Album Notes

If there are dive bars in the underworld, and if there is any justice in the world there are, then somewhere, in one of those dive bars, there’s a skeleton in a slinky dress singing something that sounds like whiskey and the eyelashes of angels.

Now, I don’t expect you are in the underworld. Hardly anyone spends much time there, in the usual course of their life. We made this record so you wouldn’t miss out.

DeatHat draws on the post-industrial soundscapes of Corpus Callosum and Xiu Xiu, the structure of traditional Celtic music and sea chanteys, the complex interaction of simple patterns posited by Steve Reich or John Lurie, and the soul of early jazz and funk. Kate Saturday’s lyrics are, by turns, shimmering, brittle, soaring, vaporous, clever, dreamy, savage, and redemptive, evoking William Blake or Joanna Newsom.

DeatHat’s live performance is a picture in sonar contrast, playing the deep notes of Erik Ostrom’s acoustic bass guitar against Saturday’s wildcat soprano and the sharp staccato of the marimba with the tidal glissando of voices and bass. Their first record, Eponymy, plays with a wider variety of found sound and limited soundsets. The last track, “Julio,” is played entirely on tuning forks. Other instruments on the album include a glass bowl, styrofoam, bottles and jars, paper, and a homemade zither, in addition to the instrumental core of bass and marimba.