When worlds collide, the fallout’s rarely pretty, and it’s typically true for the modern bastardisation of music genres.
For every positive fusion of style, form, and function, there’s inevitably a grating opposite; a haemorrhaging car crash of noise that make heads hurt and ears bleed.
But in the cultured hands of Nicolas Jaar and guitarist Dave Harrington, it’s an exploration that runs deep and pulls with the insistent power of a black hole.
All dark atmospherics and empty space, Jaar’s spectral production for collaborative project Darkside creates the void where rhythm, and seemingly time, are allowed to infinitely float on.
Subterranean melodies are chopped out by clean, minimal motorik beats, and door-slamming bass and broken vocals help drop the cold, dead-eyed chills on tracks like the ‘The Only Shrine I’ve Seen’ and the skewed, ritualistic creep of ‘Greek Light’.
Conversely, though, ‘Psychic’ is an album underpinned by control, and a record that’s ruthlessly – often impeccably – efficient in its construct.
It means the lounge bump ‘n’ grind of ‘Metatron’ sits easy with the schizophrenic static of ‘Freak, Go Home’ and the rumbling, 11-minute slow-burn of opener ‘Golden Arrow’ (below) never really threatens to reach a bombastic climax.
8/10
Words: Reef Younis
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