TIM HECKER
No Highs (Kranky)
The image that composer and musician Tim Hecker chose as the cover image for his mind-blowing 2010 album Ravedeath, 1972, of Massachusetts Institute Of Technology students pushing a piano off the roof of their dormitory, could be a valuable symbol of his creative methodology. Hecker does not take prisoners or travel down any conventional route when it comes to creating bleak and intricate electronic ambience.
His recent score for TV thriller The North Water did more than just help to build the tension as the doomed Arctic whaling exhibition journeyed to an unforgiving and hostile territory.
On No Highs, brutality and beauty crisscross frequently on a de facto soundtrack for these troubled and turbulent times. It can be unforgiving and hostile: with track titles such as Pulse Depression, Anxiety and Monotony, Hecker is in no mood to cut corners or hold back on this affective, effective collection. Colin Stetson’s modal sax adds some distorted colour to the different shades of greyness on display here. If Ravedeath, 1972 has been on your turntable for the last decade, you won’t be disappointed with No Highs.
words DAVID NOBAKHT
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