If there’s one thing Tim Hecker has mastered, it’s consistency. He’s been mining the same formula for four albums now, and although they may seem very similar on the surface, closer attention reveals a certain glacial progress.
Hecker’s sound is similar to what I’d expect if Kevin Shields collaborated with the Hafler Trio. It’s a dense, swirling buzz of feedback, static and distant shortwave effluvia organized into something resembling music. At first, it seems random and homogenous, but listen deeper and you’ll find a wealth of carefully wrought detail. The washes of tempered noise and obfuscation hide the fact that all the underlying elements are carefully arranged and structured. This isn’t ambient music in that it demands close listening and scrutiny to resolve the fine details.