Darkside

Darkside fuses psychedelia, art rock, Tropicalia, and house into a thoroughly contemporary hybrid of assorted musical idioms. Experimental dance producer Nicolas Jaar joined forces with guitarist Dave Harrington, a member of his touring ensemble, to launch the project as a duo whose 2013 studio debut Psychic drew widespread acclaim, as did their expansive, high-energy concerts captured on documents such as Psychic Live July 17 2014, which surfaced in 2020. After refining their approach on Spiral in 2021, they expanded to a trio by adding Tlacael Esparza, first heard on Live at Spiral House in 2023. Their debut single as a three-piece, the lively “Graucha Max,” arrived in 2024 to coincide with the launch of a wide-ranging tour across continents.

The pair first crossed paths as students at Brown University. Harrington later joined Jaar’s live band for dates supporting the 2011 breakthrough album Space Is Only Noise. Darkside took shape during those travels and yielded a self-titled 2011 EP on the Clown and Sunset label containing three slow, hypnotic untitled tracks that showcased fragments of Jaar’s falsetto alongside Harrington’s subtly blues-inflected guitar lines. The duo made their concert debut that December at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. In 2013 they adopted the alias Daftside to issue Random Access Memories Memories, a complete reconstruction of Daft Punk’s fourth studio album.

October 2013 brought the full-length Psychic on Jaar’s Other People label in partnership with Matador. The album shifted the project’s sound markedly toward more developed compositional frameworks. Onstage, however, the material stretched into lengthy, immersive performances that established the duo’s reputation for compelling live shows. Following a busy 2014 tour schedule and the appearance of two tracks (“What They Say” and “Gone Too Soon”) on the Other People compilation Work, Darkside played a final concert at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple before entering an indefinite hiatus. A remix of St. Vincent’s “Digital Witness” and the concert DVD Psychic Live both emerged in 2015, while Psychic Live July 17 2014, documenting another performance from the same year, followed in 2020.

Jaar and Harrington resurfaced in July 2021 with Spiral, the measured yet freely exploratory outcome of a concentrated week in a rented New Jersey apartment supplemented by intermittent work over a longer span. Drummer Tlacael Esparza soon joined, converting Darkside into a trio that debuted with Live at Spiral House, recorded in June 2023 at their Los Angeles rehearsal space. An expanded edition of Psychic appeared four months later. October 2024 saw the release of “Graucha Max,” their first single composed as a trio, timed with the beginning of dates throughout the U.K., Europe, and North America.