Watch: Katie Gately “Last Day”

22 Jul 2013 — Evelyn Malinowski

Upon the first slamming drum beat in Katie Gately's “Last Day,” and the crackling, sweeping-glass-up off-beat dragging behind, we are reminded of the contemporary mood of intelligent dance music as well as recently resurrected dark electronica provided by Perc, Forest Swords, and Miles Whittaker. The quivering vocal loop zooms in to quite poignantly adorn the factory floor dissonance while the greater structure of the dreamy track is successfully spotlighted: synthesis of polar elements and textures. Metal and water. Fire and ice. Atheist techno drone and ephemeral vocals?

Female vocal loops is a style familiarized by the likes of Julianna Barwick, or, if applying dance beats, Grimes, and timelessly, always to some mentionable extent, Liz Fraser of the Cocteau Twins can be placed as influential. Gately's voice falls into the same octave range of High Places' Mary Pearson, a neighboring Los Angeles dance duo who mostly participate in faster, less intellectually straining sounds. Yet, uniquely, what we experience with “Last Day” is a deliberate remaining in an ominous uncertainty. The track picks up assertively while lingering for the rest of its duration.

Alexander Stewart's textural, gestaltist video is accurately representative of materials – and primary colors – opposed to each other. Climbing up the screen we see jagged lines which recapitulate mountains. Lain on top are slowly revolving solid colored and gauzy spikes that remind us of both sharp edges of which to beware, and altitudinal convection. We are struck with empirical memories of things that can penetrate and pinch the skin, especially within an atmosphere of manual labor. Perhaps Stewart's images echo Gately's perspective on the southern California mountains rolling out of the desert to finally meet the ocean. Regardless, it is safe to infer that Gately is somewhat reverent of machinery.

Katie Gately's self-titled debut on Public Information is out September 2nd. Pre-order now here.