DARKSIDE is an American rock band formed in Providence, Rhode Island in 2011. The group consists of Chilean electronic musician & vocalist Nicolás Jaar and American multi-instrumentalist Dave Harrington. Jaar and Harrington first met while studying in Providence through their com- mon friend and saxophonist Will Epstein. In the summer of 2011, they toured Europe and Australia in support of Jaar’s breakthrough debut album Space Is Only Noise.

Upon returning to Providence, they continued to write together, releasing their self-titled EP in 2012 and their critically acclaimed debut album Psychic on Matador Records in October 2013. The album was met with glowing reviews, including a 9.0 from Pitchfork and The New York Times calling it “the soundtrack to a lost David Lynch sci-fi movie.”

In the summer of 2018, Harrington and Jaar rented a small house on Lenni-Lenape territory, which is present-day Flemington, New Jersey. The group spent a week there, making a song a day. While it would take another year and a half to complete their second album, six songs from the band’s new record Spiral were written and recorded during this initial session.

“From the beginning, DARKSIDE has been our jam band. Something we did on days off. When we reconvened, it was because we really couldn’t wait to jam together again,” says Jaar. Harrington echoes this, “It felt like it was time again,” he said. “We do things in this band that we would never do on our own. DARKSIDE is the third being in the room that just kind of occurs when we make music together.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Jaar & Harrington's Darkside project has never quite gone with convention, and their latest outing 'Spiral' brilliantly toes the line between drone music and gothic, eastern-influenced folk with ease, via all manner of geographical pit stops. Otherworldly vocals seamlessly ride atop grooving percussion in some places and in others, eschewed entirely for a focus on shifting drone and tectonic modulation. As baffling and brilliant as ever.

TRACK LISTING

Narrow Road
The Limit
The Question Is To See It All
Lawmaker
I’m The Echo
Spiral
Liberty Bell
Inside Is Out There
Only Young

Legendary indie space rockers Sterling Roswell and Pete Bassman of Spacemen 3 return as The Darkside after a 23 year hiatus with a 5CD 'Complete Studio Masters' box set of remasters, remixes and demos. One of the projects to emerge from the groundbreaking efforts of the drone-rock pioneers, The Darkside led by Pete Bain (a.k.a. Pete Bassman), who on leaving Spacemen 3 prior returned to his hometown of Rugby, would be joined by fellow alumni and multi instrumentalist Sterling Roswell. Signed soon after to Beggars Banquet due to the strength of their demo’s and live shows, The Darkside went on to unleash psychedelic gems including; “Waiting For The Angels”, “Guitar Voodoo”, “Mystic Morning”, “All That Noise” and many more.

Now, nearly 25 years on, Rosco and Pete have worked front line for both the re-mastering and artwork of this special release. Rosco aka Sterling Roswell explains: “Contained are just some of the seeds that Pete and I planted in the spring time of our youth that are now bearing fruit with the help everyone at Beggars Banquet and Cargo Records, thanks and praises... This 5 CD box set contains the complete studio masters, 55 tracks recorded between the years 1989 and 1993 and contains 4 hidden bonus unreleased tracks recorded Live on Campus Radio at Surrey University celebrating the work we did together and continue to do so...”. Jonathan Levitt of Blurt Magazine, discusses the bands first release “All That Noise”: “I can clearly remember back to 1990 when All That Noise was released and the first time I spun it on my Doctor Goth radio show.

While simultaneously listening to the sinister opening bass notes of “Guitar Voodoo” and staring at the cryptic album cover I was transfixed by a band that was thankfully outside of any contrived musical movement being pushed at the time, Madchester anyone? The album is propelled along a very clear trajectory giving a heavy nod to 60’s psych along the way. Now some 27 years on, the album remains as it did upon my first listen, a psychedelic gem existing in its own space and time, filled with a sinister, brooding and beguiling set of tracks that continue to astonish.” Track Info : Discs 1 and 2 contain the critically acclaimed debut album ‘All That Noise’ remastered plus alternate versions, mixes, instrumentals, demos, bonus unreleased live tracks and an interview recorded in 1990. Disc 3 contains the follow up to second critically acclaimed album Mellomania, remastered in full. Disc 4 contains dub remixes and remastered Mayhem To Meditate EP. Disc 5 contains the Bomp Records Lunar Surf EP, remastered Jukebox At Munster’s single, the previously unreleased lost 3rd album and demos. 

TRACK LISTING

1 - 1 Guitar Voodoo
2 Found Love
3 She Don’t Come
4 Good For Me
5 Love In A Burning Universe
6 All That Noise
7 Spend Some Time
8 Don’t Stop The Rain
9 Soul Deep
10 Waiting For The Angels
11 Sweet Vibrations..

CD 2 - 1 Guitar Voodoo Alt Mix
2 Found Love Alt Mix
3 She Don’t Come Alt Mix
4 Good For Me Alt Mix
5 Love In A Burning Universe Instrumental
6 All That Noise Alt Mix
7 Spend Some Time Alt Mix
8 Soul Deep Instrumental
9 Waiting For The Angels Alt Mix
10 Head In The Sand Demo
11 Waiting For The Angels Demo
12 Sweet Vibrations Demo
13 Good For Me Demo
14 She Don’t Come - Live On Surrey University Campus Radio
15 Blues One - Live On Surrey University Campus Radio
16 Interlude On Mars - Live On Surrey University Campus Radio
17 High Rise Love - Live On Surrey University Campus Radio
18 Recorded Interview 1990..

CD3 -
1 Always Pleasure
2 Feelings Flow
3 Tornado
4 Mystic Morning
5 Someday
6 Are You For Real ?
7 24 Hours
8 Cry For Me
9 Rise..

CD 4 -

1 Waiting For The Angels 12” Mix
2 This Mystic Morning
3 This Mystic Remix
4 This Mystic Remix
5 This Mystic Dub
6 Cry For Me Single Remix
7 The Straightest Shot
8 This Time Is Mine
9 The Heart Of The Sun ..

CD 5 -

1 Feel Too Real
2 Retroglide
3 SOS Bomp EP Version
4 SOS Alt Mix
5 Space Walk Bomp EP Version
6 Space Walk Alt Mix
7 When Fate Deals It’s Mortal Blow
8 SOS Agent Ugly Version
9 There’s A World Outside
10 High Time
11 Easter Everywhere
12 Ride Around
13 Frankie Teardrop

Darkside is the collaborative duo of guitarist Dave Harrington and electronic producer Nicolas Jaar. The two musicians have vastly different backgrounds, but over the course of several years of touring together they found common ground: Darkside. Dave and Nico use each other as mediums, working on primal instinct and summoning a hybrid of electronic music and psychedelic rock with the kind of artistic depth and breadth for which the term ‘progressive’ was coined.

Darkside unveil their debut full length, ‘Psychic’, to the world via Jaar’s own Other People label under license to Matador.

Nicolas Jaar came of age in New York City’s underground minimal techno scene, releasing a string of unearthly dance singles that brought the then-18-year-old producer quick renown. Lushly textured and almost subversively slow, 2010’s landmark ‘Time for Us’ EP (Wolf + Lamb) and 2011’s full length ‘Space Is Only Noise’ (Circus Company) dismantled and restructured dance music into heady new forms and garnered impressive reviews from both the electronic and rock press. He soon began weaving rock music into his own output, remixing acts like Grizzly Bear and Brian Eno, and performing with a live band.

Dave Harrington started out in New York City as a young bass player studying experimental jazz and sneaking into late night jam sessions as a teenager. He eventually moved into composition and performance art, creating commissioned works for theatre and film, directing a rendition of John Zorn’s ‘Cobra’, and integrating lap steel, guitar, keyboard, and effects into his arsenal. After joining the Nicolas Jaar live band in 2011 on guitar and electronics, Harrington began experimenting with dance music, remixing and DJing. Eventually, Harrington and Jaar started experimenting in their studio, and Darkside emerged.

Darkside’s ‘Psychic’ is a watershed moment for the duo, a quantum leap forward from their three song debut, 2011’s ‘Darkside’ EP (Clown & Sunset). ‘Psychic’ is a ritualistic song cycle, exploring rock’s cosmic outer edges through the immersive, body moving framework of 21st-century house and techno. Album opener ‘Golden Arrow’ is a microcosm of the album entire, charting an 11-minute journey from the desert to the stars: The song begins as a barren landscape where organs and static crackle on the horizon. But as ‘Golden Arrow’ builds toward its climax, guitars poke pointillistic patterns in the sky and the blackness rips open, revealing a lumbering sub-bass groove that rises out of the fissure. It’s mesmerizing and immediate, desperate and triumphant - and it sounds like nothing either has made before.

Darkside aren’t dancefloor producers taking a stab at rock music; nor are they a rock band paying homage to their new favourite techno 12”s. They’re deep listeners and creators of both who see little need for distinction between their favourite sounds. The result is ‘Psychic’, an album of uncompromising creative vision from two artists working at the peak of their powers.