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Dark: Dark Round the Edges (1972)

Out of the darkness and into the light comes Dark Round the Edges: a 50-year-old heavy psych obscurity from Northampton, England’s aptly named Dark that should, by all rights, have been completely lost to history, so murky and unlikely its origin story.

Seriously, even if you compare this project to other, mystery-draped psychedelic one-offs of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s like, say, Lyd, Fields, Fraction, or Sainte Anthony’s Fyre, Dark’s sole surviving output is pretty darn rough and rare!

As well it should be for a band that was never a full-time proposition for vocalist, guitarist, and amateur photographer Steve Giles, who convened different line-ups for self-financed recording sessions in 1970, ‘71, and the five days in the summer of ‘72 that yielded these six songs and 38 minutes.

Backing up Giles (who also acted as “producer”) on that occasion were bassist Ron Johnson, drummer Clive Thorneycroft (love that name!), and a ‘guest’ second guitarist named Martin Weaver, who rips his axe to shreds (in a good way) on both the highlight “Live for Today” and lowlight “The Cat.”

Oh, Giles is a pretty mean fuzz guitar player himself (again, in a good way), and he brings an authentic garage rock savagery to album bookends, “Darkside” and “Zero Time,” along with plaintive melodies and a rather timid, undistinguished vocal style that often undermines his best efforts.

So does flushing a toilet midway through the cryptic but forgettable “R.C.8.,” but almost all ie forgiven by the unexpectedly successful “Maypole,” where the trio (minus Weaver) well and truly get their shit together to deliver a perfectly constructed psychedelic rocker out of the same, suspect materials that fail them elsewhere.

Go figure!

Something about this LP also reminds me of Nick Saloman’s fiercely independent neo-psych mavericks, The Bevis Frond, but unlike that prolific, latter-day group, Dark apparently fell apart just weeks after capturing these songs.

So Giles pressed up some 30 copies as a keepsake, never dreaming they’d eventually attain cult status by virtue of their very scarcity, and eventually sell for thousands of dollars, in spite of the with numerous bootlegs and semi-official reissues (like this deluxe package) that followed.

In conclusion: unless you have money to burn and collect albums for their rarity first and the music within second, I’d advise approaching Dark Round the Edges with all due caution ... perhaps you’ll see the light.

More Heavy Psych: Ainigma's Diluvium, Ancient Grease's Women and Children First, Andromeda’s Andromeda, Attila’s Attila, Bliss' Bliss, Blue Cheer’s Outsideinside, Bodkin's Bodkin, Bubble Puppy’s A Gathering of Promises, Captain Beyond’s Captain Beyond, Cradle's The History, Deep Purple’s Shade of Deep Purple, Dies Irae's First, A Euphonious Wail’s A Euphonious Wail, Fields’ Fields, Fraction’s Moon Blood, Frantic’s Conception, Fuse’s Fuse, Fuzzy Duck’s Fuzzy Duck, Sam Gopal's Escalator, Gun’s Gun, Gypsy’s Gypsy, Head Machine’s Orgasm, The Head Shop’s The Head Shop, High Tide’s Sea Shanties, The Human Beast’s Volume One, Irish Coffee's Irish Coffee, Iron Butterfly’s Ball, Jerusalem’s Jerusalem, Josefus’ Dead Man, Luv Machine's Luv Machine, Lyd’s Lyd, Morgen’s Morgen, The Move’s Shazam, Murphy Blend’s First Loss, Pan’s Pan, Power of Zeus’ The Gospel According to Zeus, Road’s Road, Rock Island's Rock Island, Sainte Anthony’s Fyre’s Sainte Anthony’s Fyre, Silver Metre’s Silver Metre, Speed, Glue & Shinki’s Eve, Spirit’s Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus, Steppenwolf’s Steppenwolf, Tapiman’s Tapiman, Tucky Buzzard’s Tucky Buzzard, Ultimate Spinach’s Ultimate Spinach, Wizard’s The Original Wizard.