Cat Hoch at the Wonder Ballroom in 2018—click to see more photos by Autumn AndelCat Hoch is ready to release her long-anticipated, stellar debut LP Temptations. To say it’s been a long time coming is an understatement.
Way back in May 2017, Hoch dropped the record’s first single, the dancey, indelible "Say U Love Me”—listen below. A year later in April 2018, we featured the gritty album opener "On The Edge" on our 10-inch vinyl, Record Store Day compilation, Our City, Our Sounds, Vol. 2. Then we all waited... and waited.
Hoch stayed plenty busy herself, recording, releasing and touring behind the self-titled debut from BlackWater HolyLight—as the band's drummer no less! As for her solo material, it still sat shelved as she sought help to release it.
But there's good news now! Hoch finally found a local partner in Amplus Records to support the release of Temptations and here we are today ready to celebrate its unveiling to the world on Tuesday, October 1 at Mississippi Studios with Shadowgraphs and DAN DAN.
Produced by Riley Geare (known for his work with Radiation City and Unknown Mortal Orchestra), the album was recorded at NE Portland’s The Green House (the same place where Hoch recorded her 2015 EP Look What You Found). A few of the record’s songs feature a whole band effort, writing and playing, “but it's mostly Riley and I again”—like the EP. “We had Bryson Cone play on quite a few on the songs this time, Bambi Browning from Reptaliens shredded some bass on a song, and there are some other secret surprises such as Andy Rayborn on sax on a song,” Hoch reveals. “It's going to be an eclectic album with many things to offer.”
She’s right: Temptations is psychedelic and synthy; it’s eight tracks that clock in at just over a half hour; it’s fuzzy, dreamy and sexy.
Celebrate the release of Cat Hoch's 'Temptations' via Amplus Records at Music Millennium on September 29 and Mississippi Studios on October 1In anticipation of the public finally being able to hear her new jams, videographer John Coletta got together with Hoch to discuss the significance behind one of her new tracks, “One of Us.” The video interview is actually part of a new series Coletta is launching called Close Read, which he defines as “a mindful, critical analysis of a short piece of text or poetry paying particular attention to linguistic, thematic and stylistic details in an effort to develop a deeper understanding of the piece’s meaning.”
Filmed at SE Portland’s The Goose, Hoch “opens up about the inspiration behind her new song ‘One of Us,’” Coletta says, offering insight into her personal life and “the person at the center of a twist of fate who motivated her to embrace her own songwriting.”
