Tim Hecker - Dropped Pianos (Vinyl LP, CD)

Apparently Tim is at the top of his game and has been for years accordingly to the press release. Slightly confused by that sentence...I would say that he's made some excellent records over the last few years and Ravedeath 1972 is nothing short of brilliance. Dropped Pianos is 9 tracks which are largely piano based pieces (hence the title) which went on to be the Ravedeath album. They're not demo versions and I wouldn't say they're sketches either as that's not doing them justice. Most tracks are solid moody pieces of neoclassical mardyness which are awe-inspiringly beautiful. Every track on here is solid gold and I think even after first listen I might prefer it to Ravedeath but I think that's just because I like pianos and miserable sounding music. I guess I should shoehorn the word haunting into there somewhere just 'cause it needs to be there. There's some drones and occasional strings in the background which fill the sound out. The piano has that echoey Harold Budd vibe to it which I just love. A thoroughly gorgeous sounding record from start to end (though the last track is a fuzzy noisy more Tim Heckery sounding track which took me by surprise!). So if you like dark, moody piano-based music then you'd do well to check this out!