Disappears

Disappears initially sounds like a garage-rock band inexplicably trapped inside a stealth aircraft. Even more than the group’s 2010 debut, Lux, the 2011 album Guider seems 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. For the group’s follow-up, 2012’s Pre Language, Disappears brought on Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley. And with Sonic Youth in crisis and everything, it’s liable to become a full-time gig.

Updated 04/04/2012