Bleach Dye Yr Heart
'Once again a dark ambient act of Scandinavian origin have come up with the goods – like I have observed elsewhere the Northern European countries seem to have a knack of producing genre musicians and acts who not only innately understand how to produce top quality darkness but also how to take it further and to evolve beyond so-called prescribed boundaries that many others seem to be too afraid to step beyond. hinsidan look inward rather than to the furthest reaches of a presently unattainable outer universe and take inspiration from the deepest recesses of the inner universe of self – it is often in these dangerously uncharted regions that the darkest and most vile of man’s qualities resides, just waiting for the smallest chink in our civilised armour to show so that they can effect an escape. Collectively the ten tracks here represent hinsidan’s inner travels to those very same benighted regions where most of us, for very good reason, fear to tread. hinsidan take a decidedly unconventional approach, traversing paths much less travelled by other ambient acts, using a wide variety of vehicles in which to do so. This can range from subtly caustic and acid-tinged machine-driven washes, guitar feedback and throbbing pustules of electronics, often backed by the pulsations of weird xenobiological heartbeats; to lush passages of a distinctly Eno-esque flavour and outbursts of glossolalia, built upon a base of an ever-present underlying current of menace. Bile and bitterness need not necessarily have to come in the form of nasty gobs of hate-filled electronics or pus-sacs of screaming feedback – subtlety and quietness coldness can perform those same duties just as well, if not better. Remember that often it is said that true evil can live in the hearts of even the most unassuming people. Utilising this approach has paid dividends for hinsidan – each of the pieces exhibits a malignant strength that on the surface is not immediately apparent; make no mistake though that dark strength is indeed there. Evil and hatred with a seemingly benign and disarming smile on its face. hinsidan have also understood the principle of less is more, their pared down minimalist approach saying more than many other over-produced and multi-layered albums. This is neither too little nor too much; the whole has an assured balance between its light and dark faces, the dark elements being occulted by the light just enough for that uneasiness to creep through. One negative point though: I would urge hinsidan (and Gears of Sand) to pay more attention to quality control. I had to go through TWO copies of this CD in order to review it - the first one was unplayable, having a fault with it that looked like it was created by the manufacturing process and the second had a blemish on it that although it didn’t affect the playback too much (there was a bit of jumping that was both noticeable and annoying) suggests that somewhere along the line that standards aren’t being properly maintained. Granted that I may indeed have been unlucky enough to have received the only two faulty examples but it still pays to be careful. Having said all this, I would have no hesitation in prompting interested parties to thoroughly investigate what hinsidan are giving us...
(S:M:J63/Heathen Harvest) < Back