Dark Star emerged from the fallout of Levitation’s messy split in the mid-90s. They recorded one incredible album, Twenty Twenty Sound, and after mostly finishing a follow up they split themselves as the industry was less interested in their brand of jammy, psychedelic experimenting.
In the mid-2000s an unmastered 7 track version of the album Zurich leaked, named after a Big Train sketch, and then some years later a 9 track version appeared on Soundcloud. Occasional talk was made of finishing the record but no movement until last year when on a podcast appearance Bic mentioned they’d been doing some work and the album would soon be released.
It’s been finished from the original material, a couple of tracks retitled from those leaked (and played live before the split), a couple of unleaked tracks added from a session with Danny Saber in LA in 2001, and two leaked tracks omitted from the final sequence.
I figure there would be at least a few people here who’d have been aware of the band, and possibly the leaked version of this record, who might want to know about the finished product.
Bandcamp says there will be new Dark Star material this year…
I crossed paths with Bic 10 or so years back and the band seemed to be a bit of a sore subject for him - probably because of the record company treatment. Glad it’s something he’s more comfortable revisiting now.
Yessssssssss! Properly mastered versions! I bet this sounds incredible. They deserved to be so much bigger than they were. Bic’s solo stuff is great too.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Twenty Twenty Sound is one of my favourite albums, so it’s wonderful to hear that only is the album formerly known as Zurich getting an official release, but Dark Star is back and working on new material. Y’all don’t know what this means to me.
I think their recent sensibilities have lead to them tightening up the songs a bit, which does feel slightly at odds with previous work.
Sounds massive though, really nice to have a properly mastered version of this. I wonder if the length is indicative of a vinyl release, apparently a physical release is on the cards. I dunno if they are big enough to justify it though.
The art is disappointing. It’s a great photo, but again doesn’t quite feel in keeping.
It’d be nice to get a Twenty Twenty Sound reissue with full size art on the 12" cover. I’d like all the bsides gathered too, especially the couple of vinyl only ones. All those jams are great.
Still really pleased this is out though. And new material on the cards.
Now… some gigs please.
Interesting. Not heard Twenty Twenty Sound in years but enjoyed it at the time, I’ve got two of the singles (Gracedelica and I Am The Sun) on odd little 5" transparent vinyl.
One of the many bands I caught as they passed through my hometown’s onlt venue when I was 17/18. I thought they were great (but also I had basically no musical knowledge at the time ), I feel like I saw them again at Reading maybe…
I’ve listened to the new album a couple of times in its entirety. It’s early days yet but yeah… I really dig it.
Always appreciated the vibe this band could create. Futuristic, kinda noir-ish, sometimes cosmic sounding, sometimes gritty and greasy in its timbre. I dunno. They just have that ‘wandering around in a Metropolis at night 100 years from now’ ambiance nailed down.
), I feel like I saw them again at Reading maybe…