Artist Disappears

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Disappears

Disappears initially sounds like a garage-rock band inexplicably trapped inside a stealth aircraft. Even more than last year’s debut, Lux, 2011’s Guiderseems too shadowy and sleek to figure out quickly. Disappears uses a lot of reverb and delay—too much for most bands—but applies the effects with a relentlessly slop-free touch. Each time a guitar bounces off the echo-dome on “New Fast,” it’s as crisp and curt as a board karate-chopped in half. The band’s songwriting has its share of contradictions too: The more it keeps building around one simple pattern, the more high-functioning it becomes. Disappears are clearly doing something right, as they’ve attracted a fancy new drummer, Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley, and will be releasing a new record, Pre-Language, on Kranky next Spring.

Updated 12/15/2011