Weekly Releaese Spotlight: Disappears
Posted on 4/18/2010
Disappears
Lux
[Kranky]
Utilizing musical cacophony to their fullest advantage, underrated garage rock darlings, Disappears, are finally delivering their debut album after years of critical buzz. While one of their first releases, Live Over the Rainbo, was a compilation of tracks recorded live in 2009 while on tour with Deerhunter and served to capture Disappears’ raw essence, Lux offers a more photogenic image.
With a title taken from the standard scientific unit for measuring brightness, the group’s first full-length studio effort combines post-grunge compositional aesthetics with a carefully selected employment of effects to create a cauldron of existential contemplation. The opening track “Gone Completely” poses the questions, “Does it go on without me?” and “Do you ever think about/what if we had never lived?” Multi-instrumentalist/producer Graeme Gibson showcases the advanced techniques he picked up as a Recording Arts and Science student at the Trebas Institute in Toronto, stewing thick slabs of distortion in a rich broth of reverb. The rhythmic complexity in “New Cross” arises from the way Gibson encapsulates the would-be continuous guitar melody in a series of psychedelic tremolo-induced bubbles. The song comes to a boil as all guitars erupt in an ear splitting overdriven chorus. In a fashion similar to their name and the band’s self-proclaimed status as musical minimalists, the textual component of most tracks on Lux is hidden, drowning amidst effects and high instrumental volume.
In addition to the musical concoction recently culminated with Disappears in Lux, Gibson’s resume boasts a slew production credits for Midwest independent acts. Years of engineering experience with artists requiring highly specific applications of the myriad techniques available in modern recording have afforded him a reputation that has led to collaborations with the Fruit Bats, Califone, and Joan of Arc, as well as a studio of his own in the Windy City. With a vehicle to deliver their message and a wide pallet of musical colors, Gibson and Disappears carefully measure how much of this world to illuminate for the listener.
Written by Alex Hamberger, Radio K volunteer
2008
2009
Stream: Disappears - Magics