Darkside
Psychic Album Review
Matador/Other People Records
Released October 4, 2013
Genre: Ambient, Electronica, (Subtle) Rock, Microhouse
Michael White said it best in his Disclosure review for Pretty Neat Grooves (a music blog Michael and I co-founded and run): “…electronic music has always been a hard genre to comprehend”. This difficulty to comprehend is partly due to the instrumentation and scope of sounds, though variable, through progressive house and minimal techno, being very limiting so the styles then tend to blend. However, a certain number of years ago the incorporation of non electronic instruments opened that limited scope exponentially wider. So going into this album, being completely new to the sounds of wizard Nicholas Jaar, I expected nothing astounding from a Microhouse album, but with Psychic, the assume pun, a common tidbit of wisdom learned in middle school, smeared itself all over my inexperienced, arrogant countenance.
Nicholas Jaar and Dave Harrington, touring guitarist for Jaar’s solo projects, approach the Microhouse genre with a rock influence. The rock grooves commonly found on a Jim Morrison album poke out along the haze of reverberated vocals, synths, and layered, fuzzy textures. The opening track, “Golden Arrow” slowly grooves as it pushes you into the album’s world, but even within the first three minutes that microcosm of sound established is cemented in your mind. However, the track does linger since it’s eleven and a half minutes long and it takes four minutes to finally become interesting. For an opening track, it’s a risky move with an album that’s progressing from its other works. It worked well with me, but for others it’ll be a slow burner. The album boasts other great tracks such as “Paper Trails”, where Jaar’s disjointed vocals caress the scattered, smooth guitar licks from Harrington. There’s also a great texture in air with a prickly, fuzzy aesthetic tickling the listener’s ear and psychedelic swirls meshing around in the beginning being led by the rhythmic snapping of fingers. The whole song seems so stripped down, but at the same time, it’s very impressive. At this moment, rock and electronica/Microhouse begin to work, meld, and connect on the same plane.
Now album pinnacle “The Only Shrine I’ve Seen” truly shines; the balance between rock and electronica are smoothed out and the magnitude of the sound kicks up a notch and neither parties (rock nor electronica) hold back. Whether it be the electronic drones or the steady percussion with Harrington’s reverberated licks, they both push at each other until equilibrium is achieved through swirling synths, gentle piano chords, and a subtle organ. It’s a grooving tune that progresses into a calming, relaxing ballad, and to me, any progressive track is in its own form interesting, progressive, and fun. This progressive approach is resounded through “Freak, Go Home” where the heavy synths subtly overpower the rock drums, but the percussion takes its industrial, menacing toll by the end to produce a lasting impact on the listener.
Ending this streak of strong and cohesive tracks, the song “Greek Light” starts off great with heavy synths and sampling (some from the ride Space Mountain, I swear it sounds like it), but thirty seconds in, a piercing screech stabs at the eardrums. I’m pretty sure it’s the scourge of all our middle school days: the recorder. It’s irritating and really just starts the song off on a bad note. Even with Jaar’s choppy vocals, the song doesn’t carry the strengths Psychic has to offer; however, with “Metatron”, they pick themselves up tremendously and end the album on a great note.
I never imagined that I would like this album upon reading about it on Pitchfork. It’s appeal through the textures, grooves, and musicianship surprised me more than ever. This album is layered, impressive, groovy, and just overall confident; it even has me engaged, intrigued, scared, and relaxed all at once. I haven’t encountered an album that can do that until now, and that’s a strong feat to accomplish for a listener. I do have to say that Nicholas Jaar and his projects are staying on my music radar for the forseeable future. His versatile creativity and overall progression as an artist is something the whole world should keep an eye on. With Psychic, everything Jaar can accomplish and achieve falls into place smoothly and gracefully, and it becomes much more easier under his control. Darkside fail to make this a rock album. They fail to make this an electronic album, but what they’ve created can only be classified as a Darkside album and it’s revolutionary in its own right.
PRETTY NEAT MUSIC
FAV TRACKS: Paper Trails, The Only Shrine I’ve Seen, Freak, Go Home, Metatron
LEAST FAV TRACK:Greek Light
Score: (9.3/10)
Check out Darkside’s side project, Daftside (basically the same people just a different name) and their track-by-track remix of Random Access Memories. Click Here to hear Random Access Memories Memories By Daftside
