Heathen Disco Music Reviews #0070 (February 21, 2025)

70 of these! I almost can’t believe it, that I’ve been able to add music writing back to my creative and critical practices, and that so many of you are on board.

Dealing with a cold right now, which has impacted my ability to finish the new Mixcloud “radio show” I’ve been working on, but the weekend is young, so stay tuned.

I’m frontloading the reviews this time, because I have a special offer I’m extending to paid subscribers, which those readers can learn about after the jump.

Keep sending in the music: [email protected] / PO Box 25717 Chicago IL 60625 USA … I’ll keep covering it here.

Off we go…

WILLIE LANE Bobcat Turnaround LP (Cord-Art)

Nearly a decade after his last solo outing, guitar massachusettstermind Willie Lane hits a new stride, putting all the technique from his earlier Cord-Art solo works against new arrangements. On Bobcat Turnaround, for the first time, he’s singing, and bridging around the contributions of a very capable rhythm section (Sunburned’s Rob Thomas on bass, and percussionist Ryan Jewell). I guess I never really thought what his singing voice would be like, but as with the guitars on this one, he multitracks them, layering in harmonies and delay in this amazing, breathy voice that calls to mind the Stone Roses’ Ian Brown in his more casual, less angelic registers (think “Waterfall”). Whatever equation brings Britpop daze into the folk-rock realm is the same one that put The Charlatans UK in relief of ‘60s SF guys The Charlatans – it’s not hard to hear the ‘90s alternapop versions played hard by a group with the chops to take it back to the blues, and while this isn’t necessarily that, it’s a breezy concession laid against Lane’s playing the same masterful guitar, and the moves made in songcraft reignite his virtuosity. There’s a warm camaraderie here, and even when the bass and drums aren’t there they feel like they are; where on his previous records the isolation between the pieces could sometimes feel like a slammed door, this one’s an easygoing amble, through which he’s happy to show you all he’s got with superb, non-flash playing and a gentle manner. The first genuine good surprise of 2025, as we’ve certainly had enough of the other kind; please don’t be a stranger, Willie, the world needs this kind of peace right now.

FRANCE Destino Scifosi LP (Standard In-Fi)

Back at it for this French longform heavy drone trio, a blueprint of sorts for similar ensembles such as Water Damage. The secret weapon in their power trio is an electric hurdy gurdy in place of guitar, which provides an airiness to the throb, with delay and loop effects applied to make it sound like an entire battalion of guitars. Two sidelong pieces here, which I’d never have guessed were live recordings until all the crowd hootin’ and hollerin’ kicks in at the end of side A. After 20 odd years France could easily put this steady approach on autopilot, but instead we’re treated to layer upon layer of angelic choral screaming, pulling up out of a single slow beat and one note on the bass. It’s a trick, but it elevates this up and off of this damn planet into the next world. The sound of people losing their damn minds over this is the best evidence of where we can all go with this direction in music. It doesn’t have to be the same thing over and over.

Q LAZZARUS Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus (Music from the Motion Picture) 2xCD (Sacred Bones)

The announcement of a full set of demos by the mysterious late ingenue Diane Luckey certainly holds promise, as does the documentary that accompanies this work (which I’ve yet to see). For someone who we only know for one song, and one song only (a stripped down “Goodbye Horses,” used to unsettling effect by Jonathan Demme in film), there always had to be more to it. And here it is: 23 tracks (chopped down to 10 for the vinyl edition, and 21 for digital downloads, probably to skirt existing agreements for the version of “Goodbye Horses” everyone knows). What’s here is a curious mix of styles: ‘80s Paisley Underground/popsike (“I See Your Eyes”), cheap banged-out rough sketches (“Hellfire”) that take on a postpunk demeanor based on the synths and drum machines that frame the vocals, Heart-style big riff power ballads (“Momma Never Said”), and big diva house music (“My Mistake”). Luckey proved to be a talented songwriter in all these capacities, and has this massive, dramatic vocal range that shocks all of these tracks into life – it seems ridiculous that the tide never really turned her way, or allowed her to enjoy any benefits of her talent. What a voice! I’m not entirely certain that most people will want all of this, and the first 10 tracks that build the single LP release is the cream of the crop (also including a great digital reggae take on “Summertime” from Porgy & Bess, and her cover of the Talking Heads’ “Heaven” excised from Demme’s Philadelphia at the eleventh hour), but that should satisfy most listeners who’ve always wondered if there was anything else.

RATTLE Encircle LP (Upset the Rhythm)

Third album from this British duo, nothing but the beguiling melodic chants and strictures of drumming from members Katharine Brown and Theresa Wrigley. They’re making more of this approach than ever before, pulling closer to the wyrd hypnotic woods of British folk and separatist sounds, where every pause and every breath bears meaning. Maybe it’s the cold medicine in me but it’s super easy to get lost in the messages of the two shorter tracks and the movement in the two longer ones, different dances that achieve the same goal: awareness through entrancement, a performance that strips away all the artifice, leaving a throbbingly alive, othering presence for the listener to confront. We’ve come a long way from those D & V records on Crass; the evidence is here and all you’ll need.

ALI OMAR Hashish Hits LP (Efficient Space)

Profoundly zapped dub/funk tracks from the late Ali Omar, a British producer who made his mark in Sydney with distinctive, self-released works from the ’98-’02 zone, no better time to get heady and go to work on the future. More centered than avant dub outfits like African Head Charge or the academic, top-button alienation of DJ Spooky, Omar evidenced both a fine-tuned control over electrodub, house, Middle Eastern and R&B styles, and an ear for tone and instrumentation that relied on a neck/brain simplicity; anyone could have made these tracks, you’d think, but they didn’t. Samples-as-bedrock tracks explore a vein deep with contemporaries (Massive Attack, early Warp/bleep roster, The Orb) but space out on synths, strings, and reeds; talking drum butts up against industrial-strength percussion and hot winds of electronics on the most immediate offering, “Suicide Bomber,” but all of this it killer, the deepest nugs in the chest. The most down-ass downtempo I’ve ever heard, mutated from the top but fundamentally rock solid all the way down.

That special news is below. Subscribe if you like to be on the inside.