The first, and shortest, track is called “Tap On Every Doorframe Three Times, Then Come Say Goodnight”. It starts with a really nice scuffing sound, which cuts in and out, and from speaker to speaker, throughout the piece. Lying behind this, is a tense bed of hiss, which lurks constantly in the background; though sometimes the overall sound is pared back to this for long passages. The dominating scuffing increases in intensity, just before halfway; with a greater urgency to its stuttering, and more solidity to its sound. By the end of the piece, Authority has subtly altered these sounds into almost “wooden” tones, with accompanying rusty creaks and squeaks.

The second track, “Address”, begins with buried sounds of human voices; soon joined by a close-recorded human mouth. Then crackles and gratings start to simmer, before boiling over into a very turbulent scourge of a wall. Despite being incredibly active and shifting, the track does very much feel like a wall - even it’s cutting to signal hum and, then silence, doesn’t affect this. The latter parts of the track move from fizzing crackle to strained bassy tones, billowing gusts and crunching noise. Just before the end, there’s a brilliant but brief passage of bubbling crackle; incredible textures which disappear as soon as they emerge.

 “Inform” is my least favourite work on the cd, crossing over the line more clearly into harsh noise territory. It mainly consists of saturated synth squalls - often with a vocal-like quality - which emerge from, and dissipate into, rasping noise textures similar to those of the previous tracks. The pacing is that much more frenetic than the first half of the cd, with near-constant cuts, chops and shifts.

The last track, “Terraform”, leaps out of the speakers with a fluttering wall of noise; sounding like a hundred helicopter blades. After several minor fluctuations in velocity, this whirling wall noticeably speeds up; whilst being intermittently, and subtly, tweaked and processed by Authority. Halfway through, after increasing turns toward treble, a low-mid frequency surge breaks in and builds; until the churning of the helicopter blades unites into one movement, and becomes fore-grounded over the background crackle. This foreground then calms into a low drone, with hesitant mid-frequency scrape and fizz; until it’s cut altogether to reveal a hollow hiss. The track then plays out; with stabs of grating noise cutting in and out, jumping from speaker to speaker.

The most obvious, and commendable, aspect of “Protect Us, O Lord”, is the genuine sense of control it radiates. Tones and textures are sculpted, pushed and pulled; and there’s never any real passage where Authority sounds lost or lazy. Even “Inform”, which I confess I’m less enamoured of, has a couple of wonderful sections near its end: one of trebly bluster, and one of stealthy crackle. The remaining three tracks of the release are very impressive explorations of noise textures; and there’s an overall timbre to the sound, that gives the cd an unusual feel and atmosphere. All in all, a very interesting, enjoyable and idiosyncratic take on HNW.