John Heckle ‎– The Second Son

The track "Red Defender" (btw, mislabeled as "The Second Son" on beatport or the other way around, but that doesn't matter, because you need this one on vinyl!) is to me one of the very very very few tracks which encapsulates everything techno (although it isn't stated in the style labels) stands for: The sound is gritty and raw, it's pretty strange and noisy, but I wouldn't call it hard and lastly, it has some kind of deepness in it which stays beneath the surface, making the track even more mysterious. On the other hand, it sends out a feeling of a cold dark machine future, but with a sense of hope that everything will be okay. Maybe I'm overinterpreting all of this, but even if I am, the message given in the last phrase is essential: without machines, there is no techno! With John Heckle, there's hope :-)

John Heckle delivers a truly incredible album with 'The Second Son', a release which vividly marks him out as a true and distinctive talent in what can (at times) seem an increasingly bland and unoriginal musical form.

The ten tracks presented here come across as some sort of missing link in Chicago House history - what might have happened if the frenetic pace of developments of the late 80s and early 90s had been somewhat tempered and the considerable creative juices of the day had been allowed to swash around more freely. But that, as far as I am concerned, is what Jamal Moss's Mathematics Recordings was willed into existence for, to build upon that era's sounds, ideas, feelings, philosophy and approach, and in this artist and in this album I feel this mission has reached a milestone.

John takes those familiar feelings of classic early house and gives them his own kinda soul and energy. It all sounds familiar and brand spanking new at the same time, like you're rediscovering the intense joys of this music all over again. There is a naturalness to John's production and musicality that struck me as something like eternal Larry Heard meets classic Derrick May, served up through a Hieroglyphic Being style gritty aesthetic. And yet, his sound is very much his own distinct brand.

Whatever's going on here, this release puts a huge smile on my face and stirs something that first got stirred in me more than 17 years ago - so thanks for that Mr Heckle!!