Playing music is all about creating a really unique experience for ourselves as well as the audience,” says Hemingway’s Cat guitarist Lorah Yaccarino. “It’s about entering a higher place, where there’s beauty and inspiration—along with an element of mysticism.”
The Woodstock, New York-based band’s new release, Next to You, combines funky, danceable grooves with gritty, hard-edged rock and exotic Middle Eastern textures. Known for their euphoric club gigs, Hemingway’s Cat weaves music that moves the soul, as well as the feet.
Produced by renowned engineer Julie Last (Madonna, Joni Mitchell, Ricki Lee Jones), the EP Next to You is packed with radio-ready modern pop that’s both intelligent and addictive. Inside are gems like the title track, an expansive, uplifting performance marked by soaring alto sax and lyrics of romantic optimism; “While It’s Hot,” a go-for-it dance floor anthem that swirls with propulsive African rhythms; the empowering “Get Over It” (written by earthy-voiced singer and drummer Denise Parent) and the band’s tour de force, “Dancin Dakini,” a heady invocation of the tantric female deity that never fails to get audiences up and moving.
A crucial component of the singular sound of Hemingway’s Cat is Lorah’s use of droning 12-string electric guitar over the quintet’s percolating jam-band tempos, a technique she honed via her studies of the ancient musical modes of Greece, Africa, and the Middle East under composer and sonic healer Kay Gardner. Lorah’s unique tuning methods and idiosyncratic approach have also seen her collaborating with another legendary composer-mentor, pioneering electronic musician Pauline Oliveros, who cites her as “a deeply satisfying, master guitar player.”
“Some of the songs are written and developed by the whole band, and some are tunes that I’ve brought in,” says the guitarist, who with her band mates is focusing on regional and New York dates and touring. “We want to make music that’s fun and entertaining, but also very healing and able to take people to the next level of consciousness.”
And for those ready to go to that level, Next to You by Hemingway’s Cat is an enticing, open door.
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