Album Review: Big Heet – On A Wire

Big Heet, the Tallahassee quartet led by the former ex Breathers guitarist and vocalist David Settle, released their full-length debut, On A Wire, on October 20th via the Exploding In Sound Records Tape Club. On A Wire is an album that shifts between agitated post punk and tangled post-hardcore whilst maintaining a social conscience, throughout the album Big Heet rally against anxiety, environmental concerns, politics, anti-semitism, dead end jobs, assault, abuse and false activism, and do their part in creating some much needed change. 

The opening title track on Big Heet‘s full length gives the impression that On A Wire will resemble the aftermath of a collision between The Foo Fighters and The Beatles, the melody and energy are all there but it’s all delivered a breakneck pace with a ragged lo-fi approach. But it’s as you get deeper and deeper into the album it becomes increasingly discordant and frantic, and it just keeps heading off into a primal hardcore swamp of noise, one that simultaneously recalls the more experimental sides of punk, post punk, hardcore and noise rock

On A Wire is a unique noisy chaotic hybrid of an album, and it’s one that reflects the chaotic and dark times we live in, but the energy and enthusiasm that is carried across the entire album is evidence of hope in the face of the insanity that is the modern world. On A Wire is an album that won’t be for everyone, but for those of you who like your punk rock ragged, experimental and raw then Big Heet have produced an album that is well worth investigating, and it’s one that has found it’s natural home on the eclectic, and well named, Exploding In Sound Records.

You can order On A Wire here and subscribe to the Exploding In Sound Records Tape Club here

On A Wire is also available digitally via Bandcamp here