Heathen Disco Music Reviews #0044 (November 22, 2024)

Hey gang. Sleep has been fleeting these past few, so let’s just cut to the reviews.

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Here’s one on the house, and the rest after the jump.

BANANAGUN Why Is the Colour of the Sky? LP (Anti Fade / Full Time Hobby)

Taking big steps forward in realizing their domain, it would figure that the members of Melbourne quintet Bananagun simply needed to travel the miles away from point A to pull focus off of a rangy debut into a more specific and rewarding niche here at point B. Where once stood a popsike band with exotica and jazz flourishes, sincere yet a bit too goofy, now Bananagun towers over all, as an exotica jazz band with popsike flourishes, and a deft wisdom to wield these elements, patterned with full, astonishing control. Compact drum bash, hustling bass, saxes, winds, a sea of percussion, upright piano, perfectly burnt-in fuzz guitar and vocals sung at a frame removed from hash trance just lock the fuck in to celebrate the passage of rhythms from Africa to South America, shimmering in a wide and blinding blue. This could pass for something on Verve in 1967; no one would be the wiser. And it’s a distinct build off of leader Nick van Bakel’s other band The Frowning Clouds, capturing that same soft distance of a long-past generation but in a deeper, richer palette. Sometimes bands just need to stick it out, to find someone (or look within themselves) to realize their potential, and it’s paying off for these folks. Good gravy this is a sweet one, ready to conquer the better world and if I’m gonna be candid it’s beyond refreshing to get a record in this wheelhouse that doesn’t align itself with Stereolab or Broadcast. Whole different arrangement of real earth music settings within.

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