Rockin’ Our Turntable: Disappears
By Michele Lenni in Arts & Entertainment on May 11, 2010 4:20PM
There is something inherently refreshing about an unapologetically simple, meat and potatoes rock record like Disappears’ Lux. An album with minimally layered tracks, no dance beats and little to no frills; just guitar, bass, vocals and a whole lot of swagger.
Clocking in under just 30-minutes, Lux is a record that will immediately conjure visions of The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, and Suicide as well as the trudging rhythms of veteran Kraut-rockers Neu. This is in part due to Disappears’ players, Brian Case of The Pony’s and 90 Day Men and members of the now defunct post-rock outfit Boas.
Though they have chosen a minimal pallet to express their voice, the sheer volume and robust nature of their music harkens back to the early ‘90s wall of sound movement that made heady rockers like Jay Spaceman and Sonic Boom famous.
Recorded in January of 2009 in Graeme Gibson’s loft, the record was set to be released on Touch and Go Records. In the wake of that label’s demise Kranky, better known for taking on more down tempo indie acts like Low and Stars of the Lid, took on the record and released it in April.
The opening track, ”Gone Completely,“ rips open the album with a swirl of distortion, reverb and echo in tandem with Case’s trademark Iggy Pop-like growl. This dark, blissed-out trip continues through the entire record and is highlighted in tracks like ”Magics,“ ”Marigold,“ and the title track, which is funnily enough about the famous hotel heiress Paris Hilton, not the late, great Cramps’ frontman Lux Interior.
All-in-all this is an extremely solid rock record. Songs are concise, simple and accomplish exactly what they set out to do: rock you into submission. Unfortunately, the weaknesses on it are almost the same as its strengths. In the last third of the record we struggled to feel as engaged as we were during the album’s first few tracks. The repetitive nature of each song’s structure, paralleled by Case’s vocal style, begins to fold in on itself, confining the listener to the record’s earlier songs’ sound. Either way, if you are looking for a stripped down, loud and gutsy-as-hell sound, this is probably the band for you.