Disappears -
Irreal

If you've ever played the classic neo-noir crime thriller Max Payne , you'll recall the ghostly platforms and graffiti-laced walls of the murky, menacing Roscoe Street Station , a place drenched in dystopian gloom and decorated by cracked mirrors and discarded, bloody needles. There was little in the way of ambience to blanket your hurried footsteps – save for the distant drones of dripping pipes and the occasional non-diegetic stab – and total respite from this near-silent stranglehold was only provided by the beretta-fire of drugged-up delinquents hell-bent on reducing you to ether. If you were looking to soundtrack the cloaked intent of those claustrophobic corridors, though, then the aimless, looping twitches of Irreal, the fifth full-length from Chicago’s Disappears , would provide an apt additional layer of surrealist threat.