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Review: A curveball for the ambient artist, 'No Highs' represents the longtime Tim Hecker's focus on the present state of the world. Compared to the textural blissouts of his earlier work, the clue for the meaning of this album is in the title. 'No Highs' is rather bleak and unsettling, reflecting the polluted and chaotic state of many parts of the world - all of it if we continue on the same path. Hecker's usual sonics are replaced with distortion, noise and dissonance, using electronics, saxophone and strings. Not intended to soothe or distract, as is often assumed with much 'ambient music', this is an album that succeeds in confronting and challenging instead.