We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Southern Gap

by Dylan M. Howe

supported by
sameep
sameep thumbnail
Dorosoto
Dorosoto thumbnail
Carl Laukkanen.
Carl Laukkanen. thumbnail
Nathan Baker
Nathan Baker thumbnail
dlhowe
dlhowe thumbnail
harvestmedium
harvestmedium thumbnail
Fred Nixon
Fred Nixon thumbnail
Patricia Wolf
Patricia Wolf thumbnail
/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $5 USD  or more

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    6
    releases

    Get all 6 Dylan M. Howe releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Complex Aquatics, Horseback Nomadism, Criterion Summer, Vegas Tape, Latest Sounds 2010 - 2016, and Southern Gap. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      $16.25 USD or more (35% OFF)

     

  • 12" Vinyl
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Limited edition vinyl, plays at 45 RPM. Cover risoprinted at Secret Riso Club in Ridgewood, NY. Limited to 35 copies. Mastered by Andrew Weathers.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Southern Gap via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out
1.
Arcade Flutes 06:54
buy track
2.
Ritual for Conscious Dying 06:07
buy track
3.
Ninety Blocks 07:30
buy track
4.
Courtyard 07:25
buy track

about

"Cold but never sterile, the drones speak of urban disintegration and societal collapse while retaining the beautiful individuality of an outsider. The buildings and spaces were left vacant and abandoned, with only an airy, draughty drone continuing to blow into the empty room. And even when buildings and spaces are populated with people, they can still feel cold and unwelcoming because of the people and their non-existent or stilted interactions.

Southern Gap’s rainy drones are cool to the touch, not so much unfriendly as they are indifferent to the new kid on the block, and the welcome mat in this community needs a severe dusting. In this world, neighbours don’t talk to each other, and people are disconnected from one another even though they occupy the same space. It’s part of a wider problem, and that’s reflected in a strobing synth that appears blurred and distant and distinctly grey.

A tight, diminutive rhythm populates ‘Ritual For Conscious Dying’ while a faded atmosphere swirls around it, thoroughly fatigued and enduring the recital of its last rites before the lights go out. The overcast notes are reminiscent of Loscil’s music, evoking emptiness, isolation, and an out-of-season chill. ‘Ninety Blocks’ is a lengthy organ-drone which could’ve emerged from the likes of Claire M. Singer or Sarah Davachi. Patience and tonal-focus is in the spotlight.

Every sound matters as gentle, warped oscillations flutter in turbulent air. ‘Courtyard’ adds a vicious, recurring distortion which helps to demonstrate the falling away of order and communication, and the music’s borough is an uneasy one. Flanked by ugly towers and distasteful designs on one side and indifferent people on the other, despite the silk-like quality of the drone, its inner-city music is drenched in constant rain."

-- Fluid Radio


"The pervasive drone of opener ‘Arcade Flutes’ conjures such spaces, housing nothing beyond draughts and damp air and a creeping sense of loss. The melodica and other sounds warbling beneath the tone are echoes of a squandered future, old energies vibrating, haunting, merged now with the creak of the wind and drip of the walls. Community, it seems, has long since departed from Howe’s world. Only isolation and its steady decay are waiting for us now.

Its downbeat opening spoken word segment like some elegy for lost things, ‘Ritual For Conscious Dying’ continues such ideas, pushing a brooding ambient sound toward a subtle dub beat. In shading its melancholic spirit with an ominous edge, the track is suggestive of some dark force within time, or perhaps some ulterior timelessness, a lurking menace that will outlast us and our plans, and sweep into the hollow remains when all else is gutted. Is it any wonder then that we spend to much time looking backward, towards the past?

There’s a near geological weight to ‘Ninety Blocks’, its organ hum needling high and falling again, an earth force of rock and gas and heat. Wenc draws an accurate comparison to the work of Kali Malone, the track sharing the same willingness, be it patience or bravery or resolve, that made The Sacrificial Code so besetting and moving. With its delicate rumbling synths and cyclical discordant samples, closer ‘Courtyard’ brings to mind other sources, the sinister industrial dread of Pye Corner Audio blended with the atonal, obscured violence of Dean Hurley’s work on Twin Peaks. The track is a fitting conclusion, painting a world in which echoes rise to replace all things and mourning this loss with a plaintive, wounded hum."

-- Various Small Flames

credits

released December 20, 2019

Released 12.20.19 on Lobby Art Records
lobbyartrecs.bandcamp.com
Recorded and mixed by Dylan M Howe in Portland Oregon.
Vinyl mastered by Andrew Weathers.
Digital mastered by Dylan M Howe

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Dylan M. Howe image

Dylan M. Howe

contact / help

Contact Dylan M. Howe

Streaming and
Download help

Report this album or account

If you like Dylan M. Howe, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featured guests are the golden-voiced Baby Rose and psyche soulsters Brainstory.
listen now