black market

chicago house

new age, space age pop

november 18th, 2021

Sceneries Not Songs, Volume One

Larry Heard (1994)

Larry Heard, better known as Mr. Fingers, was a seminal figure in the deep house scene of the mid-1980s. A native Chicagoan, Heard grew up in the center of the house universe, and it no doubt was in his mind from an early age. Growing up on the Motown sound and jazz and having learned a variety of instruments in his youth, it was these musical fluorishments that would make his musical contributions stand out. Just within days of purchasing his first synthesizer and drum machine he had made the essential Can You Feel It and would only continue to pump out quality house tracks in the coming years.

With this in mind, you wouldn't be wrong to expect yet another quality house record to tack onto Heard's already impressive catalogue, but Sceneries, Not Songs, Volume One blows this preconception out of the water - or rather, slowly dilutes it in its quirky spacey world. As may be obvious by the cover, space is a significant sonic influence in this record. This album sounds like space, but more "1950s retrofuturism" space; at times the tracks here sound more like drawn-out Mort Garson tunes than true-blue house music.

I mean the Mort Garson comparison in more ways than one; Garson was at his best soundtracking, be it the literal soundtrack of Didn't You Hear? or the more conceptual and abstract "soundtrack for plants" of Mother Earth's Plantasia, Garson's meandering daydreaming sound works tends to work best as a companion piece to more concrete ideas on the side. Down to the title of the album Heard seems to adopt a more "sound-tracky" philosophy wholesale, often times sounding like the soundtrack to a fourth Mother game never released.

This works both to the benefit and to the deficit of the album. For most of the run time the trance is there and Heard successfully locks you into this half-spacey half-urban world with flying colours - but in a select few sections with reduced drum presence - see Winter Winds & Chills - tend to just sound like fat. But, minor gripe aside, Heard's debut record surprisingly sticks the landing of ambient spacey soundtracky delight while having a tinge of danceability about it.

SCORE: 7.3/10