The Darkside
| The Darkside | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| origin | Rugby , UK |
| Genre (s) | Space rock , psychedelic rock |
| founding | 1989 |
| resolution | 1993 |
| Founding members | |
singing |
Nick Hayden (1989) |
guitar |
Kevin Cowen (until 1992) |
bass |
Pete "Bassman" Bain |
Drums |
Sterling "Rosco" Roswell |
| Last occupation | |
Vocals, guitar, bass |
Pete Bain |
Keyboard |
Sterling Roswell |
Drums |
Craig Wagstaff (from 1990) |
The Darkside (also Darkside ) was a British indie rock band that existed from 1989 to 1993.
history
The Darkside was founded in 1989 by Pete "Bassman" Bain and Sterling "Rosco" Roswell. Both had previously been active in Spacemen 3 ; Bain as bass player, Roswell as drummer. The Darkside was completed by singer Nick Hayden and guitarist Kevin Cowen. The band signed a deal with Situation Two , Beggars Banquet's indie sub-label . After the release of the first EP , Hayden left the band on a UK tour; From then on, Bain also took on the vocal part. After another EP, the debut album All That Noise was released in 1990 , after which multi-instrumentalist Roswell switched from drums to keyboards. As a new drummer, Craig Wagstaff was hired, so that the band acted as a quartet again. After the release of the second studio album Melomania , guitarist Cowen left the band, whereupon Bain also took over the guitar work for recordings. Situation Two refused to release a third album after viewing the demo material, whereupon The Darkside disbanded. According to Pete Bain, the remaining members were disaffected by the band's bad image in the music press.
Bain and Roswell have been solo artists since Darkside was dissolved; Bain also released four albums with Alpha Stone in the second half of the 1990s. Wagstaff was heard as a percussionist on two Richard Ashcroft albums in the 2000s .
In May 2017, Bain announced in an interview that he would be working with Roswell on a retrospective of Darkside work.
style
In a review of the debut album All That Noise , Ned Raggett saw a technically solid "Psych / Noise / Folk-Rock" record on Allmusic , which stylistically is very close to Bains and Roswell's predecessor band Spacemen 3 and has no independence from it. Instead of expanding existing music musically, The Darkside only imitated it. Raggett gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars. For the follow-up album Melomania, he again noted borrowings from the Spacemen 3 sound, but with significantly more independence. The band create something complex and independent from a multitude of styles, instead of just copying them like their predecessor. Raggett called the album a "buried early 90s pearl" and gave it 4 out of 5 stars. Trouser Press reviewer Ira Robbins came to a similar conclusion: He emphasized the stylistic closeness to Spacemen 3, which was stronger on the first album than on the second. All That Noise is an "atmospheric but unimpressive" record, influenced by the Doors , with artless vocals and weak songwriting, which lacks the "obsessive intensity" of Spacemen 3. About Melomania he wrote that the album was "the second unsuccessful attempt (Bains) to sing correctly tuned"; the band's music is incoherent and unconvinced and their compositional ideas are “worn out”.
Discography
- 1990: Highrise Love (EP, Situation Two )
- 1990: Waiting for the Angels (EP, Situation Two)
- 1990: All That Noise (Album, Situation Two)
- 1991: Psychedelicize Suburbia (Live album, Acid Ray Productions)
- 1992: Mayhem to Meditate (EP, Situation Two)
- 1992: Melomania (album, Situation Two)
Web links
- The Dark Side at Discogs (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ AllMusic.com: The Darkside Biography. Retrieved June 5, 2017 .
- ↑ RobotsandElectronicBrains.co.uk: Pete Bassman interview. Retrieved June 5, 2017 .
- ↑ TheFutureHeart.com: Spacemen 3 original member Pete Bassman on theft of band's logo by former manager, Jason Pierce and Sonic Boom working in tandem for the first time in 26 years and three decades of band royalties being less than a year's wages from a part time job. Retrieved June 5, 2017 .
- ^ AllMusic.com: All That Noise Review. Retrieved June 5, 2017 .
- ^ AllMusic.com: Melomania Review. Retrieved June 5, 2017 .
- ↑ TrouserPress.com: Dark Side. Retrieved June 5, 2017 .