Spring Heel Jack Disappeared

Spring Heel Jack Disappeared 

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Disappeared is the sound of drum'n'bass dissected, blended with a spy movie score, and given the acidic, demonic twist of a carnival sideshow. It's also Spring Heel Jack's best album. It's no surprise that the album draws comparisons to John Barry film scores, as Spring Heel Jack seems to consist of card-carrying members of a 007 fan club, but they pull out all the stops here, producing muscular spy movie music that seems extracted from Hades itself. Devastating, bleak, and intensely powerful melodies wail and storm, jazzy fuzz-box jungle notes twist in the air, and trumpets seem to assert that the forces of darkness have been let loose. Ambient noodlings and screeches cause tension and chills. "Mit Wut" is ominous and fierce big-band electronica. Sci-fi alarms ring out on "Galina." One wonders if the music is meant to be industrial-dance-jazz or meant to conjure a techno-spy-stompfest. Unlike the music of spy aficionado Squarepusher, there's little whimsy in these 11 songs. While big beat leanings occasionally crop up, as on "I Undid Myself," the tone of the album remains relentlessly, compellingly bleak. There are moments when the duo seems to strive for chill-out vibes and when evocative violins inject grace and beauty, but the album never gives up the tinkered madness at its base. "Wolfing" concludes the album perfectly, raging aggressively like a massive steam train headed toward oblivion. Noisy, stark, and brimming with inventive, confused electronics, Disappeared is Spring Heel Jack's masterwork.

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