Heathen Disco Music Reviews #0080 (March 28, 2025)

Heads up — circumstances are requiring me to pull out of that iO Record Fair this Sunday, and while I regret I won’t be there, you should definitely still go and give those vendors your money for music and memorabilia.

Not much more to report here! Still grinding it out, ready for the tides to turn back in our favor as people who want to be free. I have hope that we can get there, but we’re gonna have to do it together.

Keep the music coming! [email protected] // PO Box 25717 Chicago IL 60625 USA

On we go.

MOTORBIKE Kick It Over LP (Feel It)

Second banger from this Cincinnati outfit, leveraging the town’s deep bench of utility backing musicians (Vacation/The Serfs crew) as the stinger for Irish vocalist James Morrison’s glam/garage stance. If they let off the gas on this one just a bit, it’s not for lack of intensity – some of the more Motörhead/Spits-style tendencies from the debut are curbed here for a slightly more psychedelic approach (“Cold Sweat”) and a sunburnt, outdoorsy layer of grime that packs a bigger bite. The throughline from the Undertones/Jam/Primal Scream style mod pop to singed American revivalist forefathers like The Original Sins, right on through to make something that could pass for Australian … it’s all well in line with the sort of monolithic, deafening expectations of a band laying waste to barrooms and backs of record stores all across this decaying land.

HEIMAT Iti Eta No LP (Teenage Menopause)

French duo of Olivier Demeaux (Cheveu, Accident du Travail) and vocalist Armelle Oberlé (The Dreams, Badaboum) are back with another outing of severe cabaret postpunk slam, hangin’ with Mr. Clarinet under the streetlights, plotting and scheming all night long. Sampler/synth-based at its core – instruments meant to remove limitations rather than encourage sameness – Heimat more than makes up for those with less/lesser ideas in this space, with Oberlé’s vocals mincing menacingly in the shadow before barreling full-force, and Demeaux meeting this nightrealm with chopped organ tones, heavy syncopated beats and a general off-kilter essence that makes this one snap more than their previous efforts, skrrrting from dub to folk to Roma-tinged postpunk. If you liked Cheveu, particularly where that group wound up at the end, this is a logical leap to the next realm.

For the rest, look beyond the jump…