Heathen Disco Music Reviews #0160 (January 13, 2026)

In partnership with

People really do send music to me for evaluation. Here’s some of that stuff.

You can do it too: PO Box 25717 Chicago IL 60625 USA // [email protected] 

I will get to it. Ask these folks below!

Welcome new readers, please stick around. I know $3 a month is a lot to ask but maybe nobody cares that you’re listening to something good more than I do.

Regarding this ad below: you know what would be nice is more newsletters.

I would love to see a whole flotilla of this sort of thing back in the mix, just good writing about music and film and personal discovery of culture that comes from the wise heart and not the back pocket of some publicist or scene grifter. There are some of us out there (like Blastitude) but there could be more, and there needs to be more.

I wanted to do this for a while, and was maybe too early to the party in the Tinyletter era. I knew Tumblr was a non-starter for the kind of stuff I was continuing to do and the audience I wanted to see it. I also knew that Substack wasn’t gonna cut it.

I’ll endorse Beehiiv for newsletters, and I’ll tell anyone who wants to start one that they can do it here, for free, and build a robust readership. They push a lot of $10K-a-month rhetoric (who doesn’t like to get paid, right) and AI/industry content but that pays the bills. This place is the right size for something small and personal, and until they steer me wrong, I’ll say this is a very fine place to start, especially at the free level.

Nobody’s paying me to endorse this product, but without it, Heathen Disco as you read it today wouldn’t be around. So click on it and make yours real like mine is. And if you write one, send it to me so I can take a look. Thanks.

A big 2026 starts now

Most people treat this stretch of the year as dead time. But builders like you know it’s actually prime time. And with beehiiv powering your content, world domination is truly in sight.

On beehiiv, you can launch your website in minutes with the AI Web Builder, publish a professional newsletter with ease, and even tap into huge earnings with the beehiiv Ad Network. It’s everything you need to create, grow, and monetize in one place.

In fact, we’re so hyped about what you’ll create, we’re giving you 30% off your first three months with code BIG30. So forget about taking a break. It’s time for a break-through.

Start building for 30% off today.

CHURCH CAR (Church Of) LP (Island House)

Duo sketches, largely for a melody and a rhythm, from a pair of people working out of NYC and Colorado, respectively. Not familiar with the works of either, I’m impressed out the gate with this fine weave of electronics, chordal phrasing, tumblin’ drums, counterpointed keys and samples (“Incise” in particular sets up a volley of spoken words, possibly assisted by computer, that devolves the English language down to a pile of syllables, descriptive, possessive, and manufactured). Rest of it is a fun ride through earworms and effortless frippery, Gastr del Solfege out in this world, opening the door in the clouds to the sun. Would that these guys get to Bonnaroo and blow the minds not already ruined; they easily could be that bridge for the fringes of jam-bandery to come into a new fold.

Rest of the reviews below the jump. Time to subscribe, buddy.