Farewell, you deconstructions and sketches: Where other producers simply draw a few lines and have ideas flare up here and there, Stuart Howard paints complete soundscapes, situated in the coordinate system somewhere between GlitchHop, R&B and Pop. That these kind of tracks will especially be giving wet dreams to the Brainfeeder-crew, is crystal clear. But with When You’re Gone, Howard is much less far out than many of his colleagues – instead, he gets tracks like Construction Deconstruction down to an atmosphere that often changes within the 30 minutes running time. Emotional pieces of scenes are coming to life through the samples, which perk up behind the beats. The only human vocals left are the ones of the singer PY in Moments. In Gutter Glitter, the rhythm lies heavy like a tired animal whose chest is rising only slowly but whose heart is still thumping wildly. With every play, emotions find their way more easily through the synthetic wing panels. The bars of Yellow 90’s slowly grow into a groove and building up matter. All edgy angles are easily rounded by Howard. He doesn’t core his tracks, but rather puts individuality and emotions into their foundations and bridges all seven songs to a perfect entity. Imagine Mount Kimbie, SBTRKT or Flying Lotus looking less at the studio or the dance floor, but finally at where the stories are unfolding: in the bedroom. When You’re Gone is not only a loose promise – it’s living up to itself while playing.
When You're Gone EP
