Dark

By Peter Hammil

"Dark", which was founded in 1968 in Northampton by Steve Giles, is very closely tied to another band from the same town, and from the same year - the legendary "Wicked Lady" (Axeman Cometh, Psychotic Overkill). However, "Wicked Lady" debut album pre-dated the first LP of the "Dark" (released in 1972), it is better known, and more versatile and accomplished musically. "Dark" is often called by some tone-deaf critics "melodic progressive" (beware: it is as close to progressive as Lady Gaga to Janis Joplin), but in fact it is the heaviest possible psychedelia, rough, raw, brutal, menacing, striped to the bones of any eventual decorations (no exotic instruments, no flower power parts) - rather slow, monotonous, self-repetitive, sometimes tribal foot-stomping rhythm, sometimes medicine man's chanting. On the one hand, the act sounds out of time (as if the album captured the band under formation - they've learned 2-3 basic riffs, recorded them, and went into the next basic set), the vocals of Steve Giles are forged in the same mould as exaggerated shaky singing of Marc Bolan (in his early happy hippie acoustic days), there are no well-defined catchy tunes... On the other hand, "Dark" came ahead of time - it sounds as grandfather of doom with its minimalistic approach and deafening guitars. Although Alan Bowley, who acted as producer of the album (he was sound engineer), calls the LP "the culmination of those two years of playing", and "finest recording session to date", the album all in all is unsteady and not so "representative" at all, but... But these sounds still have a hypnotizing power over me, so it could be the same for other addicts of hard'n'heavy of the 70s. Hard'n'heavy it is. 

"Dark" was: Steve Giles (songwriter, guitars and vocals), Ron Johnson on bass, Clive Throneycroft on drums and Martin Weaver (the founder of "Wicked Lady")) - guitar. The band lasted from 1968 until 1972. ( By Golovanov Alexey -  http://www.amazon.com/Round-Edges-Dark/dp/B0000645FX  )

Dark - 1996 Anonymous Days 1972-74

ANONYMOUS DAYS is the second studio album from Dark recorded 23 years after the first, the famous and highly collectable 'Round the Edges' LP. The band's line-up remains the same, Steve Giles, Ron Johnson, Martin Weaver and Clive Thorneycroft. Anonymous Days contains songs written between 1974 and 1995 and is the album we always wanted to make, combining the Dark progressive rock style with the latest recording techniques.