Empath’s Catherine Elicson Announces Debut Solo Album River Of Fat: Hear “Figure”

It's been a while since we've heard from the proudly messy Philadelphia DIY crew Empath, but they're still going, and we think of them fondly. We recognized their last LP, the 2022 sophomore joint Visitor as an Album Of The Week. Empath haven't released any new music in a few years, but they toured earlier this year. They haven't broken up or anything. I'd assume that they'll make another record at some point. In the meantime, bandleader Catherine Elicson has something else on deck — her first-ever solo album, which bears the viscerally tangible title River Of Fat. River Of Fat. Jesus. I can picture the river. It's, like, salmon-pink sludge. It smells real nasty. It kind of looks like the ooze in Ghostbusters 2, but it also looks like Silly Putty. I would love to stop thinking about this. Anyway. Empath have always used lo-fi aesthetics to their advantage, and it looks like River Of Fat will work in the same way. Catherine Elicson started out recording the album's tracks at home. The only people who worked on the album are Elicson and engineer Shaun Sutkus, and Elicson used nothing but a guitar, sampler, synth, and 4-track recorder. A press release cites John Cale, the Urinals, and Amen Dunes as inspirations — a pretty intriguing list, to my mind. Lead single "Figure" is a delicate voice-and-guitar number that reminds me of Mary Timony when she first went solo after Helium. It's great. Halle Ballard did an animated video for the track. Check it out below, along with the River Of Fat tracklist.TRACKLIST:01 "I’m On Fire"02 "A Warm Day In The Park"03 "Figure"04 "River Of Fat"05 "All Sound"06 "My War"07 "Flowers Smile"08 "Safe"09 "CTW"River Of Fat is out 11/6 on Community Music.Evan Eisel