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- Heathen Disco Music Newsletter #0058 (January 10, 2025)
Heathen Disco Music Newsletter #0058 (January 10, 2025)
DPRK, Pleasure Forever, Franz Ferdinand, some brilliant folk from last year and a new regional indie pop comp
Busying up in the worst month of the year in the worst year to date, maybe? I’m struggling to comprehend how to help all the people I know who’ve lost everything (and more) in the LA fires, and to quell the sense of unease for all of my other friends who are too close to them. That sense of impending doom, so banal for January, isn’t something I want anyone going through, even though we’re given a nonstop stream of it to consume when it’s not menacing us directly. Sometimes we can’t turn it off. Illinois is open with big, cold arms.

say no more…
Couple of changes going on here, nothing that’ll affect the tenor or quality of this here newsletter. But, as a renter, you’re at the vagaries of the market and the property, and I’m going to be losing my lease here come July. I’m taking it upon myself to scale down at a massive ratio, no longer really wanting to rent out a room for records (a quiet hulking that could at some point could fall over on you), and going native digital to make simpler my search for a new home in Chicago. I still love discovering new music, but it’s time to get records in the hands of others rather than my own. Heathen Disco sets will continue on Mixcloud but I want to focus more on the music than the medium. I want to play you music to put you onto it — I want to make those connections, but I don’t want to be a DJ anymore in the traditional sense. Stuck between people who never change and 180bpm murk in the dark off a USB stick, I instead need to be true to myself, in the time I have, and that means letting go of a past that isn’t around for me anymore so I can appreciate a present and anticipate a future in your company. If this turns out to be a grave error, I’m sure you’ll hear all about it.
Anyway, I want you sending me stuff and putting it through the filter over here, so continue to send music and mail: [email protected], or PO Box 25717 Chicago IL 60625 in the USA.
One freebo this week, the rest behind the dreaded paywall, which you can easily lift for only $3 a month (or $35 a year). You get these thoughts in exchange, a sweet deal if ever there were one.
DPRK Dragonfly Mountain LP (Studio Fabrik)
Breathlessly submitted from Australia, this is a nice and busy little engine, a 2-stroke improv record with enough rhythmic gas that any looseness of concept holds strong simply by hanging out. The group is led by Richard Fielding, an early member of Severed Heads, along with a Nick Dan from xNOBBQx (remember them?) on pads and on this outing Japanese sax player/live drummer Yusuke Akai. Apart from the beginning and end (both luminous, watery churns at shopping district drones), each track here consists of a polyphonic synth pattern and gets in and around a groove fast, enough to let whoever wants to go wild on top or corrode the underside get away with it. Might be a little simple, but when simple works, go with it.
More beneath the jump.