Thursday, February 14, 2008

Dark - Dark Round the Edges (1972) rare


Εκείνο που με τράβηξε πρώτα στην αγορά αυτού του cd πριν 15 περίπου χρόνια, ήταν οι 1000 μόλις κόπιες που εκτυπώθηκαν από την Kissing Spell (No 9204) το 1992. Σύμφωνα με το ένθετο που αναπάντεχα περιέχει και τους στίχους, τα κομμάτια ηχογραφήθηκαν το Οκτώβριο 71 και τον Ιούλιο του 72. Χαρακτηρίζεται ως ο σπανιότερος hard-rock δίσκος που βγήκε ποτέ, γεγονός που όπως συμβουλεύει το ένθετο θα πρέπει να παραγνωρίσουμε, για να κρίνουμε το γκρουπ μόνο από την μουσική του. Μπορεί να χαρακτηρίζονται ως hard rock αλλά εγώ διακρίνω και πολλές ψυχεδελικές επιρροές. Όσον αφορά το εξώφυλλο στο cd που έχω, δεν είναι το ίδιο με την επανακυκλοφορία από την Kissing Spell που έβαλα στο Blog.

Μερικές πληροφορίες…
1) Darks' 1st recording session. Musically they were more than confident, but lack of experience showed. Even so, it brought the inevitable cries of “is that us?”. Since then Steve Giles, the only surviving member of the original Dark has remained the backbone of the groups' gradual change and improvement towards professionalism. Then in 1971 he was back with a new line up to try again. This time the difference was astonishing. In this band was Clive, the present drummer, and Carl Bush (Bush of Darkside) on bass. Finally on July 9th 1972 Steve came back with the culmination of these two years of playing, writing and patience to produce Dark's finest recording session to date. Clive was there and a phenomenal bass guitarist called Ron. There was also a second guitarist, to help fill out the sound, Martin Weaver. From my side, all the knowledge and experience from the past two years of recording went into five days to produce this truly repesentative album. Unfortunately Dark have now split due to a lack of exposure (agents please note). Even so I hope we shall hear more from Dark as do some yound lads who when played the tapes, said “If we can play like that in two years, we shall give up too if that's not enough to make it.
2) Dark's sole album consists of six long, rather meandering tracks, the songs largely vehicles for some involved, fuzzy hard rock guitar soloing. In the softer parts and the vocal sections, there are faint echoes of the folky psychedelic late-'60s rock of acts like Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. You can hear that in the first part of "Live for Today," in particular, with its bittersweet melody and harmonies.
But, despite this rarity's high rep in some circles, the songs aren't too substantial, and the guitar work not so intricate or imaginative that it demands a listen on the merits of the riffs alone.
The record has been reissued a few times since the early '90s, sometimes in editions almost as limited as the original run. Akarma's LP reissue is the most desirable configuration, not only because of its relative accessibility in terms of managing to acquire a copy, but also because it replicates the gatefold sleeve and lyric pamphlet of the original release
3) The British band Dark made one extremely rare album in 1972, Dark Round the Edges, that melded the hard guitar rock of the era with a jamming sensibility on multi-sectioned long tracks with improvised-sounding passages.
Though hardly brilliant, the record has some interest as an effort with metallic hard riffs that uses more musical intelligence than much heavy metal and hard rock of the era and is rawer in its execution and production without being lo-fi. As is the case with some albums pressed in very small quantities (only about 60 were issued in 1972), original editions now attract prices among collectors that are totally out of proportion to the music's rather average worth. Indeed, some of the gatefold versions of the original LPs are valued as high as 1,500-2,000 pounds.

Members:
Steve Giles: vocals & lead guitar
Clive Tborneycroft: drums
Ron Jobnson: bass guitar
Martin Weaver: lead guitar & effects
Clive Busb: bass, tracks 7-9

Tracks:
1.Darkside
2.Maypole
3.Live for Today
4.RC8 (I see bate)
5.The Cat
6.Zero Time
7.In the Sky
8.Wasting Your Time
9.Could Have Sworn
10.Maypole (version)

4 comments:

ouf! said...

Καλη η προσπαθεια σου φιλε psych-spaniolos.Ωραιο και το blog σου,μια χαρα κι τα ελληνικα σου αλλα αυτη η εμμονη μου τους U.S δεν δικαιολογειται.Πλακα κανω φιλε μου.Συνεχισε την καλη δουλεια σου...

Psych-Spaniolos said...

Ολοι εχουμε τις αδυναμίες μας:)))
Εγω με τους Spinach. Ευχαριστώ για τα καλά σου λόγια.

Zealot Ape said...

Πολύ καλό άλμπουμ, το έχω σε διάφανο βινύλιο με βιβλιαράκι και όλα...από Akarma :S

psychedelic_head said...

I have been looking for the CD for a very long time. This will have to do until I find a copy.