- Gowanus is a neighborhood tucked away on the Brooklyn waterfront, its waters polluted by an overtaxed sewage system. Though boutiques and artisanal shops have slowly staked their claim among the neighborhood's bleak industrial zones, the area still feels like the borough's forgotten storage closet. Its roughshod collision of industry and nature reminded Andrew PM Hunt of his hometown, Liverpool, and as Dialect, he seeks to create a kind of audio geography of the place. Gong and Tangerine Dream are mentioned in the press release, but Gowanus Drifts follows more in the footsteps of American hypnagogia—Oneohtrix Point Never, James Ferraro and KWJAZ are the precedents to its lonely, evocative drones.
For an out-there instrumental record, Gowanus Drifts is relatively classicist, using zither and saxaphone and dwelling on the well-trod theme of nature versus civilization. It's full of field recordings, such as the buzzing flies, crickets and angry dog barks that open the record on "Sunset Park (In The Dark)." Those animal sounds are eventually overrun by a police siren and a series of elongated synth tones, which drift into the next cut. "Waterfront Epiphany" employs a similar method: gentle wave recordings calm the listener while synthesized seagulls squawk above. You can picture Hunt gathering inspiration for the piece as he stands on a desolate dock. He soon goes full OPN, combining the Juno-60 arpeggiations of Russian Mind with the somewhat cheesy choral patches that pop up all over R Plus Seven.
Gowanus Drifts also brings to mind James Ferraro's Last American Hero, an album that mixed spare electronics with western-tinged guitar solos. It's easier to ascertain where Hunt is coming from, though. "Ghost Of Red Hook"'s downcast, post-punky dirge captures the feeling of being young and broke in the big city. Similarly, "Chewing Springs" tugs at the heartstrings with a wonky melody that could've been lifted from a rusty music box found down by the Gowanus Canal.
Hunt envisions Gowanus Drifts similarly to, say, an online mix, as in he keeps it largely seamless and introduces new textures with each passing track. He's also familiar with odd, web-driven audio cultures like ASMR and vaporwave, but rather than make music for imaginary, touchscreen-filled Japanese hotels, he seeks out the beauty of grimy, barren bottoms. That Gowanus Drifts is linked to a physical place makes it something of an anomaly in this scene, giving us a narrative of industrial decay and urban alienation.
Tracklist01. Sunset Park (In The Dark)
02. Waterfront Epiphany
03. Wings
04. Coney Island Fog
05. Flesh In The Pan
06. Gowanus
07. Cloud Chorale
08. Ghost Of Red Hook
09. Broken Pipes
10. Glass Drift
11. Bleak Drift
12. Chewing Springs
13. Quietly, In The House (Last Transmission)