It’s been a hot minute between recording sessions for local legends, Hannah Kate. Known for their bevy of garage/ indie-rock gems, each as lyrically evocative with tales of early-mid 20s adversities as the last, four years have passed since Hannah and co.’s dreamy last single, ‘Sunday Mourning’. It’s in this new track, however, we see that fans’ patience has not just been about the band biding time, but rather them building something special.
‘Test Run’, be it directly or otherwise, feels symbolically titled. Newly reconfigured, Hannah Kate now comprises three members geared, on this track at least, more toward grunge than ever. Whilst a bold sonic pivot, what remains familiar is the band's innate ability to articulate the danger in the drudgery and offer an amplified resistance to the dull, daily grind.
Without any introduction, ‘Test Run’ sees Hannah’s ensemble of overdriven guitar, aimed in an angular fashion, cut across a kick drum that feels like a punch to the sternum. Verses ambulate between methodical lead licks and patient rhythms before orchestrations of cathartic chaos comes through the collision of cymbals, bends, and reverb. This loop bears the sense of being swallowed up by a stormy surf, spit out the other side only to be hit all over again.
Amongst it all, Hannah’s voice never wavers. A lynchpin to many, Hannah serves the same role here, not defeated but rather numb to the journey being tread; “searching for something, dunno what I’ll find, in this life." Hannah, like so many of us, is grappling with relentlessly being put through the wash; “I feel like forgotten laundry… please hang me out to dry”.
Closing with tact and tension, a descending bassline runs down into the abyss as unsettling guitar plucks create an ambiance of existential dread. There’s no cliché, climax, or catch-cry to be found here. The final line is, rather, Hannah Kate’s most poignant writing yet; “hate lingers… and regenerates”.
‘Test Run’ is available from today wherever you stream and will be launched at Cactus Room on October 5 with support from Milly Strange and BUGHUNT. A birdie tells us a video clip is also in the works!
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