disappears: low live in chicago

Chicago four-piece Disappears cover David Bowie's 1977 classic Low in its entirety live in their hometown. It's the perfect balance between a tribute and a work that furthers the experimental nature of the original. The band ran through the album twice on November 22, 2014, as part of a concert series titled Bowie Changes, which featured several Chicago-based musicians reinterpreting the Bowie catalog to mark the opening of the David Bowie Is exhibition at the city's Museum of Contemporary Art. "Naturally we chose the hardest one," jokes guitarist and singer Brian Case. They succeed by being faithful to the original, while turning it into something that sounds very much like a Disappears album. The seven songs on the first side are buzzing and muscular, injected with steroids by the ferocious rhythm section of Noah Leger (drums) and Damon Carruesco (bass). However, it is the more avant-garde songs on the B-side that are the revelation. Stripped of Eno's EMS Synthi AKS and Minimoogs, "Warszawa" becomes an intense battleground between Case and Jonathan van Herik's treated guitars; "Subterraneans" swaps saxophones for Rother-esque kosmische curlicues; and "Weeping Wall" builds to an appropriate and fearsome (Berlin) wall of noise. Mastered by Sonic Boom. Limited-edition orange vinyl in see-through PVC sleeve with fold-out insert. Includes download code.