by Devon Chodzin (@bigugly)
Philadelphia is a complicated place. The onetime national capital has remained a touching point in the American imaginary, one where fantasies of patriotism and democracy clash with the lived materiality of America’s violent domestic practices. The city’s collar counties speak of it as a warzone while its residents are less likely to feel that so flatly. As phantasmatic as those fears may be, Philadelphians are all too familiar with the challenges within its borders, many of which include violence, and the uniquely flourishing Philadelphia music scene is rich with musicians confronting the city’s reality and imagining something better.
For Hunter Mockett, who makes hypnotic, closely held music as Aaberg, his first months in Philadelphia offered a dichotomy: a chaotic city and a cozy domicile. On “Mouth,” the first single off his upcoming album Wishing Well (out August 2nd via Forged Artifacts), Mockett’s near-whisper vocals betray the sense of gratitude and perseverance he cultivated while acclimating to his new life in America. Rather than languish in fear or desperate sadness, Mockett embraces vulnerability while imagining something better for himself and those around him over intricate percussion and sonorous guitar.