ALBUM REVIEW: Hot by Aunt Katrina
Album art by Emma Banks
Aunt Katrina is the side project of Ryan Walchonski, guitarist/producer/writer for the fiercely independent band Feeble Little Horse born out of the Pittsburgh DIY scene. I chuckle internally writing this review, imagining that I may be one of the only new fans to discover Feeble Little Horse through Aunt Katrina’s new bite-sized LP Hot. This feeling coupled with an overflow of anticipation and excitement around the fact that Walchonski now lives and works among us in the DMV. I hope that reading this review might compel you to give Hot, Walchonski’s December 2023 release, 16 minutes of your undivided attention and perhaps grab a ticket to Aunt Katrina’s upcoming show at Songbyrd.
When writing for Feeble Little Horse’s sophomore album Girl with Fish, Walchonski and co-founding guitarist Sebastian Kinsler made a pact that they would not bring fully-baked riffs to the proverbial table. I can’t help but wonder if at that time Walchonski had begun to stockpile forbidden creative nuggets for a future project that would become Hot. Perhaps on the tail of Feeble Little Horse’s canceled summer tour, Walchonski had the time and material to bring his solo project to fruition. In its 7 tracks, Hot manages to fully construct a sound world that combines Eastern and Western musical influences and uncovers an anti-existentialist approach to post-youth. The mix of electronic and found sounds is serving Yankee Hotel Foxtrot with a side of Mount Kimbie. If that’s your jam, then you’re going to love Hot.
The first track on Hot, “Sunday,” opens with a hyperactive intro of what seems like a mix of acoustically-captured and electronically-sourced sounds with a found spoken vocal sample embedded in the mix. The words are barely intelligible, but the rhythm of speech adds an attractive off-kilter quality to the flow. As in “Sunday,” many of Hot’s leading guitar riffs are pulled from the pentatonic scale and have an elementary first-idea-that-came-to-mind quality; imagine a kid sitting down at a keyboard and poking around on black keys only. The acoustic guitar episodes that accompany the first lyric, “Haven’t sent my love to you in a long day,” are squeaky clean and catchy, immediately distinguishing Aunt Katrina from any strong Feeble Little Horse associations. Walchonski’s layered vocals are breathy in an unhealthy way, almost like an employee feigning ill over the phone to cash in a sick day. I am in love with the lyric “Guess it’s true I’m not good to you in our own way,” which says so much with so few words. This line sets the emotional tone for the rest of the album. Drummer Ray Brown, who has been playing with Snail Mail since Lush, holds Walchonski’s musical collage together with an expert ear for rhythmic impetus.
“Obsessed” sounds as if Slightly Stoopid got blackout and attempted to play a song with My Bloody Valentine’s gear (and I mean that in the best way). “Choir” is a triumph, combining the tinny overtones of what could be Javanese Gamelan or an exotic wind chime and a mashup of samples from a foreign children’s choir. The Eastern instrumental sounds with the Western harmonic influence in the choir samples make “Choir” a fitting interlude on Hot. “Get Me Out of Bed” channels artistic ennui, hurling the listener in and out of intentionally outdated electronica amidst deadpan vocals (echoes of mid-90’s Beck). “Let Me Go” proves a moving outro with its old-timey piano lick and melty major ninth chords. Band member Laney Ackley intones its single lyric “I’m not afraid so let me go,” an underwater dream pop effect applied to her lead vocal.
On their Spotify artist page, Aunt Katrina quotes the second stanza of Emily Dickinson’s poem “Pain—has an Element of Blank—.” Aunt Katrina is steeped not only in a poignant bath of sound, but also in a stew of emotions that range from bemusement to creeping depression. The acceptance of the fact that devoting one’s life to a music project is a pipe dream. The resignation of giving up one’s aching grip on relevance in an age of looming AI takeover. True to form, Walchonski keeps a 9-5 with the aim of someday buying a house and never having to rely on a career in music to make ends meet.
