The birds peck out the eyes of the stepsisters, the sister locks the witch in the oven to save her brother, the mother decapitates her stepson and cooks him in soup — such grim familial imaginings are fit for songs by Katie Gately, who for nearly a decade has been making delightfully twisted sonic fables of her own. Gately’s electronic music is theatrically expressive; her clanging, clamorous soundscapes have always had a flair for the dramatic. On her new album Fawn / Brute, she roots those soundscapes in familiar myth: bedtime stories and nursery rhymes that are mischievous and dark-sided.
SIGNATURE MOVE: Kurt Bloch is this long-running Seattle punk-pop outfitâs secret weaponâwriting the songs, producing and playing flashy, melodic lead guitar. He and bandmates
Kim Warnick and
Deep Purple-esque hard rock. So he occasionally seasoned
Fastbacksâ hooky bombast with
Van Halen-esque widdly-widdlys and wang-bar divebombs. Gear-wise, he didnât have a trademark guitar or amp. He tends to like GibsonsâLes Paul Jrs., SGs, Sg Juniors and various Les Pauls. Amp-wise, heâs used 50-watt Marshalls, Peavey 5150s and Fender Prosonics. âAs long as it can sing the solos, then itâs a good guitar/amp combination,â he told Alternative Press.