Spiral - Darkside: Review
Darkside
the collaboration between micro house producer Nicolas Jaar and multi-instrumentalist Dave Harrington. The project has been on hiatus since 2014, one year after their massively acclaimed debut Psychic. Late last year the duo publicly announced their upcoming sophomore collaboration which features racks dating all the way back to 2018.
Review By Lav:
Within the increasingly complex and musically spectacular canon of Nicolas Jaar Darkside's Psychic plays a very important role, but always felt like it was a one off event. Given how great that record is and how well it's aged I was always excited by the idea of a Darkside follow-up but for some reason it felt as though it would never happen. That made the duo's return almost a mythical like moment for me, especially following up a ridiculously great portion of Jaar's career. In the past few years he has released two stellar house records under his Against All Logic's moniker, two very solid solo records highlighted by the dark-ambient Cenizas and in the meantime working with artists like FKA Twigs and The Weeknd to produce great tracks. There was no reason to expect that Spiral wouldn't be the next great piece of Jaar excellence, especially after three absolutely excellent singles. Not only did Nic and Dave no disappoint, but they soared over my expectations and made one of the best records of the year.
The first taste we got of the record was Liberty Bell late last year. I liked the song at the time and it has grown on me a lot since then to become a major highlight. The greatness of the record is founded on it's ability to be instrumentally diverse and exciting while also maintaining a calm demeanor and absolutely infectious energy. Both of these are on display with Liberty Bell's off kilter synths and indie rock drum and guitar combo. These serve as the base for Nic to deliver some utterly infectious refrains, which the album is absolutely full of so get used to it. It really feels like a fitting preview for the record given an incredibly infectious groove and excellent production, which ALSO come up a lot throughout Spiral.
Next came The Limit and it's an even better single built on some of the records most instantaneous vocal refrains. Those vocals combine with a rumbling bassline and fringe clipping synths that make for a surreal and unpredictable sonic palette. Despite that the song delivers refrains so catchy it transcends its challenging elements to become completely infectious. Somehow the third and final single Lawmaker was even BETTER and it's honestly one of my favorite songs I've heard all year. From the dense atmosphere buried under the entire song to the persistent chimes and of course an absolutely incredible bassline, everything about the instrumental is pure downtempo bliss. Yet somehow the best part of the track are the killer refrains littered throughout it that manage to make it so catchy and memorable despite it's measured sonic approach. The whole thing is pure excellence the whole record has even more of it to offer.
I'm The Echo transitions perfectly out of Lawmaker into it's rumbling drums and artsy electric guitar work. The song provides even more incredibly catchy refrains before introducing some feint but beautiful keys to the mix to add even more wonderful instrumentation. The song is somehow everything great about the record condensed into 5 minutes. Inside Is Out There is the records longest song at eight and a half minutes but the long drawn out build-up doesn't have a moment of filler anywhere in it. The song has shaky percussion and yet another absolutely killer groove backed by an array of excellent sonic embellishments. I love the distant almost metallic sounds which litter the background of the track and contrast with the methodical instrumentation primarily the steady drumming. The vocals also mirror this dichotomy with of the spacey reserved performance style I'm used to from the album at this point. The whole song is a driving spectacle which builds up more wonderful instrumentation throughout, making for an explosive point in the final 3 minutes that rivals anything I've heard this year.
The record has a solid introduction and an even more solid finale, both of which help the projects feel even more seamless and like it's greater than the sum of it's parts. Narrow Road is the opener and it leads off with some chilling minimalism before the deep rumbling drums crash into the mix and the hovering, ghostly vocal refrains take over. The guitar noodling that transitions between verses on the song is another moment of striking art-rockism even though the songs percussion is so distinctly electronic. The presentation makes the strings and electronics absolutely pop out of the mix making for quite the impressive start. Only Young is the closer and it kicks off almost like a dream pop song, As it goes on everything starts to feel more abstracted and hazy which also gets strangely interrupted by some super prominent drum kicks and one of the record clearest and catchiest refrains. The song itself is played out pretty dramatically across four minutes of so But the finale two minutes of the album feel like they're n outro dedicated to the entire record with a sparse atmosphere over which Nic and Dave play the album off with heavy bass and shrill echoed synths.
The Question Is To See It All was a song I was a bit shaky on at first but the surreal production has grown on me. The sound is whirring back and forth between channels in a striking way and despite the songs indie folk style rustic instrumentation and soft vocals it also manages to pull off something that fits in with the rest of the albums sonic palette. It's an impressive experiment in fusing the natural and the synthetic.
The only song on the record I didn't totally love was the title track. It's one of the most stark tracks here in terms of instrumental prescence featuring nothing but an ambient like haze and plucking acoustic guitar. This is a moment where I would love for the vocals to have a bit more of a prescence but they do unfortunately stick to the very distant and eerie style of most of the rest of the record. While I still admire some of the things the track does with it's sound I do find it to be the only song here that actually sounds as slow as it is.
Spiral is a brilliant follow-up to the first Darkside record. I couldn't have imagined Nicolas Jaar and Dave Harrington out-doing themselves but I honestly think they have. This record is utterly fascinating instrumentally with a selection of sounds you will not find anywhere else this year. On top of this the songwriting across the album makes for one blissfully climactic moment after another across the records runtime. It's next great achievement is sounding so pressing, in the moment and instantaneous despite the minimalistic sound palette. Given the array of influences being poured into the records sound and presentation and how unique the results are it is even more impressive that they managed to create something so remarkable on pretty much all levels. I had very high expectations for Spiral, and Darkside not only met them, but exceeded them. 9.5/10
This cover is simple and when I first look at it my thoughts aren't that it's album art. While the subject is enticing I'm not drawn to it in a way that makes me curious. it's a little bland and lacks personality or branding. The concept is clear and could have been better portrayed, but overall I'm unexcited. 4/10
For more great music check out my review of Spellling's The Turning Wheel here
