Heathen Disco Music Reviews #0026

Is staying up super late a good choice? I’ve been up since 4:00 A.M. CDT; it’s now 2:18 A.M. EDT. Eight of those hours were spent driving, four DJing (with the supremely excellent Stephanie Tsong of Pittsburgh’s Jellyfish party), one watching Gee Tee and R.F.M.C. and the various “foot and mouth disease” moshpit gym class antics of Pittsburgh, one second smashing a spotted lanternfly. And here I am writing beyond the point of exhaustion, because I owe it to you, and moreover it underlines what I think the true mission of this writing should be. I’m flat out refusing to write up any mid/average records just because they’re new. You don’t need to know. Whatever is covered in this publication will fall under the following:

• great, new records I think would improve your life

• great, old records I think have improved my life

• new bands at the moment where they figure it out

• bands with one or two general flaws keeping them from greatness

• absolute wanker trash heap waste music

That’s the most value, that’s where the fun of this is. Nothing wears down the machine more than bulk. Especially when it seems like so many artists and labels that have been on the grind for years are having moments in 2024 that are going all but unseen/unheard due to lack of access to the oxygen needed for them to survive (and none of that useless nitrogen).

I applaud you for opening this email; you’re no coward. Welcome to the handful of new folks.

Get in touch with your music directly: [email protected] / PO Box 25717 Chicago IL 60625 USA. Remember when you used to send vinyl? I get it, but that’d be nice to see more of again.

Here we gooooo

ETRAN DE L’AÏR 100% Sahara Guitar LP (Sahel Sounds)

All of these groups from the regions of the Sahara are flourishing (can’t be beat) and are becoming more distinguished from their counterparts, and the sandy grit of early examples from Sublime Frequencies and the like. Someone out there is probably complaining up a storm that a group like Etran de L’Aïr gets to enjoy a “rock” mix on their records as opposed to some vital recording out of sheer necessity to get this music to the people, but it won’t be me. Sahel Sounds prexy Christopher Kirkley knows what these groups are capable of, and by roping in Deerhoof’s John Dieterich for the mix, they get the drums right up in your face, on equal footing with the fleet, surf-like guitar tones and gang vocals across the rest, a unique placement of this band’s sound as being lighter and more deft on a per-instrument basis, but with a percussive thwack that runs in between the reeds and thwacks you in the chest as hard as necessary (particularly on those thrilling, static snare fills on “Amidinine”). To simplify, imagine a Saharan ensemble playing like a bunch of Dick Dales and Sandy Nelsons coming together. Can’t be more ready for something this slammin’.

CŒUR A L’INDEX Adieu Minette LP (La Vida Es Un Mus)

Belgian guitar pop trio that racks up an instant winner on this debut, all brightness and bangle, and maybe less the Dolly Mixture / Girls At Our Best comparisons they’re getting than something a lot more ready for the marketplace. This is how I’d hoped once-hyped outfits like Bleached might’ve sounded: informed by nostalgia but thoroughly modern, light, deft, awake enough to keep up with the changes, and wise enough to let the instruments do the talking in lieu of the production (the few flourishes afforded are given to clarity, reverb, and some bongos here and there). Some real wonders on this short little miracle.

ALIEN NOSEJOB Turns the Colour of Bad Shit LP (Anti Fade/Total Punk/Drunken Sailor)

I love Alien Nosejob; might love it more than any of Jake Robertson’s other projects (Ausmuteants, Smarts, any number of others) and hold it in the same esteem as the maniacal School Damage – despite being the most prolific, Alien Nosejob excels at all the things it sets out to do. New wave? Garage? Punk? Hardcore? Some axis of two or more? I was having a conversation with an associate and we were both bemoaning how stressful and unnecessary it seems for certain bands to release multiple records of the same thing, or a modest refinement of that. This new one marks the 100^th release on Anti Fade, who reckon that Jake’s been on 28% of said records (can’t say the same for US and EU associates handling their respective editions, but those are stats someone else can cover), and all of them have an approach just a little differentiated from one another that this project is never stale. He’s singing at full nasal voice this time, no treatment on those, and slammin’ away at some really sweet KBD style punk, with a saxophone underlining the choruses and leads as needed. The songs keep coming and they keep getting better. “Medical Treatment” is the best Radio Birdman ding I’ve heard, maybe ever.

HIGH RISE Disturbance Trip Live 2xLP / Dispersion 2xLP (Black Editions)

New one and an old one. New: a corrosive High Rise live session from 1992, right at the Dispersion era. Listened to this in my car today when podcasts were listing me to sleep and irritancy on the highway. I jumped out at a rest stop in Ohio, punched a spotted lanternfly sitting on the facility door to death on the way in, and when I walked back out I saw its lifeless, beautiful body slid down the door beneath a goopy vertical line of its insides. That’s High Rise o’clock, right? Not much is gonna surprise any lifers here other than high speed psych flash and stodgy blooz riffin’ of thee highest calibre, in a grotty recording that finds Narita-san interchanging notes with feedback in sort of a kaleidoscopic effect I hadn’t really noticed out of him before. The effort to go long on this one turns out a “Deuteronomy” of the same insane peak as on Dispersion and a “Sanctuary” that runs twice as long as the studio take. Closer “Pop Sicle” takes on that sort of oompah-band/Chicago punk tempo by the end but that could be due to the really unwholesome quality of the mix, just nasty as they get. Only gripe here is no “Mainliner,” but since they started a whole side project named after that song, I can’t complain too much. If you got the rest, you need this one too.

Old (because I stand convinced nobody read this on the Still Single Tumblr last year): Caught this one the first time in 1993, the same time I discovered High Rise II via the PSF CD editions. It's pretty hard to hold much up to the brainpeel of II, but after all this time I think Dispersion takes it as High Rise's finest hour. Fitting, as the only thing that should be able to cut something this hard would be something made from the same materials.

Unfamiliars, listen: heavy as fukk Tokyo power trio, purposefully deep in a mire here. Blue Cheer, Sir Lord Baltimore, Population II, Zep II, and Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac live recordings in a spliff, ready to wreck your whole thing. I mention the mire as this one is muddier than other High Rise records, but the intent is more evident on this fine new Black edition; if you're gonna go that way, might as well make that mud into a Golem and smash anything in your way. Tougher than pretty much anything out there and makes 97% of hard psychedelic rock music from the past 30 years into something not worth stopping your door with. Lotta tricks up these sleeves, and the Billy Thorpe "Children of the Sun" UFO arrival move they drop in the center of "Sadduces Faith" might just make it the best High Rise song of all time. The early stuff leaves a dent, but their run from II through this to Live are the ones that'll take root right in your junk.

Whatever they did to bolster the sound of this one, it is workin'. '90s CD mastering (and the challenges of transferring DATs to vinyl masters before we knew better about that) made earlier versions wholly inferior to this one, so time to upgrade. Additionally, the bonus tracks from II editions of yore ("Monster A Go Go," top fiver, and "Induced Depression") find their way here, along with a full studio take of closer "Deuteronomy." Get in here, now.

Enjoy what you can while you can,

Doug Mosurock