Dave Harrington (Darkside) announces debut album as Dave Harrington Group

Apparently, it’s a lesson in humility for the rest of us: after his Darkside collaboration with Nicolas Jaar released its only album Psychic in 2013, Dave Harrington has finally seen fit to formally release what a press release calls his first “solo endeavour.” And despite that, like an especially appreciative kid who adds to a log of parental IOUs whenever he or she gets taken out for ice cream, the name taking responsibility for the upcoming album isn’t just the one adorning Harrington’s birth certificate. He added the word “Group” to the end as a presumed nod to the roughly dozen musicians who contributed their talent to the final work. As if I needed further confirmation that I’m an asshole for not naming my wi-fi network after my loyal mail carrier.

Hey, Charlene! Quit delivering mail for a second and acknowledge the fact that Become Alive comes out April 15 on Jaar’s Other People imprint. Harrington’s affinity for electronic manipulation continues on this effort, as the aforementioned dozen musicians reportedly entered the studio and improvisationally played the shit out of their respective instruments. Here’s Harrington elaborating:

This record is the result of improvising with different combinations of people, and then processing and re-sculpting those improvisations - isolating passages, turning them into something new, overdubbing layers of myself, maybe taking something from another piece and superimposing it out of its original context. But each track is always me interacting with other people, sometimes just one or two… sometimes ten. There was flute, vibes, organ, fender rhodes, guitar, bass, two drummers, percussion, sax… just full-on, over-blown energy…

The track below sounds surprisingly psych in parts:

Become Alive tracklisting:

01. White Heat
02. Slides
03. The Prophet
04. Cities of the Red Night
05. Steels
06. Become Alive
07. Spectrum
08. All I Can Do

More about: Darkside, Dave Harrington, Nicolas Jaar