No Highs

Drone Hall of Famer and KZSU favorite Tim Hecker decides he’s lowkey fed up with all the commercialized “nice” ambient music saturating the genre and serves up a very brooding, chiseled album. If you are a fan of his albums like Virgins and Mirages, you’ll dig this for sure. Slow crescendos, rusted-out cavernous expanses, and low-end rumble galore. All tracks instrumental and FCC Clean.
RIYL: Steve Reich, William Basinski, Fennesz, Eluvium, Sonic Meditations
TRY: 1, 7, 5, 11

(1.) (8:22) Gentle piano intro that is soon joined by groaning strings. Builds up into a crunchy bass-soaked texture
(2.) (2:58) Shifting tones, uneasy atmosphere
(3.) (2:40) Abrasive synthesizer, very dry string accompaniment, troubled but steady beat
(4.) (8:31) Frantic and repetitive, with harsh metal-on-metal groaning
(5.) (2:35) Reverb-drenched Caretaker-esque ambient wanderings
(6.) (3:35) More repetitive Philip Glass shenanigans, only this time they blossom into expansive, high-altitude drone landscapes
(7.) (2:57) Fluttery saxophone + looped staccato loops. Slow fade out
(8.) (2:27) Minimal and forlorn. Deconstructed loops from previous tracks
(9.) (8:16) Anxious. Quick-repeating tones with a blustery backdrop
(10.) (2:04) Slow, bleak, haunting
(11.) (6:46) Meandering, aqueous with warbly pitch shifts. Slow crescendo with strings