Heatrig

Renewed availability of the Boy Dirt Car material from the '80s is a darn good thing and includes, in the case of Heatrig, a remastering job that clarifies certain sounds well beyond the expected vinyl-to-digital threshold. The opening title track presents the group's roots in hypnotically aggressive garage rock, complete with a vocal both irritating and monotonous. It isn't long before the sense of regularity in rhythm moves from a rock & roll riff to a typical electronic music process in which something mysterious repeats while slowly evolving, detail by detail. If it resembles Phillip Glass, it is only because a couple of hobos are melting one of his old records in place of their normal supply of sterno. The six members of the group take no particular credits for instruments or an identifiable contribution of any sort — instead they collectively put together group compositions in which there is simply no predicting what will happen, sound sources merging and dividing, a train arriving at one moment and a feather floating magically through an ocarina the next.