Drowse

Before forming Drowse, Bates played in local bands and recorded music on his laptop.{{Cite web|url=http://www.idioteq.com/feeling-sickness-interview-drowse/|title=The feeling of sickness – an interview with DROWSE|website=www.idioteq.com|date=14 August 2015|access-date=2016-10-27}} In 2011 Bates experienced a dissociative mental breakdown that would inform the first few Drowse releases.{{Cite web|url=http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/the-narcotic-story/Content?oid=15771024|title=The Narcotic Story|last=Prado|first=Ryan J.|website=Portland Mercury|access-date=2016-10-27}} In 2013 he released an EP, Songs to Sleep On through Television Records and began performing live with help from various Portland musicians.{{Cite news|url=http://www.tometotheweathermachine.com/reviews/2014/08/tape-haul-august-2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141106185906/http://www.tometotheweathermachine.com/reviews/2014/08/tape-haul-august-2014|url-status=usurped|archive-date=November 6, 2014|title=Tape Haul August 2014|newspaper=Tome to the Weather Machine|access-date=2016-10-27}}{{Cite web|url=http://theblogthatcelebratesitself.blogspot.com/2015/07/soon-asleep-with-drowse-interview.html|title=The Blog That Celebrates Itself: Soon Asleep with Drowse - An Interview|last=Tbtci|date=2016-10-29|website=The Blog That Celebrates Itself|access-date=2016-10-27}}

Drowse released its debut album Soon Asleep through Apneic Void Sounds in 2015.{{Cite web|url=http://noiseandcolorpdx.com/2015/06/08/album-debut-stream-drowses-soon-asleep/|title=Album Debut: Stream Drowse's 'Soon Asleep'|last=Leipzig|first=Travis|date=2015-06-09|website=Noise & Color PDX|access-date=2016-10-27}} The album featured Portland based singer Tuesday Faust.{{Cite news|url=http://exclaim.ca/music/article/drowse-melt_video|title=Drowse 'Melt' (video)|access-date=2016-10-27}} Following the release of Soon Asleep, Drowse recorded music that was contributed to Miserable's 2016 album, Uncontrollable.{{Cite news|url=http://musicandriots.com/unknown-pleasures-we-caught-up-with-kristina-esfandiari-of-miserable/|title=Unknown Pleasures: We Caught Up With Kristina Esfandiari Of Miserable|date=2016-08-15|newspaper=MUSIC&RIOTS Magazine|language=en-US|access-date=2016-10-27}}

In 2016 Drowse released an EP titled Memory Bed through New York based label The Native Sound.{{Cite news|url=http://www.tinymixtapes.com/chocolate-grinder/premiere-drowse-memory|title=Premiere: Drowse - "Memory"|newspaper=Tiny Mix Tapes|access-date=2016-10-27}} Memory Bed featured vocal and lyrical collaborations with Maya Stoner.{{Cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/drowse-memory-bed-ep-premiere/|title=Premiere: Drowse's 'Memory Bed' EP Is a Beautiful Study of Detachment - Noisey|website=Noisey|date=4 August 2016 |language=en-us|access-date=2016-10-27}}

Drowse signed to The Flenser to release sophomore album Cold Air in 2018.{{Cite news|url=https://www.tinymixtapes.com/news/drowse-premieres-new-track-quickening-upcoming-lp-cold-air|title=Drowse premieres new track, "Quickening," off upcoming LP, Cold Air|work=Tiny Mix Tapes|access-date=2018-01-19|language=en}} Directly after the release Bates became an artist in residence in Skagaströnd, Iceland, resulting in new work including Fog Storm pts. 1-4, released as a split with Planning For Burial.{{Cite web|url=https://www.treblezine.com/premiere-drowse-fog-storm-parts-1-4/|title=Premiere: Drowse deliver an intense audiovisual hallucination with "Fog Storm Parts 1-4"|website=www.treblezine.com|date=25 July 2018|language=en-US|access-date=2018-08-07}}

Light Mirror, Drowse's second album for The Flenser, was released in 2019–it features material recorded in Iceland and at home.{{Cite web|url=https://nowflensing.com/products/drowse-light-mirror-lp|title=Drowse|website=The Flenser|language=en|access-date=2019-04-03}} Later that year Drowse released the mini-LP, Second Self, in collaboration with Lane Shi Otayonii (Elizabeth Colour Wheel, Otay:onii) as an exclusive work for The Flenser's label subscription series.{{Cite web|date=August 20, 2019|first=Andrew|last=Sacher|title=Drowse & Elizabeth Colour Wheel singer share collab, playing NYC together|url=https://www.brooklynvegan.com/drowse-elizabeth-colour-wheel-singer-share-collab-playing-nyc-together/|access-date=2021-09-07|website=BrooklynVegan|language=en}} Drowse's final release of 2019 was a split with Amulets put out by Whited Sepulchre Records, it featured sounds recorded at the same time as material for Light Mirror.{{Cite web|title=Three splits from Whited Sepulchre Records|url=http://www.tabsout.com/?p=23495|access-date=2021-09-07|website=Tabs Out Cassette Podcast| date=12 February 2020 |language=en-US}}

In 2020 Drowse contributed the acousmatic piece "Screen (Hyperreal)" to the multimedia collection Medicine for a Nightmare: Part One.{{Cite web|title=Part One (Book & Audio Companion)|url=https://www.medicineforanightmare.com/products/689170-part-one-book-audio-companion|access-date=2021-09-07|website=Medicine for a Nightmare|language=en}} Bates then composed and recorded a new audiovisual work, Failing Memory Theatre (Prologue), which features repurposed sounds sourced from throughout the Drowse's discography as well as versions of forthcoming material for an upcoming, as-yet-untitled, full length–Failing Memory Theatre (Prologue) was created for and premiered at Roadburn Redux in 2021.{{Cite web|title=Drowse – Roadburn Festival|url=https://roadburn.com/band/drowse-2/|access-date=2021-09-07|language=en-US}} In July 2021 the project released Room Impression as part of Glowing Window Recordings' Cold Fronts, a cohesive album length collection of works by Drowse, Planning for Burial, Jonathan Tuite (The Flenser), and Bryan Manning (Bosse-de-Nage).{{Cite web|date=July 29, 2021|title=28 New Songs Out Today|url=https://www.brooklynvegan.com/28-new-songs-out-today-32/|access-date=2021-09-07|website=BrooklynVegan|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=Burial|first=Planning For|title=Cold Fronts - PFB/Bryan Manning/Drowse/Jonathan Tuite - C46 cassette [GWR17]|url=https://planningforburial.bigcartel.com/product/kyle-jonathan-bryan-thom-tape-gwr17|access-date=2021-09-07|website=Planning For Burial|language=en}}

Wane into It, the project's third proper full length for The Flenser, was self-recorded in Oakland, Portland, and LA from 2019 to 2022. It was released on November 11, 2022.{{Cite web |title=Interview: Drowse on Their Dreamy and Reflective Record – |url=https://newnoisemagazine.com/interviews/interview-drowse-on-their-dreamy-and-reflective-record/ |access-date=2022-12-26 |website=New Noise Magazine |language=en-US}}

Drowse has shared the stage with a wide range of musical acts, including Planning for Burial and King Woman.{{Cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/drowse-melt-stream/|title="Melt" into Drowse's Hypnotic Exploration of Suicide and Medication - Noisey|website=Noisey|date=26 May 2015 |language=en-us|access-date=2016-10-27}}

Pitchfork summed up the project's sound as "blending slowcore, ambient, and folk with lo-fi musings on memory and entropy, [part of] a grand tradition of Pacific Northwestern gloom."{{Cite web |title=Drowse: Wane Into It |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/drowse-wane-into-it/ |access-date=2022-12-27 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US}} Drowse derives influence from multiple genres and has been also been labeled "drone-pop", "shoegaze/drone",{{Cite news|url=http://www.spin.com/2016/06/drowse-break-stream-premieres/|title=Drowse Composes His Own Mental 'Break' On New Single {{!}} SPIN|date=2016-06-22|newspaper=Spin|access-date=2016-10-27}} and "dream pop."{{Cite web|url=http://www.soundsbetterwithreverb.com/dreampop/drowse-memory/|title=Drowse - 'Memory' {{!}} Sounds Better With Reverb|website=www.soundsbetterwithreverb.com|access-date=2016-10-27}} Vice described the project's sound as "the aural equivalent of blood rushing back to a sleeping limb" and likened it to a "post-black metal take on" English shoegazing band Slowdive and Texas post-rock band Explosions in the Sky. Spin writer Matt Malone noted that "Drowse prioritizes music over lyrics, using vocals not to tell a story as much as add an instrumental layer to the music's soothing fog." A.V. Club critic Brian Shultz characterized the project's sound as "breathy, entrancing, and certainly a little bit eerie."{{Cite news|url=http://www.avclub.com/article/heres-whats-coming-record-stores-and-streaming-ser-240064|title=Here's what's coming to record stores and streaming services in August|date=2016-08-03|access-date=2016-10-27}} Cris Lankenau, writing for Willamette Week, compared Drowse to other Pacific Northwest musical acts Mount Eerie and Grouper.{{Cite news|url=http://www.wweek.com/music/2016/08/02/drowse-commits-his-life-to-tape-the-pain-recovery-and-everything-in-between/|title=Drowse Commits His Life to Tape—the Pain, Recovery and Everything in Between|newspaper=Willamette Week|access-date=2016-10-27}} Lars Gotrich from NPR reinforced the comparison, saying "Drowse [...] sounds like an intimate Mount Eerie home recording overdubbed with a worn-out cassette of The Cure's Disintegration."{{Cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/event/music/585695198/drowses-klonopin-soundtracks-a-heavy-dose|title=Drowse's 'Klonopin' Soundtracks A Heavy Dose|work=NPR.org|access-date=2018-02-17|language=en}}

• Soon Asleep (2015; Apneic Void Sounds)
• Cold Air (2018; The Flenser)
• Light Mirror (2019; The Flenser)
• Wane into It (2022; The Flenser)

• Songs to Sleep On EP (2013; Television Records)
• Memory Bed EP (2016; The Native Sound)
• Fog Storm pts. 1-4 Split w/ Planning for Burial (2018; Glowing Window Recordings)
• Second Self Mini-LP (2019; The Flenser)
• Drowse / Amulets Split w/ Amulets (2019; Whited Sepulchre Records)
• "Screen (Hyperreal)" Acousmatic Piece (2020; commissioned for Medicine for a Nightmare: Part One)
• Failing Memory Theatre (Prologue) Audiovisual Work (2021; commissioned for Roadburn Redux)
• Cold Fronts LP/Collection w/ Planning for Burial, Bryan Manning (Bosse-de-Nage), Jonathan Tuite (The Flenser) (2021; Glowing Window Recordings)

• Naive Sleep (2014; self-released)
• Covered (2015; self-released)
• Send the Pain Below (2021; covers compilation released by The Flenser)

• A Matinee by Lula Asplund and Kyle Bates (2023; Whited Sepulchre Records)

• "Melt" (2015; dir. Ayers)
• "Break" (2016; dir. Bates, Stoner)
• "Memory" (2016; dir. Bates, Stoner){{Cite web|url=http://clrvynt.com/drowse-memory/|title=Lose Yourself in Drowse's 'Memory'|website=CLRVYNT|date=20 October 2016 |access-date=2016-10-27}}
• "Klonopin" (2018; dir. Bates, Stoner)
• "Bipolar 1" (2019; dir. Bates){{Cite web|url=https://www.thefourohfive.com/music/article/track-of-the-day-drowse-s-isolation-fractures-into-grayscale-beauty-on-new-song-and-video-bipolar-1-405-premiere-155|title=Track Of The Day: Drowse's isolation fractures into grayscale shoegaze beauty on new song and video 'Bipolar 1' [405 Premiere]|website=The 405|language=en|access-date=2019-05-14}}
• "Failing Memory Theatre (Prologue)" (2021; dir. Bates){{Cite web|title=Drowse – Roadburn Festival|url=https://roadburn.com/band/drowse-2/|access-date=2021-09-08|language=en-US}}
• "Untrue in Headphones" (2022; dir. Bates){{Cite web |date=2022-09-13 |title=Drowse Announce New Album 'Wane Into It', Share New Song "Untrue In Headphones": Listen |url=https://www.stereogum.com/2199319/drowse-untrue-in-headphones-feat-midwife/music/ |access-date=2022-11-08 |website=Stereogum |language=en}}

• [https://www.kylebates.net/ Official website]
• [https://www.facebook.com/drowseportland Drowse] on Facebook
• [https://kylebates.bandcamp.com/ Drowse] on Bandcamp
• [https://www.instagram.com/drowseportland/ Drowse] on Instagram
• [https://twitter.com/drowseportland Drowse] on Twitter

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Category:Musical groups from Portland, Oregon

Category:American shoegaze musical groups

Category:Musical groups established in 2013

Category:American dream pop musical groups

Category:American ambient music groups

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Category:Rock music groups from Oregon

Category:2013 establishments in Oregon