triptych that carve out light and space to breathe – sometimes synthesizing sounds like exhalations – between the density of other tracks. They are spliced sections of one longer track, with ‘Rest’ closing the album. “When my mother passed I ate doughnuts and slept for a month,” she says. “The pressures from the music industry just fell away – release schedules and the like just didn’t matter any more. But a callous had to be formed, so after that I finished the record, and it was done by the beginning of 2019.”

Katie has also released 12”s and a cassette on a number of notable underground labels – Public Information and Blue Tapes, as well as the critically acclaimed FatCat Split Series. This summer Katie was part of the recent Mary Anne Hobbs curated ‘Queens of the Underground’ Festival in Manchester alongside Houndstooth musician Aisha Devi. She is currently living in LA and teaching at CalArts.

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released February 14, 2020

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Katie Gately Pasadena, California

Musician, producer & sound designer based in Pasadena, CA

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