Heading into 2022, there wasn’t an album I was anticipating more than Disco Doom’s Mt. Surreal, and while that statement could be true for the past six years or so, the time has come and the album has finally arrived. The Swiss quartet, led by Anita Rufer and Gabriele De Mario, return after an eight year absence with a brilliant warmth, finding the comfort in unease. With a history of expansive tonality and a knack for analog recording, Mt. Surreal plays to Disco Doom’s strengths, twisting and subverting expectations with layers of guitars, synths, and rhythms that work in unexpected ways, shifting structures to resonate with new frequencies, often landing a good distance from where they began. Pairing tranquility and dissonance against each other, Disco Doom have the ability to make abrasive sound feel meditative. It’s in that process that everything about the record feels exciting, from the fractured bliss of “Pic Nic,” and the rattling attack of “Patrik” to the blistering patchwork of “Static Bend” and the slow burn beauty of “Clic Clac”. Mt. Surreal is an album best experienced in full, an escape to get lost in. - DG