Chicago's Disappears draw on a combined reverence for reverb, heavy tremolo, distortion, delay and repetition, they play minimal rock music inspired by everything from Kraut to American gospel to punk. Carving out a space somewhere in the middle of garage-punk snarl, shoegaze haze, and Krautrock grooves. Their records sit in a classic alt-rock space, yet sound wonderfully unique. Now featuring the drumming talents of the excellent Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley, Disappears' second album 'Pre-Language' is due to drop on the consistently brilliant Kranky in late february. In support they'll be playing at Corsica Studios on the 29th of March, tickets are here. Prepare to be pummelled.

Replicate from Disappears on Vimeo.

Blondes' debut long-player, out now on RNVG Intl, is actually no such thing, and in part this is why it's such a paradoxical listen. Formed of three 12"s released last year, and coupled with two new tracks, the album is a series of pairs; Lover / Hater - Business / Pleasure - Wine / Water - Gold / Amber. Each track is only fully understandable, fully appreciable, in reference to its pair. Yet for all the chin-stroking this will undoubtably bring about in the techno-pseuds 'Blondes' is also at turns a deeply-involving house record, and as such it's a rarity in a genre more suited to expressing itself on a track-by-track basis.

What this all amounts to is that with Blondes you can really take or leave a lot of their music theory baggage and really get stuck into it as a pure aural experience. This should hopefully transpose perfectly to the live arena, when Blondes launch their record in London's Shacklewell Arms on Thursday 16th. Facebook event here and tickets here.

Blondes - Blondes (Disc 1) by RVNG Intl.

JAMES FERRARO is arguably the most talked-about (certainly the most theorised) underground artist of the past two years, confounding and delighting in equal measure with a litany of cassette, CD-R and vinyl releases under a bewildering number of aliases. New album 'Far Side Virtual' on Hippos In Tanks it a forty five minute exploration of modernity, made up of the technological white noise that backgrounds our lives in web 2.0. Partly a satire of the hyperreality and interconnectivity of late capitalism, but also imbued with an innocence and willingness to engage with the subject matter.

Look for an interview with him in the next issue of Tank, but in the mean time he's playing a special one off show for Upset The Rhythm next week at the Tufnell Park Dome. Details here

James Ferraro - 'Far Side Virtual' by Hippos In Tanks