Switzerland might not be your first thought when thinking about “electronic rock music”, yet away from the spotlight’s glare The Young Gods have deconstructed said genre and rebuilt it in their own image, creating an incendiary sound and one which takes no prisoners. As the band approach their fortieth anniversary, they show no signs of slowing down and mark this milestone in the best possible way, namely with a new album. Featuring ten tracks that find the band at their blistering best, Appear Disappear is a record that marks a moment in time with a burnt, caustic offering.
I’m pleased to report that time hasn’t blunted The Young Gods power in any way and if proof were needed to their vitality we need look no further than the opening (and title) track. Arriving without warning and tearing apart the air like a break in the matrix, ‘Appear Disappear’ hits the listener as if a bullet between the eyebrows, it’s sudden appearance making it all the more impactful. It’s a piece of musique concrète, a jumble of wires that finds circuitry breaking and their machinery imploding and from this tangle the band rise, phoenix-like, to deliver a rather nice piece of ear candy. The perfect amalgamation of the tuneful and discordant, it wraps its melody within a ball of fuzz and perpetual loops that will wrap themselves around your memory bank like razor wire.
The Young Gods have been a band in constant motion, and their latest album is no exception. You can hear the roots of Appear Disappear digging deep into their discography, yet it simultaneously sets its sights on the horizon and that makes tracks such as ‘Blue Me Away’ both familiar and strange. As is the case with many pioneers, The Young Gods were quickly usurped by those who followed and what really becomes apparent from listening to this album is just how vast their influence is. Take the dangerous swagger that forms the centrepiece of ‘Hey Armour’, for example, it’s something that Nine Inch Nails made a career from. And the sinister nature of ‘Intertidal’, think Rammstein at their most menacing, but everyone from Ministry to Napalm Death via Chemical Brothers has take a piece of The Young Gods. Even that cultural vampire David Bowie took a big chunk for his Outside phase. Therefore, it would be easy for The Young Gods to consolidate their position and release an album that treads water, yet Appear Disappear evidences them as leaders, not followers, delivering a dynamic ten tracks that twist and turn over the course of forty five shapeshifting minutes.
As final song ‘Off The Radar’ fades into the ether with a staccato riff it poses more questions than it answers. Who knows where The Young Gods will go from here, but on the strength of Appear Disappear, it’s bound to be interesting.
- Appear Disappear is released via Two Gentlemen on 13th June 2025.
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Track List:
- Appear Disappear
- Systemized
- Blue Me Away
- Hey Amour
- Blackwater
- Tu En Ami Du Temps
- Intertidal
- Mes Yeux De Tous
- Shine That Drone
- Off The Radar
