DARK DARK DARK: WHO NEEDS WHO? 01.10.2012

Album Review: Dark Dark Dark (U.S.A.), Who Needs Who?, Released: 01.10.2012, Label: Melodic, Available on Vinyl (Comes with free MP3 Download Code), C.D. & MP3 Download Album. 

Dark Dark Dark, as stated in the live review back in August, I regard as chamber music. They have two previous albums, the last of which, Wild Go, I find very impressive. This album I understand to be based upon the two lead musicians in Dark Dark Dark romantically breaking up and then having to tour for a year after that. Track one is the title track, and is quite somber in parts and frantic in others, underpinned by beautiful piano playing and singing, a great start. Track two 'Tell Me' and track three 'Last Time I Saw Joe' are also quite beautiful with a lilting and affirming quality. Track four, 'Patsy Cline' sounds remorseful yet enveloping. Track five, 'Without You' sounds weary, yet with a stalking menace. Track six, 'How It Went Down' is a restrained lament. Track seven 'It's a secret', Is more rousing in contrast to previous numbers. Track eight, 'Hear Me', is brooding, soaring and very melodic. Track nine, 'Meet In The Dark' has patches of beautiful piano and other instrumentation accompanied by yearning vocals, with the patches connected by vocals that are jolting, though this appears strangely well balanced. Track ten, 'The Great Mistake' returns to lovely melodic harmonising, with clean and restrained lead vocal, that latterly soars pleasingly.

The piano playing throughout the album is very pleasant. The whole album I feel has a wistful quality to it, along with a graceful restraint. There is not a single track I would wish to try to skip, which the last album, Wild Go, although I greatly enjoyed did a couple of distinctively weaker tracks on it. I am very taken by this album and feel it is their best work to date. They get better and better with each album.
(Purchased on Vinyl).

Rating: 10/10.

Live Performance Review: Dark Dark Dark, Wednesday 22.08.2012 19:00, Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh

The venue opened late, though also the performances ended late, so nothing was curtailed. I've never been to Sneaky Pete's before. I't is a tiny and relaxed venue. I find it very endearing when a group you particularly like play places of a size where they are doing there own equipment setup and selling of merchandise.

The Supports:
Caravan Club: Nothing noteworthy except that they have a good drummer. Rating:  02/10.

Kaiho: A seven piece all female combo. Interesting instrumentation including Trumpet, Accordion, Violin and Ukulele. A good balance in the sound overall and the vocals within this. The group were charming and clearly made effort in dress and approach: good banter, and smiles. A further nice touch was that they had hand decorated CDS available for a donation. I made a contribution for a CD, which is not something I would often do for a support act I don't know. The CD is called Lacuna, and has seven songs on it: Call Me, Games, Hot Water, Joshua, Waves, Hummingbird, Read My Mind. I have transferred the CD to my MP3 player and have listened to it several times. The quality of the production and the songwriting is quite striking.  I found Kaiho to be the most impressive support act, I did not already know, since Laura Marling late in 2009, and I would happily see Kaiho again. It would be nice for this group to have a future. Rating: 06/10.

Dark Dark Dark: For the uninitiated, DX3 are an intriguing American group. I used to refer to them as Chamber pop, though was not sure of this, and now I am of the view that it is easier to just refer to as Chamber music. The instrumentation consists of Bass, Banjo, Trumpet, Clarinet, Accordion, Percussion and Keyboards. The last album called 'Wild Go' was a breath of fresh in its distinctiveness, complexity and quality. For me of particular note is their harmonising, the structuring of the songs and within the pieces the structuring of the keyboard parts.

They have a new album out on the 1st of October 2012, called 'Who Needs Who'. The group member who was playing Banjo and Clarinet, Marshall LaCount, was telling me that in his view the new album is in a similar vain to 'Wild Go' though more focused and with better songwriting. (I've subsequently read in 'UNCUT' that the album is inspired by the breakup between Marshall and Nona (Keyboards/Vocals) prior to a year of touring).

This is a group I was expecting to have to travel to England to see due to there regrettable level of obscurity north of the border. The unexpectedness of this happening contributed to my excitement when I saw the advert for the concert. I had a ticket for ballet last night, which I gave up to go to this gig. I did not regret giving up my ticket for the ballet.

The performance was very good and the songs transferred well to being performed live. Of note, Nona Marie Invie who was playing the keyboards and singing, aside from performing very well, appeared to have a complete lack of pretension and was humble in her chat. The percussionist was very accomplished in his playing throughout all of the pieces, servicing the overall sound and never trying to be noticed above the other performers. The set consisted of songs from 'Wild Go', songs of greater obscurity and I assume new pieces. There was not a single song which lessened the enjoyment. The tiny venue was packed and appeared to be greatly enjoying the performance. With the new album on the horizon, hopefully it won't be too long before they are back. It would be nice to think that in terms of success, that Dark Dark Dark are on the verge of greatness.

Rating: 09/10.