Harsh Ambient

01 Isa
02 Where Birds Come From
03 Da Heart is Savage
04 DOG (Death of Glitter)
05 Path Not Destiny
06 Want Hurt for Those Who Disturb Your Glow
07 CFJ
08 In God’s Corner
09 To Where We Return
10 Folat
11 Memories R
12 Communist Glue
13 Neil
14 Har
15 Lakid
16 Misled
17 Through the Mirror… To Places Without Doors…

Hinsidan’s God Is In The Details unfolds like two concept albums warring between themselves. On one hand, there’s the thematic work: long, arcing ambient backbones that carry slowly from track to track. Bells chime corrodingly, echoing like they’re bound by deep prisons. Glitches of air draw in and out as if piped down endless iron tubes. Heaviness abounds without ever dragging the sound too far down, or too near repetition.

One the other hand are the decorations, Hisidan’s details: a top layer of squiggly, light noise and broken vocals, syllables torn apart from each other and coherence. Sometimes cooing, sometimes harsh, it’s these creaky and unexpected sounds that keep the album together, preventing it from ever falling into background soundscape or ambient territory.

The two halves cross each other repeatedly; atmosphere leads in the beginning, to be taken over by precision about halfway through, as it breaks in on “In God’s Corner,” a bleak expose of strangled vocals and muffled beats that sound as if they’re constantly pushing through a falling surface. A few songs noticeably influenced by the round beats of Autechre follow, melding scraggly hooks with timeless ambience. The album then lets up for a while, the darker background themes ceding to uplifting tones stepping up stairs into the foreground. The resolution builds across the remaining few songs; “Lakid,” a melee that sounds as if it’s fighting for its existence is the standout track. “Through the Mirror… To the Places Without Doors…” concludes in the same open ambivalence as its title, details and themes colliding and ultimately embracing on an uplifting note, a short, surprising ascension.

As with the concluding track, the album delivers the promise of its title. Timeless, godlike, omniscient ambience bleeds into details, specifics, and it all just is.