I can’t wait til the end of the year. Let’s just do this now.

There’s obviously more coming from Heathen D, but at the close of the first year of operations I need to thank all of you (especially grown-ass people who subscribed) for your support and belief in this operation. You mean a lot and I really enjoy being able to bring these thoughts to you on what you should be listening to.

HEATHEN DISCO SUPPORTS THESE TEN RELEASES MOST OF ALL

10. NIGHTSHIFT Homosapien (Trouble in Mind)

TiM put out some heaters this year — most of which went a little too quietly for anyone’s liking — but I need to skirt the obvious choice (Dummy) and a pair of dark horses for this remarkable record out of Scotland. Reviewed it here, go click and revisit what I told ya.

9. NED COLLETTE Our Other History (Sophomore Lounge / Ever/Never)

For how heated everyone (deservedly) got over this, it’s not as remembered as it should be, even now. And it should be. Best loose tobacco cloud 2024. Read up here.

8. SiP Leos Ultras (Not Not Fun)

Plainly masterful meditations by Chicago’s Jimmy Lacy, should be part of most forward-thinking folks’ everyday practice. Get open, learn more here.

7. THINE RETAIL SIMPS Strike Gold Strike Back Strike Out (Total Punk)

Montreal had a breakout year and a lot of it had to do with Joe Chamandy’s work both as label impresario of Celluloid Lunch and the newest by The Simps, which went round-robin and showed the collective and personal strengths of each player. Read it loud.

6. WATER DAMAGE In E (12XU)

Austin’s mobile trepanation unit went long this year, on a number of pay what thou wilt digital-only releases, and especially on this, their first double album, one hole drilled per side. You’re already breathing more easily. Here’s the details.

5. ROSALI Bite Down (Merge)

Been steadily enjoying Rosali’s series of albums, blossoming from Philly wallflower to directly address a larger world and a place in it, a reinvention with Omaha’s finest (Schroeder, Nance, Donahue) and now getting completely open with the same group on album number four, an absolute burner in both sentimental and rowdy, take-no-shit modes. That cover is the look of someone who’s come to the realization of what they got. Saw this band multiple times over this past summer and it only got sweeter at each gig. This is how it went down and how we got here.

4. MOPE GROOVES Box of Dark Roses (Night School / 12XU)

Singular double-iconoclastic masterwork. stevie isn’t with us anymore but the legacy of the work remains, all completed here. Some thoughts.

3. JEFF PARKER ETA IVTET The Way Out of Easy (International Anthem / Nonesuch)

Like Water Damage, here’s a song per side, but unlike any other records this year, I can easily lose a full 80 minutes at a clip to the collective sorcery contained here. I hope there are more reels that came from these live sessions that’ll open up even more sides of perhaps America’s greatest currently active jazz unit. Notes within (subscription required).

2. CINDY LEE Diamond Jubilee (W.25th)

Haven’t written about this one here just yet — give it time, it’s coming up in the Hard Drive Dump sooner than you think. I was fortunate enough to see the Cindy Lee show twice in 2023, so some of these songs weren’t new to me; I’d been following along since Malenkost (since Women, in fact) and noted all the refinements and confusions, the moments of brilliance that led to the complete effort of this triple album. Deserving of every bit of praise it’s received and then some.

1. VERITY DEN s/t (Amish)

Nothing hit me this year as softly as this debut, a band that so completely represents everything beautiful and right about shoegaze/noise pop, down to the last fuzzy detail. Plenty of bands can get it fired up but only this one has the distinction to finish. A new level of achievement in a genre that’s been wrung out over and over. There’s always more. It’s the first record I covered in this effort and in a sense made me want to write about music again for all of you. Here’s why.

FIFTEEN UNORDERED ARCHIVAL RELEASES THAT WIND THE CLOCK BACK FROM THE HELL OUR NEIGHBORS HAVE CREATED FOR US IN 2024:

Five here, the rest after the jump. No order.

CIRCUS LUPUS 1990 Demo (L.G.)

The past 12 months have seen some real embarrassment of riches activity both for vocalist Chris Thomson’s leagues of great bands (Fury, Coffin Pricks) and for any groups affiliated with California’s L.G. Records, to my understanding a short-term project of well-done, archival quality editions of punk records that never existed. This was the first demo from Circus Lupus in their earliest form, as a band in Madison, WI about to relocate to Chris Thomson’s homebase of Washington, DC. These are the turns they didn’t take and the most powerful stabs at the ones they did. Essential.

OSTRAALY Misery Guests (Tenth Court, 2020; c. Siltbreeze, 2024)

Too late and too soon — the pandemic stymied a planned wider release of this brilliant debut by an Australian country-folk dynamo, then bandleader Katharine Daly left us the year after. The efforts to complete this circuit have not gone unnoticed, and it’s one of the brightest and bluest moments of this or maybe any year. Dutifully remembered here.

TERRY STAMP Blue Redondo (self-released, 1978; c. Just Add Water, 2024)

Aching, besotted, verdant blues minimalism from a larger-than-life character. The liner notes depict what he’d gone through to keep this dream alive and it’s some of the best storytelling about music received in longer than I can remember. You’ll have to buy a copy as it’s not streaming anywhere, but more thoughts are here.

BOWERY ELECTRIC Demo (self-released, 1994/2024)

Alongside Kranky’s much-needed reissues of their Bowery Electric catalog, the duo unleashed this early artifact, total shoegaze stucco scrape from the bowels of Max Fish. More here.

LOVE CHILD Never Meant to Be: 1988-1993 (1990/1991/1992, Trash Flow/Homestead/City Slang; c. 12XU, 2024)

You couldn’t dream up a band like Love Child in 2024, so the proof needed to be exhumed. Covered in one of the earlier dumps, check it out.

After the jump: the remaining best reissues and archival releases of the year, and all the honorable mentions: