Heathen Disco Music Reviews #0048 (Hard Drive Dump, Vol. 1: January 2024, pt. 3 / February 2024, pt. 1)

Good afternoon team –

Feverishly writing until my fingers fall off over here, it’s the third installment in the Heathen Disco Hard Drive Dump, where I write up everything I downloaded throughout the year of 2024, in order.

It is Bandcamp Friday as I write this, so your support of these artists through purchases of digital/physical media through the platform — for today, at least, December 6th — means that they won’t get socked with additional fees. These add up, and it would be a truly great day for you to dig into these releases as you feel necessary. There’s a lot to discover.

I’m cheating a little bit here because the start of February brought a bunch of new titles from labels I think more people should be paying attention to: Pat Murano’s Daksina, the home of his Decimus project and ancillary releases; Gerard Cosloy’s indefatigable 12XU, singlehandedly saving independent music from itself; and Nate Cross’s genre-saving efforts for jazz and improvised music over at Astral Spirits and Astral Editions (a sub-label that I believe is still curated by Matthew Rolin and Jen Powers). Cross is in Water Damage, who record for 12XU, keeping these scenes in concert with one another. These three labels open up a whole realm of music that should be cherished, and today I’m putting them ahead of the rest of January’s titles for you to peruse.

The Dump continues after these, then the jump. For anyone new to this publication, here’s a taste of what you can expect. Do yourself the favor and subscribe at the prompt below, and tell everyone you know where you found all this stuff. It’s $3 a month and you are getting fucking leveled with a lot of new sounds, which has to be worth it.

Regular coverage will be feathered in over the coming weeks as we grind through 2024 in the most complete fashion possible. The output of Heathen Disco is also going to increase until we get through it all. But if you wanna get in touch I’m at [email protected], and the mailing address is PO Box 25717, Chicago IL 60625 USA.

Let’s start:

MAYA HARDINGE AND DAVID LOUIS ZUCKERMAN Penny OST (Daksina, 2024)

Date: 2/2/2024

Soundtrack to a narrative documentary (directed by artist Maya Hardinge, who was responsible for those haunting Maya 10”s from about 15 years back), about a British woman who left her small town in the 1970s, traveled to Germany and then through the Middle East by truck, and later returned home. The film, which I have not seen, is composed of the vignettes in her life during these times. Musically this is pretty diverse, a constantly shifting collection of small pieces strung together to capture the moment and environment of when and where the subject was. It’s as if film composer Christopher Young really leaned into concret, synth disturbance and non-music elements, as his delicate touch from films like Ivan Passer’s Haunted Summer is all over this. There’s a cassette version that contains more elements of the film itself, but this LP version trims it away, leaving just the music as sidelong collages that creep and haunt with clear-eyed wonder at a world far removed from the protagonist’s own, until it became hers as well.

DEJING s/t (Daksina, 2024)

Date: 2/2/2024

Ten surrounding instrumentals from an NYC musician who prefers to remain anonymous. Great late night guitar/synth/New Age/pattern floats, some exploration into Eastern rhythms and practices amidst the two-tone repetitive found/stayed zones located all through this. Really excellent, amniotic interstitials between everyday life moments. Give yourself a little mystery, get closer to the spirit realm.

LOVE CHILD Never Meant to Be (1988-1993) (12XU, 2024)

Date: 2/2/2024

Long-overdue re-entry into the uniquely scorched pop of this NYC trio, and since we’ve had Sleepyhead and Kicking Giant retros in years past (and Fly Ashtray is still a band), this one feels like the circle closing. Love Child was a trio started at Vassar from undergrads Alan Licht (gtr/vox) and Rebecca Odes (bass/vox), with two drummers in their lifespan (Will Baum on the early stuff and Brendan O’Malley til the end), and existed in that gray area where a band could receive validation and credit from the underground on that 1/100^th of a cent value that manufacturers’ coupons offer, per annum, and if they were lucky, tickets to the UK to tour over there in the rain. But no one was quite like them, really looking at opposite ends of the spectrum: Love’s Baby Soft vocals against Twisted Village-esque guitar explosions, and that sticky burnt marshmallow middle where those worlds met, and absolutely all of it works, from opener “Know It’s Alright” and its militant noise explosions in place of riffs or verses to the martial downer of “Six of One,” the closer to their second and final album Witchcraft. This is a solid overview, with much of that album and their debut Okay?, singles tracks and an unaired Peel session. Dutch East India really made sure to bury these records at the outset, but if you were there at the time, you knew the score, especially via Witchcraft, a record that could’ve made any band without oppressive, iron-clad contracts famous on another level – the jumps between textures, Licht’s spotweld-strength riffs, and Odes’ ability to balance that attack are debate-worthy and unlike just about any bands of their era (or now). For those in need of more, there are also full digital versions of both albums and the Peel session as standalones, or you can listen to the Odes records on Merge or any of Licht’s activities afterwards (may I suggest Run On to start, and this year’s Havens plus whatever strikes your fancy – there’s a lot).

WATER DAMAGE In E (12XU, 2024)

Date: 2/2/2024

Covered in Heathen Disco Music Reviews #0011.

THE EXORZIST III Gospel Jamming Vol. 1 (Cardinal Fuzz)

Date: 2/5/2024

Covered in Heathen Disco Music Reviews #0005.

MONTGOMERY & TURNER Sound Is (Our) Sustenance (Astral Editions, 2024)

Date: 2/5/2024

Flares in the gloaming from this ambient duo (JayVe Montgomery on winds and wind synths, Nick Turner on Mellotron, synths and guitars), off on their second outing with a beautifully deteriorating stretch of drones and tones. Mary Lattimore jumps in on harp for one track. Heady, rich, not entirely warm (which makes it more effective, I feel).

SILVIA BOLOGNESI / DUDÚ KOUATE / GRIFFIN RODRIGUEZ Timing Birds (Astral Spirits, 2024)

Date: 2/5/2024

Remarkable, flowing, groove-minded spiritual jazz trio of double-bassist Bolognesi and Senegal-born percussionist Kouate (both Italian residents who met while performing in a recent Art Ensemble of Chicago sixth decade lineup) along with Rodriguez, late of outfits as varied as Bablicon, Doug Scharin’s HiM, Need New Body and Icy Demons on electronics and vocals. A tribute to the low end, with a remarkable collection of deep rhythms. Kouate, stirring together a heady brew of thumb piano, hand percussion, and chanted-sung vocals, is so masterful you’ll wonder why you haven’t heard more out of him. Depth-defying, genre-busting thrills made from as stripped down of a lineup as you’ll encounter.