Fact Mix: HOWE

For his Fact mix HOWE imagines a near future in which the radio of a Ford Fiesta, abandoned somewhere in the dense smog of London, circa 2050AD, picks up fractured radio signals from a fast fading past.

The sound of multidisciplinary artist HOWE is broadcast from deep in the heart of his base of London, distilled from the cacophony of a youth spent embroiled in the city’s club scene. Though taking cues from across the musical spectrum, HOWE’s productions and installation works envision a world of maximal, highly emotive pop constructions, wherein sci-fi visuals, MIDI orchestras and vocal manipulation are spun together as a single, urgent transmission. His experience as a filmmaker and visual artist only serves to amplify the cinematic flavour of his approach to music, in which the stakes are always high and the world he inhabits is in a state of constant precarity.

His Fact mix is borne out of this dramatic tension, a speculation on a near future scenario in which the radio of a rusted Ford Fiesta, abandoned somewhere in the dense smog of London, circa 2050AD, picks up fractured radio signals from a fast fading past. “I wanted it to feel as though a listener from future London is experiencing ghost transmissions from the past,” he explains. “Jungle, D&B and Dancehall pirate stations, talk radio and Classic FM smashed together to form a smorgasbord of mutated sonics.”

Serving as a reflection on his discovery of electronic music, HOWE’s space pirate radio show includes a post-apocalyptic edit of Skilibeng’s ‘Bad Everyday’ – which will be available on Bandcamp, with all proceeds going towards aid for those affected by the earthquakes in Syria and Turkey – a vinyl-only, drum and bass sequence, freshly dug from his mum’s house in homage to his years working in a record shop and guesting on radio shows as a teenager, cyber punk street fight soundtracks and an eerie tapestry of OSTs and HOWE’s own productions, with a particular and well-deserved focus on composer Juan Cristobal Tapia de Veer, the architect of the singular soundscapes of beloved contemporary cult series Utopia and the inescapable charms of The White Lotus.

You can find HOWE on Instagram, SoundCloud and at his website.
Artwork – Benny Bowls
Typeface – Sean Burn

Tracklist:

HOWE – ‘Forever Radio Scan Intro’
Skillibeng – ‘Bad Everyday’ (HOWE Remix)
Skeng – ‘London’
Connecta – ‘What Happens Here’
DJ Hazard – ‘Busted’
Subwave – ‘So Twisted’
DJ Pleasure – ‘In The Dark’
Jaydan – ‘Wasted’ (G Dub Remix)
Serum – ‘Ammo Dump’
‘Unknown White Label’
Icicle – ‘So Close’
D-Bridge & Vegas – ‘True Romance’
HOWE – ‘Wasp’
Kim Neundorf – ‘I Feel Like Shit’ (White Lotus OST)
Howe – ‘This Is Me’
Lauren Duffus – ‘Permanence’
Cristobal Tapia De Veer – ‘I Want To Live’ (White Lotus OST)
HOWE – ‘Fade Away Radio Scan’
e-sai – ‘Urt’
Estoc & Syn – ‘x04 Has Escaped’ (Ytem Remix)
Cristobal Tapia De Veer – ‘Where Is Jessica Hyde?’ (Utopia OST)
Georges Delerue – ‘Le Mepris’
Ed Case – ‘Something In Your Eyes’ (K Warren Remix)
HOWE & Emily Cabarle – ‘Love’s Teeth’
HOWE – ‘Forever ‘(Time Stretched Version)
Billie Eilish – ‘When The Party’s Over’

Listen next: Fact Mix – S-candalo