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9.0
125875
9.0 |
Exclaim
Darkside don't want to dwell on these dark times until we lose ourselves completely; they're grateful, refreshed and awake to the reality out there. Spiral is the album tentatively, patiently inviting us back into the natural world we come from — where we are still needed
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9.0
125931
9.0 |
Northern Transmissions
Harrington and Jaar’s shared longing to propel DARKSIDE forward via more absorbable vocal lines and tantalizing bass grooves is what makes Spiral so admirable
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9.0
125933
9.0 |
No Ripcord
This is a truly mesmerizing follow-up for a band with few peers and even fewer fears
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9.0
125939
9.0 |
Sputnik Music (staff)
Spiral is a swoon worthy record, and one that cements Darkside as one of the brightest glowing acts of its kind
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8.6
125895
8.6 |
Beats Per Minute
Darkside have led us back to the portal through which we arrived, waving us off with a sly smile and the knowledge that we’ll be back again very soon
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8.2
125896
8.2 |
Paste Magazine
On Spiral, DARKSIDE push their limits while honing the distinctive sound that made the project so singular to begin with
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8.0
125898
8.0 |
NME
It's been eight years since Nicolás Jaar and Dave Harrington's last outing together, and their work has become no less unsettling and compelling
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8.0
125871
8.0 |
The Skinny
Nicolás Jaar and Dave Harrington present a masterclass in the art of precision and withholding with their second Darkside album
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8.0
125872
8.0 |
The Arts Desk
A laidback album which gives off similar vibes as Air and John Martyn might, if they’d ever gone into the studio together
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8.0
125873
8.0 |
Loud And Quiet
Darkside perform the high-wire act of making everything feel spontaneous and meticulously planned at the same time. As a result, each moment reinforces the next, benefitting the whole experience
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8.0
125938
8.0 |
Spectrum Culture
Nicolas Jaar and Dave Harrington’s leftfield electronic duo returns with a tremendous LP of varied, complex, yet ultimately soothing psychedelia
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8.0
125914
8.0 |
Crack
There’s a hallucinatory, almost shamanic energy to Spiral, whether on the choral harmonies of opener Narrow Road, the twang of the sitar on I’m The Echo or the chime of the bell in third single Lawmaker
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8.0
125915
8.0 |
Mojo
Spiral slowly reveals a core mood, triangulated between Talk Talk, Radiohead and Pink Floyd models of taut, blissful, trance-inducing rock, but often beat-driven. Print edition today
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8.0
125893
8.0 |
All Music
It's one of those rare albums where dropping the needle at different spots in the same song would yield wildly different sounds, but every move is so gradual and well thought out that the wild changes and potentially jarring clashes blend into one another seamlessly
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8.0
125903
8.0 |
The Quietus
It’s music which shatters easy genre classification. Is it “art-rock”, is it “electronica”? The joy of an album like Spiral is that it’s impossible to say
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7.0
125901
7.0 |
The Line Of Best Fit
Even while Spiral never quite touches on the grandeur of its predecessor, Jaar and Harrington here appear content as ever laboring over their unique vision
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6.8
125912
6.8 |
Pitchfork
Nicolás Jaar and Dave Harrington return with a meticulous work of unexpected and even unprecedented familiarity—less a portal than a kiosk existing entirely within the boundaries set by their 2013 debut
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6.0
125869
6.0 |
PopMatters
Darkside are torn between convention and the avant-garde
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6.0
125870
6.0 |
Slant Magazine
While Nicolas Jaar and Dave Harrington assemble an array of mesmerizing sounds on Darkside’s Spiral, a larger vision eludes them
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4.0
125918
4.0 |
The FT
The second collaborative album from Nicolás Jaar and Dave Harrington is interestingly devised but lacks overall structure
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