Heathen Disco Music Reviews #0013

Not a lot to say this week that doesn’t involve the music. It still feels good to be doing this, just like it feels good that the heat wave broke and it’s like a fall day outside. Maybe see you at the Tirzah show at the Metro. Maybe not!

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I was gonna write a digression in the Chris Burns review that I held off on, but maybe it makes more sense here: Joe from Celluloid Lunch (and before him, the person who ran Fixture Records) singlehandedly turned around my admittedly low opinion of the bands Montreal was sending in represent itself to Still Single. Much like the Chicago output I was getting in those years, it was far too easy to be dismissive, but as it turns out I was only seeing the sides of that which seemed to want the sort of punishment I was doling out. It’s great to be able to witness the fact that, in other ways, I was completely wrong, so thank you.

Let’s have it then.

STERNPOST Ulrika LP (Dilletante Productions, 2023; re. Concentric Circles, 2024)

Gorgeous one-man-band / does-it-all chamber pop suite from Sweden’s Petter Herbertsson (with credits ranging back to the early ‘80s), referencing early Robert Wyatt, High Llamas, some of the more contemporary works from outfits like Gastr del Sol or Modern Studies, and the large Swedish solo elephant in the room, Dungen. There’s very little psychedelic going about here, though, so it’s more the approach: a solo artist with proficiency at scale across a number of instruments getting a crisp, clear read from both a melodic and narrative perspective across a careful, charming suite of songs. There aren’t any epics on here, merely thirteen concise facets of this work, all unique, all coming from the same place, all grandiose in scope and muted in the same caring ways. Perfect Swedish sibilance and instrumental tone rendering is gonna tickle the hell out of you ASMR dwellers out there too; Herbertsson really knows how to play the studio environment. Possibly a knockout for many of you; seek out without delay.

NATHAN BOWLES TRIO Are Possible LP (Drag City)

Been aware and fond of Bowles as a player but something has shifted in this recent trio effort, to where I’m getting the same “a-ha!” moment I did with compatriot Steve Gunn’s breakthrough Time Off. Patient confidence, maybe? Confident patience? Bowles and crew throw three or four back to the banjo traditions for which he’s staked, but there’s this other side of things at play on Are Possible that intrigue even harder, most evidently on opener “Dappled” which bathes the lead instrument in fuzz and brings an open, damn near British beauty to a slowly evolving melodic scheme and some falsetto vocals I did not see coming. The abrupt ending is a little pat, but I get it – it’s like that one late Talk Talk track “Ascension Day” where it feels like it might detonate if it went any longer. The remainder of this doesn’t need to aspire to that level of alt-genre expression, with the textures afforded these instruments in a jazz / conservatory bag that opens up a new side to this sort of play. Loving it more and more with each spin, and I imagine anyone who likes to wear shirts with buttons now and again will feel the same.

BROKEN TELEPATHY s/t LP (Sophomore Lounge)

This Bronx duo is half of an earlier Sophomore Lounge release called Soft Gang, which contained two-thirds of this band Dichroics who I discovered during the Still Single era – their second album Short Dirty Threads is still a huge fave and gets lots of play in Casa Mosurock. I think one of the songs from that one is sampled here. As Broken Telepathy, they play like one of those spaghetti-thrown wallwalker sort of bands, with alienated vocals courtesy of Kaori Nakamura and everything else by multi-instrumentalist Darin Mickey (mostly guitars, synths, and sampled drums). Fortunately, most everything here works, little snips of breakbeats and grooves, feasting on plastics and 11pm+ energy. If you played this for me in 1999 I wouldn’t have batted an eyelash (and we could’ve thwarted a hell of a lot of history together) – it’s city music, background music, soundtrack music, calls to action on whatever battlefield you have to cross. At 15 tracks they get a lot of different chances to toss out one riff after another, and all of them do what’s expected to get another idea across the finish line. Some evening you’ll come across this band/their music and it will fit perfectly into your life, like it’s always been there, but only at night.

CHRIS BURNS & HIS GOING CONCERNS Kablooey! LP (Celluloid Lunch)

According to materials received, Chris Burns has been playing in bands in/around Montreal since his sweet 16, way back in 1982, and has been intensely, locally involved in a great many projects, broadcasts, and documentation in and around rock/free music ever since (most recently Thee Retail Simps where he trades off licks with Cap’n C-Lunch Joe Chamandy). Kablooey! is his solo debut and comes across effortlessly like someone who has absorbed every hour of the past 42 years, like Canada’s most used piece of Silly Putty to reams of newspapers, and is here to project all of that onto the listener from a voice and approach that’s taken from everything good, and everything weary, every setback, into a cacophonous whole. There are so many influences at play here that listing them would be fruitless, especially at the speed which Burns burns through ‘em, and that really isn’t the point anyway; if nothing else, take away from Kablooey! the celebratory ejecta of a life totally given to the lower arts – the old, the new, every drink drank, every thought spilled. For fans of Owen Maercks’ Teenage Sex Therapist, or hours spent taking the time in a college radio record library worth its salt, reading the opinions stuck to the albums on little index cards, listening to record after record and taking all of it in, with little more than maybe an SST catalog insert as your guide. Outstandingly breathless stuff. (Available soon … now? … at https://www.celluloidlunch.com/store/chris-burns-his-going-concerns-kablooey-cell-lunch)

BAD TRIPS Melted Teenagers LP (self-released)

Got sold on this through a rant from Record Grouch’s Instagram, which helps, because album covers such as this one sell records as easily as they get users banned on dating apps. Queasy noise/oscillator downshift, alienated twang, best listened to on vinyl to get the anaerobic qualities off mind. Wolf Eyes without room sounds? Melted Teenagers feels like the run-up to something more, but as with the previous affiliated project I know of for this crew (Slasher Risk, remember them?) we may be waiting a while. It’s a little sterile for the vibes, could be more blasted/inzane, but who’s to say you can’t make this more to your liking at home? Use these tracks as a base for something better, kinda like one of those drum loop records you could play along with, like a no-input Mitch Miller. All the tools are in front of you. Do something about it!

I’m doing it!!!

Doug Mosurock