A: Open, A Clone Is A Clone, Palomitastep, Equation of Time, (La Voz) tan Tierna
B: Requiem for a Loop, Mutron Melody, Eulogy to Eunice, Close
The first time I met Acid Pauli, I didn't know it. I was in search of a lighter outside of the Salon Zur Wilden Renate, a bar in Berlin. It was quite late (or early, depending on how you look at it). I had been living in Germany for less than a week. I approached a man that had been moving some equipment nearby. He didn't smoke, he explained, but he produced a book of matches-- almost out of thin air. He had excited, Romanesque features that threatened to overwhelm his face as he spoke. He introduced himself as Martin.I moved to Berlin after quitting my job as a journalist covering culture for an inconsequential (albeit progressive) Middle Eastern magazine. Days after I left the region, the first protests began in Tunisia. I visited Renate that week because Nicolas Jaar recommended it when we met in London around Christmas time. When I mentioned that I might move to Germany, he brought up Acid Pauli-- which is how I first found out about his Johnny Cash interpretation, "I See a Darkness," and some of his other projects with The Notwist. A few nights later, I returned to Renate, observing from afar as Acid gently wrangled the dance floor. His set activated a space that was both free flowing and eclectic-- the opposite of what I had expected (however ignorantly) to find in Berlin.I tracked Acid down after he finished playing and introduced myself properly this time. Eventually, he explained that he had just completed an album for Clown & Sunset. He called it Mst. After pleading with him to let me listen, he handed over a miniature mirror that doubled as a USB drive.It was an appropriate medium for an album that acts reflexively. Each of the nine tracks coaxes your attention, and then plays with it like the hall of mirrors in a funhouse. Songs accelerate or breakdown without warning, before leaping right back into the rhythm or alternating into a new one. Acid Pauli's voice never appears, and so you substitute your own internal monologue-- whether you're waltzing to "(La voz) tan tierna" or weeping to "Eulogy to Eunice." I saw Acid Pauli a handful more times that spring before he began touring with Nico. And despite our conversations about the album, it was not until months later that I realized Acid isn't trying to tell stories with his work. His aim is more holistic than that. Mst extends the atmospherics past the dance floor, refracting the idiosyncrasies of our existence back into our everyday lives.
Lola Marie-Saint
New York
December, 2011

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On Nicolas Jaar´s Clown and Sunset Label. Intriguing Coverversion of the Leonard Cohen Classic by Just Friends who are Nicolas Jaar and Sasha Spielberg. B Side features no less touching versions of said song by Julia Holter and Shlohmo. Epic.

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As you descend the staircase into DARKSIDE's Brooklyn studio, the cement walls pulse slightly faster than your heartbeat.
Entering the converted apartment, the first thing you notice is the symmetry of Dave Harrington's appearance. In the low light, his matte-black shirt and jeans form negative space between the shine of his boots and his shock of red hair. He holds the guitar, which bisects his body, with equal parts tenderness and lust. When he plays, he whips the rhythm with soprano licks and a steady baritone.
Behind Dave, an opaque figure controls the percussion and the bass line. I watch them manipulate the reticent groove until the silhouette steps into the microphone's aura and delivers a falsetto. The atmospheric relief reveals Dave's accomplice to be Nicolas Jaar. Together, they are DARKSIDE.
During a break from the rehearsal, we sink into a crushed velvet loveseat and listen to their self-titled debut. The EP begins innocently enough. But as you progress into the tracks, entitled "A1," "A2," and "A3," it feels like searching for pleasure where you know you shouldn't. The beat in this clandestine affair has just enough restraint. By the time DARKSIDE concludes, you know the catharsis is worth the sin.


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2014 ONE TIME repress/re-rerelease of CS007 in it´s original sleeve /art/ labeldesign!

In the dead of winter, I visited Nico in his apartment in Providence, Rhode Island. He had just finished composing "Don't Break My Love," the A-side of his new EP and his first song since Space is Only Noise. He seemed solemn, but I didn't ask why. The next night, I witnessed a rare occurrence: Nico DJ-ed a small party. We danced all night in a brick-walled loft as snow fell outside. Half a year later and a continent away, the B-side, "Why Didn't You Save Me," arrived. Nico wrote it one sleepless night after a show in Germany. He spent the rest of the tour developing the song, letting it grow.
The rhythms on the EP unravel slowly. As the songs progress, they fill up with rapid-fire hi-hats and mechanical percussion. The faster strikes meet slower beats and the songs seem to stretch; they feel pulled in both directions almost ad infinitum. After the tour, I re-listened to the EP, a ten inch vinyl, with Nico in his apartment in New York. He told me he had been singing more and more, and sampling less. The EP foreshadowed an evolving sound within Clown & Sunset, he explained, and previewed an upcoming compilation by the same name, replete with new talent.
When the B-side wound down, and the clavinet faded out, Nico placed his finger tip on the edge of the record, slowing it to a crawl. With the resonance of our feelings, we remained still for a while after, as silence enveloped us.
Tracklisting:
A: Don't Break My Love
B: Why Didn't You Save Me


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