It’s been another strong year for the ever consistent The Flenser label. Having already released Midwife’s heavenly Luminol and Chat Pile’s nightmarish God’s Country to name just two, here we are with Wane Into It, the fourth album by audiovisual artist and musician Kyle Bates as Drowse.
In the three years since his third album Light Mirror, Bates has moved across state lines, lost family members, and completed a Master of Fine Arts (MFA), fair to say the last few years have been metamorphic; all of this has contributed to the creation of Wane Into it.
Opening song ‘Untrue in Headphones’ features Bates’ ethereal vocals intertwined with Midwife’s Madeline Johnston, speaking of diverging dreams and asking “do you really think you know me?” The staccato bassline, organ drone and minimal percussion hints at a more laid back, almost dreamcore approach which continues into the acoustic guitar-led ‘Mystery Pt. 2’.
The title track offers perhaps the album’s high point, leaning into shoegaze with swelling instrumentation offset by Kyle Bates’ and Lula Asplund’s almost-whispered vocal deliveries exploring mortality and loss.
Acoustic guitars, organs, a string ensemble and drums intertwine with shimmering vocals, bell chimes, soft synths, distorted basslines and percussion to produce an otherworldly, melancholic sound up to ‘Telepresence’, before shifting into a more immediate, straight-forward second half of the album on ‘Gabapentin’.
Closing track ‘Ten Year Hangover/Deconstructed Mystery’ is a truly stunning closer, recorded in part during a 2019 performance at the Center for Contemporary Music. The spoken word of Betty Bates recounting a hospital visit combines with the crushing instrumental for an intensely overwhelming close.
Wane Into It is a dense, ambient, beautiful exploration of loss, anxiety, distance and memory, redefining what makes a ‘heavy’ record. Part slowcore, part shoegaze, more than anything its own thing, It’s a cohesive record you feel in your chest and in your gut. Find a pair of headphones, a comfy armchair, and allow yourself to sink in and lose yourself to this record.
