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Hot new sounds coming out of the Manchester underground from 19 year old wunderkind Howes. Checking off early Warp releases, John Cage and Delia Derbyshire as influences, Howes creates his dubby techno compositions from a wealth of source material that belies his years. The samples are then fucked up liberally and turned into sound collages that work for both the heads and the feet. As you'd imagine from the influences, this is techno in the DJ Sprinkles vein, bumping yet introspective, effective whilst cerebral. EP opener "TD-W700" falls nicely into step with the new wave of New York producers, as waves of grainy sound wash through the frequencies, driven by a Bradock esque beat. "Asiko" has already been doing damage in the virtual world, but the fullness of this vinyl pressing is gonna blow you away if you're used to the anemic sounds of the digital domain. With a vocal sample from a 70s afrobeat record thrown directly into the echo chamber, you could be forgiven for mistaking this as a Basic Channel record, and that's not a criticism. This is dub techno of the highest calibre. Wah effects phase in and out of the stereo field and the subtle layers of pink noise and grainy distortion combine to create a trippy soundscape. "Leazes" approaches the techno sphere from around the wicket, opting for a bass driven electronica approach reminiscent of Four Tet, Gold Panda and Caribou, all shapeless and ethereal melodies and polyrhythms. Howes closes the EP with the ambient distortion of "Surface Noise", a transcendentally horizontal soundscape that acts a perfect sonic cleanser.
B2. Surface Noise