Bleep

Darkside is a collaborative project between Nicolas Jaar and Dave Harrington and their album 'Psychic', out now on Matador, must rank amongst the strongest debut full-lengths of recent years. Harrington and Jaar have worked together before - they've released an EP as Darkside on Clown + Sunset in 2011 and covered Abdullah Ibrahim's song 'Ishmael' for a Clown + Sunset compilation, and let's not forget the full album remix of Random Access Memories they unexpectedly turned in earlier this year. 'Psychic' though is where things really get interesting. Jaar's musical style is distinctive - his own debut album Space Is Only Noise crytalised a slow and bluesy approach to songcraft, the most spare and minimal flourishes of instrumentation and spectral samples deployed for maximal immersion. With multi-instrumentalist Harrington on board now, Jaar's horizons have opened up. The pace may still be languid, but don't be fooled - this is visceral music. Opening track 'Golden Arrow' is eleven minutes of atmospheres so thick you could cut them with a knife, contorted cello subsumed by growling low-end, guitars skip playfully on 'Heart', while on 'Only Shrine I've Ever Seen' they riff with echoey drama, and 'Freak Go Home' unfurls with seductive intent before dissolving into a vortex of nightmarish voices. Final track 'Metatron' lolls with all the louche intensisity of a Serge Gainsbourg production, closing an album that will stay on the brain long after those last bars of shadowy ambience have drawn to a close. A masterpiece of compositional prowess and collaboration.