Darkside / Psychic
Artist Darkside
Album Title: Psychic
Album Cover:
Primary Genre Electronic
Format FLAC 16.44
Released 10/08/2013
Label Matador Records
Catalog No OLE 1035-5
Bar Code No none
Packaging Download
Tracks
1. Golden Arrow (11:20)
2. Sitra (1:22)
3. Heart (4:57)
4. Paper Trails (4:49)
5. The Only Shrine I've Seen (7:55)
6. Freak, Go Home (6:36)
7. Greek Light (2:54)
8. Metatron (5:07)
Date Acquired 12/04/2013
Personal Rating
Acquired from Matador Website
Purchase Price 5.00

Web Links

All Music Guide Entry:
Discogs Entry:

Notes

DARKSIDE is the collaborative duo of guitarist/composer Dave Harrington and electronic producer Nicolas Jaar. DARKSIDE summon a hybrid of electronic music, psychedelic rock, and dancefloor techno with the sort of artistic depth and breadth for which the term “progressive” was coined. DARKSIDE’s first fulllength album—released on Nico’s own Other People label in conjunction with Matador Records—is called Psychic.
 
DARKSIDE’s Psychic is a watershed moment for the duo, a quantum leap forward from their 3-song debut, 2011’s DARKSIDE EP. At any given moment, Psychic encompasses the ritualistic structures and methodologies of krautrock, the cosmic exploration of classic space-rock, and the immersive, body-moving transcendence of 21st century house and techno—but, working with the finishingeach- others’-sentences fluidity of kindred spirits, Dave and Nico synthesize it all into a living, breathing whole. DARKSIDE are deep listeners and creators

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Analyzed Folder: Darkside - Psychic_dr.txt
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DR        Peak        RMS        Filename                      
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DR4     -0.20 dB     -8.19 dB   01 - Golden Arrow.flac        
DR9     -0.87 dB   -17.11 dB   02 - Sitra2.flac              
DR5     -0.20 dB     -8.15 dB   03 - Heart.flac              
DR5     -0.20 dB     -8.73 dB   04 - Paper Trails.flac        
DR7     -0.21 dB   -10.60 dB   05 - The Only Shrine I've Seen.flac
DR5     -0.25 dB     -8.68 dB   06 - Freak, Go Home.flac      
DR7     -0.94 dB   -12.39 dB   07 - Greek Light.flac        
DR6     -0.20 dB   -10.38 dB   08 - Metatron.flac            
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Number of Files: 8
Official DR Value: DR6
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Reviews
All Music Guide Review:

Review by Fred Thomas

Darkside is the work of electro-pop minimalist composer Nicolas Jaar and Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist Dave Harrington, which steeps Jaar's spacious solo work with brittle bursts of electronic distortion, watery drums, and slick neon guitar patterns. A self-titled EP in 2011 yielded three lengthy songs of the duo's wild combination of airy atmospheres and menacing fuzz, but debut full-length Psychic moves into more compositional territory, though it remains drifty and narcotic in ways similar to its predecessor. The album kicks off with 11-minute standout track "Golden Arrow," moving like a suite through an intro of dark, fuzzy ambience and wobbling stereo effects into a sleazy, submerged house beat and fragmented synth and string samples. Caught between the creeping underground thump of minimal avant-techno experimentalists like Pole or Gas and the sharp, clean lines of nocturnal pop acts like the Chromatics or James Blake, the song is an unlikely success in its deep contrasts. Space is a primary concern throughout Psychic, with plenty of ambient interludes and raw tape experiments serving as cushioning between pop moments like the oddly bluesy dirge of "Paper Trails" and the dubby shadows of album-closer "Metatron." Ultimately, it's the contrasts and the way they fit so well together that makes Psychic a success. The meeting of hurried noise, slick dubstep-styled R&B undertones, wonky blues, and grainy electronics seems destined for ugly clashing, but somehow the organization of sounds, stereo field space, and the amount of distance Jaar and Harrington put between the disparate elements themselves makes so much compositional sense that the album floats by like a strange, faraway dream.

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