HIDE are an electronic duo based in Chicago, made up of fine artist Gabel and percussionist Seth Sher. Together since 2014, the pair create sample based compositions using a combination of self sourced field recordings and various pop culture/media. HIDE's second full length album Hell is Here on Dais sees the band's evolution pushed even further. The tone is sick and heavy. Using their previously established blueprint of complex drum programming, stomach churning sub bass and aggressive expressive vocals, Gabel and Sher poke and prod at the perception of musical context, and remind the listener that feelings of anxiety, pain, and discomfort are equally as important as those of resolution. Perhaps the strongest tool utilized here is the material's dichotomy between the abrasive and the sterile. Beneath the crushing noisy exterior, sparks the familiar human voice. Divorced from their caustic counterparts Gabel's vocals play a decisive role in cementing narrative for the material's uncompromising assault on the senses. The summation of material presented on Hell Is Here is perhaps best interpreted as the rawest innards of HIDE's vision for the self-governing ideology that's consistently present throughout their body of work. Painful truth and honest examination of life's darkest, and often undiscussed, crevices scratch and claw their way to the surface through the duo's strongest and most confrontational work to date.
