2 out of 5

Label: Kranky

Produced by: Grame Gibson, Mastered by Jason Ward

Stepping through an 80s NY rock vibe with its thundering beats and boppy bass and into a 90s Touch-and-Go sludge vibe with its reverbed-as-fuck production, Disappear’s ‘Guider’ starts off with the best of impressions as ‘Superstition’ swaggers onto the scene, Brian Case of 90 Day Men back to his sing/shout of the old days.  But, y’know, that track doesn’t even make it to two minutes, and doesn’t really do much in terms of changing things up in that runtime.  Later, the title track will repeat the act, this time just passing three minutes… then just as the song is about to build to something, it cuts out.  These guys have all been around the scene, so I have no doubt they wanted to effect a particular sound here, but ‘Guider’ is pretty stagnant.  The beat and general tone remains about the same – the drums pound, the bass, mixed waaay down, does some ditties in the background while a repetitive guitar strum meshes with Case, who’s the only changing element – talking, mumbling, ‘singing’ – but given his monotone voice, this doesn’t actually change things too much.  When the group goes for a Krautrock drone on the final, fifteen minute ‘Revisiting,’ it allows you to sink into a vibe that would’ve been interesting to explore at more length, but the other tracks just don’t take the time to get there.  The flashes of panache on this disc are enough to get you to listen, but the majority of it just seems and sounds rather interchangeable otherwise.