**1/2 Wink

HEAR HEAR

(Ovum/Columbia)

Josh Wink, a Philadelphia-based DJ, has a reputation as a house-music guy even though he's always ignored the genre's sugar factor. His new CD is no exception. If you like non-melodic rhythms and harsh crackling percussion, you'll certainly want to use tracks like "I'm on Fire," "Are You There," and "Sixth Sense" at your next destructo bash. In these numbers Wink does employ female voices (the best is Ursula Rucker on "Sixth Sense") in sultry burlesque to temper the harshness of his electronic sound effects.

You might also find narrative entertainment in the break-ups and industrial beats of "Black Bomb," a track voiced in a familiarly hoarse deathrock manner by Trent Reznor (whose star power hardly derives from house style). With Reznor aboard, Wink's work challenges the speednoise Monster Magnet and Rammstein kids to come closer to the dance floor. It's they, not house music's marshmallow tongues, who need to taste Wink's sweetless crunch.

-- Michael Freedberg