"DARKSIDE is the collaborative duo of guitarist Dave Harrington and electronic producer Nicolas Jaar. The two musicians have vastly different backgrounds, but over the course of several years of touring together they found common ground.” --- ra.co

“Psychic is translucent and dense, electrified and organic, holding a form while constantly being prodded into new shapes.“ -- pitchfork

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Golden Arrow

A Pink Floyd-y 11-minute journey that starts with a nocturnal scene. 

A cemetery, dreadful and empty, organs and static crackle fills the horizon as they start building up towards their climax, you take a glance of what Dave’s guitar can bring to a dull scene, battling the static sounds in order to replace it, both of them start to take turns as the guitar manages to slip through the cracks feeling like a golden arrow been shot at the sky, it gradually breaks through, a violin comes by stand by the guitar.

A distant vocal is heard as if it’s buried down and trying to make it’s way out.

The tension starts building, you can feel the instruments clash violently and suddenly stops at it’s peak.

A small ambient noisy pause settles the scene, 

Then...  at exactly 4:44, glitching his way in, comes Nicolas, bringing some tunes and drums while Dave’s bass follows after a brief moment with all it’s grooviness that rose from out of nowhere switching the environment and painting those cloudy skies with some psychedelic riffs.

Jaar uses his falsetto as a breathtaking instrument adding so many layers to the track, you can hear a lot of stuff happening while separating each one of them, vocals keep going up to a high-pitch as it stops for a while so Dave keeps his mesmerizing bass-line going till the vocals return, this time even higher.

For me, this parts feels like you’re speeding through a tunnel, a high-pitched voice that feels stretched while hearing the other sounds moving quickly like light, helping them achieve that tension that keeps on rising until you reach the end of this tunnel.

Suddenly, you’re out, vocals don’t completely stop there, but pushed to the back as you hear their echo in a distance.

A sweet combination of instruments and effects keeps on going up and down, until Nicolas’s falsetto comes back while the music fades away.

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Sitra

A sweet transition between “Golden Arrow” and “Heart”.

Rumbling and crackling sounds, foot steps stepping on dead leaves combined with an old piano that is muffled and sounds like it came straight out of your worst and loneliest memories that glitches and steps away to open the way for “Heart”, as it melts perfectly into it, adding a sense of what sounded to me like a burning sound, destroying that old bad memory you were remembering just moments ago.

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Heart

As Sitra’s Piano started to burn and the only thing you can hear is a haunting tune fading waiting for the glorious tribal drums and siren sound that DARKSIDE combined so well, the tribal drums kept on building up as the sirens moved slightly to the back waiting for the moment that Nicolas decided to bless us with his vocals.

“Moonlight sets  Feels like seven years  Since I left  Can’t you see behind this love  Tell me you don’t know  When you don’t like what you see“

After the first verse Dave took matters to his own hands, playing the guitar, taking over the whole track for approximately one minute, making all the other sounds defenseless.

Nicolas comes in at the right time, sets the scene.

“The dog barks  Bones crunch  There’s a lot of noise in here”

Asking a question out of complete despair as his voice starts to echo, making the whole scene more devastating.

“What do I look like to you? What do you want me to be?“

 (A little) good for you  You, you, you, you  Ooh”

Dave comes in again with a mysterious and cloudy guitar riff as Nicolas’s voice echoes and paints a picture of him lost in a dark spacious landscape, vulnerable.

“(A little) good for you  A little more evil for me  Come and see, come and see, come and see”

Music takes a faster and more uplifting turn but Nicolas tone remains the same as his state still like as it was before -if not worse-.

Sounding like he fell down a hole or sucked into space, he says it one last time.

“(A little) good for you“

The scene is empty, only space.. and noise -space is only noise-, you think this is the right time to catch your breath from this haunting space rock influenced trip, to only find yourself listening to “Paper Trails”

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Paper Trails

The most perfect ending for “Heart”, a new beginning, a soft breeze that came and wiped out all the negativity in the air and replaced it with hand-claps and sweet bluesy-funk guitar riffs combined with percussion.

Nicolas changes his tone completely to a more Leonard Cohen style, re-creating his own version of (Riders on The Storm - The Doors) reflecting Jim Morrison’s deep and haunting aura, following his steps into creating an ambiguous lyrical phrasing while spitting his lines gently.

Dave brings some crazy chill and groovy classic bluesy guitar licks into this track, specially starting from the small cuts he makes from 2:36 to his short solo at 3:23 as the other instruments wait for it’s master to come with his guitar, you feel tranquilized and fully immersed into the magical fusion of sounds you’re hearing till the guitar chops and the last part keeps repeating, building up for Nicolas voice to pull you back to the beginning of the track again.