Heathen Disco Music Reviews #0003

Thanks to all 105 of you who’ve signed up so far.

Housekeeping notes: thanks again for the surge of records to write about and play. I’ll keep turning over here, even while on vacation next week. Door County won’t know what hit ‘em when I click Send!

If there’s anything you should check out other than these five records, let it be Baker’s Revenge, Arthur Baker’s weekly hour on SiriusXM Studio 54 Radio. He pushes the disco envelope further than anyone else on that channel, and has been laying down lots of unreleased tracks and remixes that I hope someone is archiving somewhere (the SiriusXM app only carries the last two weeks’ worth of shows, possibly due to broadcast rights on some of these tracks). A great blend and some history to back up each selection, I can’t recommend it enough.

Submissions to PO Box 25717, Chicago IL 60625 // heathendisco email

On with it:

MOUNTAIN MOVERS Walking After Dark 2xLP (Trouble in Mind)

From their get-right phase beginning about a dozen years ago, when Dan Greene and co. brought guitarist Kryssi Battalene into the fold, New Haven’s Mountain Movers have been on some regular epochal rendition hours, each subsequent record since the level-setting s/t from 2015 becoming more and more burnt. This double LP breaks a spell, not a dry one, mind you, pulling out of traditional drummer mode and giving each member a wider berth to move in. There are traditional songs that vacillate between summer 5:00 A.M. outdoor meditation and the third Velvets LP, spacing out four extended improv pieces with lots of kosmiche synth reedle and zoom, gently tessellating water shapes amid the far-gone lookbacks at previous eras of the band. “Factory Dream” has a Kryssi signature in it, but where that once was a Kurihara/Haino-style outburst, it turns into a rusty fence oscillation that you could weaponize if needed to scare off any normal neighbors lookin’ to get ideas. The two longest pieces, “Reclamation Yard” and side-long closer “Ice Dream” rank among their most lit-up, taken-off moments, forging a psychic weld between Ash Ra Tempel, Achim Reichel and Cluster II beyond their collective moment (mal). Spacemen 3 with access to the some of the country’s finest pizza, anyone? Another killer, and it’s pulled up the rope ladder from their works behind it. Ride-or-die time, either side is a trip unto itself.

SHOP REGULARS s/t LP (Merrie Melodies)

Fine mid-fi agitation / treble jitters from this Portland collective, with most of the folks on a level of PDX DIY bands participating. It’s great, and where they call Faust and Magic Band (legitimately), I’m hearing more of tintype Tyvek running on a track short enough to never get to the chorus, some of the Howling Hex solo circuits but with simpler truths crooned out instead of the alien intelligence of Denver’s finest. It’s great music and a strong approach which would benefit from a more dynamic recording: ideals are ideals, money is money, but I’m thinking about how this would sound live in a decent room and I’m getting real foam-o over the depth this could have. To be fair, if you purchase this record you will be pleased, and it’ll potentially push the band closer to what I’m suggesting.

CHALK The Beat Sessions LP (Tall Texan

Post-poppers punk-turned-wavo (guideposts 2^nd Blitz LP, The Chameleons, Division Four, etc.) from Institute drummer Barry Elkanick, previously of a wholly inscrutable debut on PPM called Neophobia, one of those records where you can’t tell who the band is or what the songs are called without looking it up. There’s only one track on that which hints towards it being the same project as the Chalk featured on The Beat Sessions, a really solid post-punk record with a burly rhythm section, piercing chorus pedal leads, growling wildman vocals and rock compositions that favor the repetitive anvil chorus of the permanently punished. Swings the sledge pretty hard, with some anthemic excursions, Mission of Burma punching the time clock at the Dept. of Sanitation style. Gets a little better with each listen until it’s all you’re thinking about for a while. (https://talltexan.bigcartel.com/product/chalk-beat-sessions-lp)

HERALD Linear B LP (Errol’s Hot Wax)

Solo debut from Lawrence Worthington, at one time the drummer of The Yummy Fur, The Male Nurse and The Country Teasers. Lawrence left all that behind for love in Baltimore and didn’t look back. Herald doesn’t have a ton to do with those projects; maybe some of the narcoleptic, cheek-chewing quality of The Male Nurse (a positive), but plenty of did-it-at-home dub/slap/tank night walks, Eno/Cale choral netting, synths on synths on synths, and a centered, at-peace nature that puts this one at the end of the night. Even if you’re not going out much anymore, you still need comedown records to soften the abstract blows of life as it slows down. Happy to have this around.

CHRIS CORSANO The Key (Became The Important Thing [And Then Just Faded Away]) LP (Drag City)

Getting to hear Chris Corsano drumming outside of a collaborator context feels rarer than it should, and the earth hasn’t seen many examples outside of an Ultra Eczema release and some self-released recordings over a decade old. A lithe, powerhouse percussionist, he energizes every group he plays in, wordlessly, heads down, a student of the elastic properties of sticks and handles and mallets. Certainly getting pickups and synths and distorted guitars out of him wasn’t expected here, but who expects things anyway? The Key drives on relentlessly, heading off to battle with a dissonant march, strummed tension and kinetic eruptions of fiery racket. Those looking for his Graves-informed free skiffle will get it here and then some, but the fusillade is strung over seriously gripping, locked-in riff scrabble that woulda fit around Can, The Ex, Sonic Youth, and very selective outcroppings from those groups. Every track can stand on its own but he’s covering a lot of ground in each, making a record that’s longer than it seems but captivating by the second. Wholly surprising, and those who like noise but fear improvisation will get a great deal of satisfaction, and a good shove against such immature notions, with this one. Everybody else will dig it too.

Have the holiday you want,

Doug Mosurock