"Like so many 20 year olds before him, Zion Battle found something transcendent in Joshua Tree National Park. Since age 16, Battle had been working towards becoming a musician, studying for a time at CalArts and New York's The New School. Then, in 2024, he left behind his academic training to begin making music as Katzin, exploring a more intimate sound shaped by a healthy love for the bedroom dream pop of early Orchid Tapes releases and the fuzz of 1990s indie rock."
"The bright and sweet Buckaroo radiates sincerity. Battle's biggest strength is his youthful glee and the way it pours out of him when he pushes his vocals far out of his range on "Hope" or concludes opener "Tightrope" with exuberant yelps. "Our minds/Are murdering doubt/Fuck you/I'm going out on the town," he sings with barely contained rage on "Cowboy" before the song bursts open at the chorus, invoking Broken Social Scene at their most cacophonous."
Zion Battle began making music as Katzin in 2024 after leaving academic training at CalArts and The New School. He and producer Max Morgen set up a DIY studio near Joshua Tree to craft Buckaroo. The album balances intimate bedroom-dream-pop influences and 1990s indie fuzz, foregrounding Battle's youthful glee and frequent vocal extremes on songs like "Hope", "Tightrope", and "Cowboy". Morgen provided production and most auxiliary instrumentation, adding banjo, delicate piano, and digital delay that deepen the arrangements. The tracks evolve from earlier versions into layered compositions, culminating in energetic, '90s-alt nods such as "Nantucket".
Read at Pitchfork
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