At the Party with My Brown Friends
Released in September of 2018, Mother of My Children was the debut album from Black Belt Eagle Scout, the recording project of Katherine Paul. Heralded as a favorite new musician of 2018 by the likes of NPR Music, Stereogum, and Paste, the album was also named as a “Best Rock Album of 2018” by Pitchfork, and garnered further end-of-year praise from FADER, Under The Radar and more. Arriving just a year after that debut record, At the Party With My Brown Friends is a brand new full-length recording from Black Belt Eagle Scout. Where that first record was a snapshot of loss and landscape and of KP’s standing as a radical indigenous queer feminist, this new chapter finds its power in love, desire and friendship. At the Party With My Brown Friends is a profound and understated forward step. The squalling guitar anthems that shaped its predecessor are replaced by delicate vocals and soft keys, sentiments spoken and unspoken, presenting something shadowy and unsettling; a stirring of the waters. The end result presents a captivating about-face that redefines KP’s beautifully singular artistic vision.
Encased in swirls of dream-pop production, Katherine Paul’s second album represents a softer, more subtle sort of resistance.
Katherine Paul's understated songwriting blooms beautifully on latest album
The solo project of Portland-based musician Katherine Paul, Black Belt Eagle Scout earned critical praise for the eerie introspective indie rock on her 2018 debut, Mother of My Children.
"Even over here, I feel your voice coming through," sings Katherine Paul, who records as Black Belt Eagle Scout, on "Going to the Beach With...
Some artists are capable of a certain kind of showiness that seizes the light without seeming to do so. Katherine Paul fits this description, achieving more through simple melody and gentle repetition than shock tactics and bombast ever could.
Black Belt Eagle Scout's sincere songwriting makes for an exquisite, intensely personal sophomore album in 'At the Party With My Brown Friends'.