DARKSIDE - Nothing

After shelving the Darkside name for years, composer Nicolás Jaar seems to have found new life in the project shared with Dave Harrington, even though four years have passed since the second album, “Spiral”, which was a far more focused record than the many outings under the Chilean-American musician's various monikers.

“Nothing” opens the door to a new element, drummer Tlacael Esparza, further scrambling the cards in the not-exactly-well-defined field of operations that is Darkside. The trio shifts up another gear and definitively moves the atmosphere away from the mellow electronic trip of their early days, toward an adventurous, malleable and restless space-rock/trip-hop increasingly akin to a post-electronic jam session.

The album is decidedly built with a potential live rendition in mind. Jaar & company dwell on those qualifying elements that boost the appeal of the compositions, landing two potential hits fit for any season: the whirling rhythmic citationism, in a kraut-rock/industrial vein, of “Graucha Max”, and the ambiguous latin-soul groove of “American References”, a track curiously reminiscent of early Gotye.

The extreme refinement of the sounds and vocal interplay – just listen to the elegant ballad “Heavy Is Good For This” – and the unpredictable development of each of the nine tracks make “Nothing” a rewarding listen from every angle, also well served by socially engaged lyrics rich in topical relevance.

The dub-space movements of “SLAU” and the lively funky groove of “S.N.C.”, indebted both to Stevie Wonder and to obsessive house rhythms, form the backdrop to the two most immediate and straightforward compositions Darkside have ever put forward. And it's no surprise that with “Are You Tired? (Keep On Singing)” the band further widens its spectrum with nods to country and pop, giving further centrality to melody, an ingredient that in the past skillfully remained in the background.

The unexpected vintage swagger of “Hell Suite, Pt II”, where the sonic imagery of David Bowie and John Lennon eccentrically coexist, and the sonic deconstruction of the final track, “Sin El Sol No Hay Nada”, add further joy and unease to a record that is, in many ways, exhilarating.

With this new project Darkside confirm their skill and eclecticism, but from all this wandering their music sometimes seems to lose substance. “Nothing” is a project not without semantic traps, which leave the overall listenability a touch too hedonistic to be able to leave a lasting mark.

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15/03/2025