Made up of New York’s deep house wunderkid Nicholas Jaar and musical polyglot Dave Harrington, Darkside formed in 2011 while the two toured Jaar’s Space is Only Noise LP. Starting on the Berlin date of those shows, the two continued to collaborate when they got back to NYC, culminating in 2011’s Darkside EP. Though it retaining shades of his solo work, it showed a denser, more textured sound that prompted Jaar to call it “the closest thing to Rock and Roll I’ve ever done”.
Following an incredible, introspective take of Daft Punk with their full album remix of Random Access Memories (Spin called it a “noisier, weirder, and slinkier experience”, while Conquence of Sound gave it 4/5, noting “[it] delves into how we think about, talk about, and repurpose that music”), the duo finally released their debut album Psychic in October 2013. Genre blurring and eclectic, The Fly called it “perfectly executed, impenetrable”, awarding 8/10 – a score matched by Mixmag who noted the LP to be “nothing short of masterful”, while The Guardian (“Psychic is a solemn, autumnal affair--a perfect accompaniment to the nights drawing in”, 4/5), DIY (“rips up convention from the seams to the centre”, 8/10), NME (“winningly Lynchian”, 7/10) and Uncut (“a thing of fine-wrought beauty”, 7/10) all fell for the records unique soundscape.
