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Darxtar: Aged to Perfection
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Transubstans Records (TRANS095)
 What originally started as one-man project of K. Soren Bengtsson in 1989, Darxtar is a Swedish space rock band that released their new album on CD, limited edition vinyl and download last month. The band that has been at times going to more progressive direction has also played once at Psychotropic Zone, but it sure would be about time to get them back to Finland. During the recent years the band has been working in a quite peaceful pace but they still have been making some new music and even releasing new albums every fifth year or so. The previous album was We Came too Late on Nasoni in 2005. The band crew has remained more or less the same for the last ten years, but since 2003 the keyboards and synthesizers have been played by Per Hillblom. As usual, Soren shares the vocal duties with the bass player Marcus Pehrsson and they both are great singers. On drums they still got Patric Danielsson and Fredrik Sundkvist who’s also been a member in the band for almost 20 years is playing the violin.
The album that was totally produced by the band itself starts off with two tracks that might make you feel that they have gone completely soft. The beautiful and touching ”Aged to Perfection” does not tell about middle-aged space rockers but ponders on the question do we still have a chance to let our planet evolve and keep spinning around in the cosmos, or have we already destroyed everything. It has a great mood that really makes you think! The violin adds some folk vibes. Going in 5/4 time, ”In Green Heat” continues in peaceful and melancholic spirit backed with the ever-present space sounds. ”Mörkret 2” is a two-minute, psychedelic, dark and experimental ambient piece, and then comes one of the album’s best tracks called ”Tired Nature” that takes the album’s theme further in a great way. Here the band returns to the Hawkwind styled space rocking and they do an excellent job at it! At first they go with mid-tempo hard rock attitude that grows during the chorus. Then comes a lengthy, spacey, repetitive and pounding blanga jam that also features saxophone. This is true space rock in the spirit of Space Ritual! ”Some Things” and ”In a Time” are again laid-back, atmospheric and pretty songs that sound really wonderful and very deep. Also the very good “Moving Along” starts off similarly but starts to rock towards the end bringing to mind some of The Soundtrack of Our Lives tracks somehow. The album is finished with the 11:36 long ”Fiska på Gräsmatta” that begins in very minimal way but starts to move slowly after one minute. This one has an amazing, nostalgic and melancholic mood so characteristic to Darxtar. It’s a very epic work that gets more psychedelic later on and also includes sax. The softer, instrumental and floating end part brings forth the band’s Pink Floyd influences and leaves the listener in a pleasant, intoxicated state. This is a truly remarkable album, although there could have been some more of the faster stuff in there as well!
www.darxtar.com |
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if you're interested in
getting your records (no downloads, please!) reviewed and played at
our club, please contact:
psychotropiczone(at)gmail.com |
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