Darxtar – "Aged To Perfection" (2012)

To get in the right mood for this album the right company is probably a magic mushroom omelette, combined with a well-filled bong. Now, the album ends after about 40 minutes, while the effect of the omelette lasts all day. So I guess you’ll have to listen to the record from the beginning again. Or put on some Hawkwind.

Space rock is a genre I'm not completely familiar with, except a number of albums with Hawkwind my record collection is pretty empty when it comes to this art form. I guess you should be careful to define music too rigid, but I think I have now increased my space rock collection. Darxtar offers music that bears clear similarities with bands like the already mentioned Hawkwind with long druggy space jams, blipping syntheizer sounds, half psychotic violin and fuzzy text themes. A few pinches of psychedelia and the dish is complete. Or is it called neo-psychedelia when a modern band plays "psychedelic" music? And isn’t space rock in itself very psychedelic? Definitions ...

Darxtar is a Swedish band formed in the late 80's by Sören Bengtsson. They have over the years released a number of albums, Aged To Perfection seems to be their eighth, including an obscure live album that was made in 100 copies. Today the band consists of Sören Bengtsson (vocals, guitar), Patric Danielsson (vocals, drums), Marcus Pehrsson (vocals, bass), Fredrik Sundkvist (violin) and Per Hillbom (Synth / Keyboard). They have collaborated a few times with Nik Turner, so the Hawkwind connection is not entirely wrong.

However, there are not only long space jams on the album, there are also more acoustic tracks (with vocals) which is nice as it would become tiresome and boring with only spacey, drawn out jams / sound collages. But I must honestly say that this isn’t really my kind of music today, 20 years ago I would certainly have appreciated it more. I have some issues with songs that continues for 10 minutes and sounds about the same all the time. No matter how good and / or druggy the song is, I get bored. Long songs (usually) need a greater variety to work. Maybe I need a clearer structure in music today. Darxtar’s songs that are more "normal" and not long jams / sound sculptures / sound collages are OK, but not more.
This is what I also think of Hawkwind, in the context a well-known and successful band, and in my ears Darxtar reaches at least the same level of quality as Nik Turner & Co. So seen in its own genre, Darxtar is a good band.

Although this isn’t really my kind of music, I have the deepest respect for Darxtar. This is a genre that doesn’t reach the masses, which was probably bigger in the 70's and now exists in the shadows. 2012 some would even call the genre a relic. Darxtar choose nonetheless to continue to walk this path. I like that. And a song title like Fiska På Gräsmattan (Go Fishing On The Lawn) is fun, makes you wonder. What do they really mean? Surely has something to do with psychedelic drugs, what else?

For people who like to pause from reality with bands like Hawkwind, or Moose Heart Faith Stellar Groove Band (yes, I managed to name drop the other modern space / psych band I know of), Darxtar certainly is a nice trip. Put on your spacesuit, launch the rocket, Saturn - here we come! One way ticket, please.

Tracklist

Side A
1. Aged To Perfection 3:34
2. In Green Heat 5:05
3. Mörkret 2 2:26
4. Tired Nature 8:39

Side B
1. Some Things 3:46
2. In A Time 6:56
3. Moving Along 5:02
4. Fiska På Gräsmattan 11:36