You'd hardly guess it from her glossy work with Portland disco duo Glass Candy, but vocalist Ida No is into some heavy metaphysical shit. Rather than prepping for a night under the mirror ball, the singer was stepping out for a past-life-regression therapy session when the Straight caught her at her Oregon home.

"They put you in a trance and your soul picks out themes from past lives," she said of the process. "It's the fastest way for people to work out emotional issues."

It's uncertain what No thought she might learn from the session, but it seems she sees parallels with where she's at with her band, formed in 1995 with multi-instrumentalist Johnny Jewel.

"Glass Candy has had a lot of lifetimes," she said with a laugh.

Glass Candy's early singles married shivering bass grooves with No's warbled and shrieked vocals. The band has since tamed both its sound and its once-chaotic stage show, finding solace these days in sexy, disco-indebted synths.

"We're the kind of people who don't necessarily glue themselves to one thing in life," the performer explained of the change.

After years trying to hold down a permanent drummer, the duo now spins a CD of Jewel's programmed beats to accompany its glittery keyboards and guitars. The recent disco kick has also inspired Jewel to produce similar tracks for Texan chanteuse Farah, as well as to take over as musical director for like-minded Portland quartet Chromatics. His musical renaissance has left Glass Candy's long-awaited follow-up to 2003's Love Love Love half finished, with the band having instead made a handful of CD-R releases and MySpace-posted singles.

"Glass Candy has always suffered a little bit," No said with a sigh. "I don't mind for people to know that. We don't get to practise as much as we should because his time is very compromised."

Hardly discouraged, the vocalist has channelled her unspent energy into her love of the mystical.

"I meditate a lot," she said. "I spend a lot of time in nature. If I had more spare time I wouldn't want to take on another musical project because there are other things in life that I really love."

It's these interests that inspired "Rolling Down the Hills", the act's latest danceable download. The track is No's ethereal homage to Xochipilli, the Aztec god of dance and song. A sunny mélange of soulful, '70s-style horns and slip-sliding bass lines sets the stage for a sensual out-of-body experience.

Because she's feeling plenty of good vibes these days, No is unlikely to reprise Glass Candy's jagged back catalogue. "Our music is an exact mirror of our inner world," she explained. "I would never go back."

Glass Candy plays the Sweatshop (1820 Pandora Street) on Friday (June 22).