Urban Profile: Darkside, An NYC-Based Electronic Music Duo Exploring the Sounds of the City

Today, we’re excited to launch our new music series called “Listen.”  It focuses on bands whose music evokes a distinct sense of place—bands we think you should be listening to as well.  Throughout this series, we will be interviewing musicians and asking them our questions about their music and how it relates to their home city.

While mainly focusing on New York City based bands, we will also provide a variety of musicians from all over the country (and world!).  We will be previewing videos, creating exclusive content, and uncovering artists both big and small who will make your urban experience more enjoyable and thorough. Our first artist of the Listen Series is Darkside, a two-man electronic band based in New York, comprised of Dave Harrington and Nicholas Jaar.

Jaar’s 2011 solo album “Space is Only Noise” is the epitome of an album about structure and space.  It begins with the sounds of waves and proceeds to shuffle effortlessly through a relaxed electronic music landscape, peaking with the eponymous album track that speaks the refrain “space is only noise if you can see.”  Floating pianos, sounds of parks and rain, and an assortment of carefully reverbed synthesizers flush out a singular dreamscape from the perspective of an individual quietly observing the city around him.  But Jaar, now 24, has collaborated with guitarist Harrington to create Darkside, a project that moves from observing the city to creating an environment of its own within it.

Darkside’s music is more forceful than Jaar’s solo work, but it is far from overwhelming.  The band’s album Physic found its way onto myriad Top 20 Lists for 2013 Album of the Year including that of Pitchfork.com.  You can catch Darkside at Terminal 5 this Saturday, February 8th if you’re lucky enough to get tickets.  Untapped Cities made this exclusive video below from their sold out Seattle show.  Check the band out on Spotify and Facebook.