The Return of Darkside

A month or so ago, over on the blog’s Facebook page, I was lamenting the fact that we hadn’t seen or heard much of Darkside since the release of a fantastic debut album, Psychic, back in 2013. An album that claimed the highly coveted title (just go with it) of the everythingsgonegreen album of the year. It was later included on Pitchfork’s list of the “top of 100 albums of the decade (so far)” in 2014.

It’s fair to say it was a quite brilliant piece of work, but little did I know at the time of writing that particular social media post that Darkside were already plotting a return in 2021, with a new single/taster, ‘Liberty Bell’ (click here), released just days after I pressed “send”. I’m now rather more reliably informed we can expect a new album “in the spring”, which in southern hemisphere parlance means “in the autumn”, or more specifically, sometime in the early part of the year.

Darkside, of course, is a musical project of two multi-talented New York producers, Nicolas Jaar and Dave Harrington, and while both men have been active in releasing new music since Psychic received so much love and attention, especially the very prolific Jaar, this is the first sign of Darkside life we’ve seen, and a very welcome development.

In late 2020, possibly as a precursor to the new work, unbeknown to yours truly, the duo had also released a digital format only live version of Psychic over on their Bandcamp platform, a release which captures a rare live performance at Belgium’s Dour Festival in July of 2014. It’s a name-your-price release, and I reckon you’d be mad not to pick up a download, see below.

EP Review: Antipole - Marble (2021)

I’ve been a bit quiet over the festive new-year period, but with it being a relatively Covid-free summer down here at the bottom of the world, I decided I needed to get out and about more, and spend a little less time slaving over a hot keyboard writing obscure blogposts.

So anyway, I’m just checking in to give a shout out to longtime blog favourites Antipole, and to note that the Anglo-Norwegian collective have released a new EP called Marble. It consists of four tracks, with the title track being a brand new foray into very familiar territory … that of guitar-led dark and dreamy melodic post-punk. 

Well, it is, and it isn’t. ‘Marble’ (the track) is all of that, sure, and yet another fine example of the fastidious attention to detail offered by Karl Morten Dahl, Eirene, and Paris Alexander when releasing work under the Antipole moniker. But I really couldn’t have anticipated just how well that same track would translate into a banging dance number under the guise of the Molchat Doma remix. (Molchat Doma being a Belarusian post-punk outfit). If the original is a retro-flavoured nod to the 80s, then the roots of the remix are firmly planted in the techno-drenched 90s. 

The remaining two tracks on the EP, ‘Narcissus’ and ‘Someday 45’ will already be familiar to Antipole fans, as both appeared - in different form - on Antipole’s stunning full-length debut Northern Flux back in 2017. ‘Narcissus’ gets the edit treatment, while the latter benefits from an extended mix. 

Have a listen and grab a download at Antipole's Bandcamp page:

Choice Kiwi Cuts 2020: Buffalo Bunny - 2 Meters

I had intended to post the final 2020 Choice Kiwi Cut on New Years Eve. But, you know, NYE and the best laid plans etc. The next few days are a write-off, naturally, and before you know it, it’s the fourth of January already. Probably just me. Anyway, that tenth and final choice is a low key pearler from the Wellington-based duo Buffalo Bunny (Victoria Singh and Jamie Scott Palmer), who served us the prescient and slightly subversive ‘2 Meters’ slap bang in the middle of our nationwide (soon to be global) lockdown. It just seems to encapsulate the unease of moment perfectly … “be kind to one another” …