Six years after putting Darkside on indefinite hiatus, the duo of Dave Harrington and Nicolas Jaar has returned with “Liberty Bell”. The song comes as the lead single off their forthcoming sophomore album, Spiral, due out in spring 2021 via Matador Records.
Formed nearly a decade ago, Darkside rose to prominence in 2013 with the release of their critically-acclaimed debut album, Psychic. The band’s time on top was short-lived, however, as they announced they were putting the project on ice less than a year later. Yet, the two multi-instrumentalists aren’t ones to gather dust and have both put out a number of albums with different solo endeavors in the time since.
While the Spiral announcement is light on details—lacking cover art, a tracklist, and other info—”Liberty Bell” gives inquisitive fans something to mine for details. The 4:09 minute track starts off with the eerie soundscape that could be found in a David Lynch film before eventually melding into a melodic instrumental loop aided by Harrington’s brooding vocals.
There are glimpses of the Psychic-era Darkside on “Liberty Bell”, but it also shows the ways the two have moved forward over the years. After fitting some ambient experimentation into the track early on, the two multi-hyphenates move on to something more conventional. Together, the psychedelic and blues influences coalesce to once again capture what made Darkside so alluring years ago.
On Facebook the duo said simply of the track,
In 2018 we met for the first time in five years to make new music. In December of 2019, we finished the follow up to our first album Psychic. It’s called Spiral and it was mixed by Rashad Becker and mastered by Heba Kadry and will come out on Matador Records in the spring of 2021. Liberty Bell is the first single. Talk soon.
Listen to “Liberty Bell” by Darkside below or on your preferred streaming platform.
Darkside – “Liberty Bell”
[Video: Matador Records]