The first piece, ‘Late Modern Brutalism’, slams straight through the speakers at a terrific pace - genuinely a real battering. It’s built around a fast, fizzing wall; underpinned by a rumbling, rampaging bass. However, amidst this skree, there lurk a couple of interesting elements: glass-like sounds, and odd vocalised sounds. The glass-like details, buried just under the surface, sound like tumbling pebbles - it’s an odd and unusual addition to a wall track, but it works really well. The same is true of the strange ‘vocal’ sounds that appear early on. They actually sound like slowed growls, or industrial scrapings, and again, they sound great. Around the halfway mark, the wall becomes agitated, with more glass and scrapings hiding in the mix; over time, though, the crackle rises up, and dominates until the track’s end.
The second piece, ‘Pied-a-terre’, is another very fast slice of HNW. Driven by a head-down, hurtling bass, it’s noticeably stronger than ‘Late Modern Brutality’. It’s also replete with submerged elements: some glassy sounds, junk sounds - even parts which sound like buried power electronics vocals. The effect of these in the wall, is perhaps less impressive than on the first track, but ‘Pied-a-terre’ still creates an unusual atmosphere; in places, it suggests what it might be like to be trapped in a burning house - all scourging flames and breaking glass.

These are a couple of good tracks, though I can imagine they might be too wayward for some. The use of non-traditional wall elements gives them an unusual flavour, particularly on ‘Late Modern Brutality’, which sounds like a fury of whirling knives. ‘Pied-a-terre’ is, I think, the equal of its companion track, but perhaps has its thunder stolen (or at least diminished) by being second in the queue. However, I’d definitely like to hear more from this project: I’ll be looking for more material out there. So far, both ‘Neon Wall’ releases that I’ve heard have been stretching HNW and playing with it, and whilst this isn’t always completely successful, it gets the thumbs-up here.