- For a 12-inch rooted in acid techno and analog hardware, John Heckle's Wet Noises sounds surprisingly fresh. Even when the UK artist sticks to a limited palette of 808s, 909s and 303s, as he does on "Alpha Deux" and the title track, the familiarity works in his favour, acting like a sturdy foundation from which he can snag new ideas or just build on old ones. What makes Wet Noises so dependable is that it's always open to taking a left turn but never seems to be looking for one.
Save for "Frozen Planet," Heckle keeps to a tough aesthetic, cranking up his drums in the mix and leaving little space for niceties. There's a smoky din of reverb and noise loops that begins "Alpha Deux," but once its beat jumps into the foreground, those nebulous parts convene to make a slippery rhythm. On his remix of "Wet Noises," Tapirus dresses up the original's uncomplicated acid motif with added tom patterns and quiet synth layers—while the bonus 909s are nice, his starry melodic touches don't pay off until the surrounding commotion dissipates. "Frozen Planet," on the other hand, achieves a perfect balance between chaos and refinement, and that sweet spot recalls the streamlined complexity of Heckle's Desolate Figures LP. Maybe the Liverpool producer hasn't grown much in the two years since that record, but it's great to hear he can still conjure inspired techno from the same sources.
TracklistA1 Wet Noises
A2 Alpha Deux
B1 Wet Noises (Tapirus Remix)
B2 Frozen Planet