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Dark Network's first incarnation appeared in 1994, with co-founders Tim O'Loghlin
and Michael Dowling developing a unique electronic-industrial sound in their
suburban Canberra studios. Many highly entertaining tracks were produced
during this period, including the lo-fi 808/101 classics Enemy of this System
and Organs, distributed widely on bootleg D90 cassettes (damn I wish I still had
my copy -- anyone?).
The group helped to establish the Canberra chapter of
Clan Analogue, the national
electronic artists' collective, and was implicated in numerous live events of dubious
legal status.
After a lineup reshuffle sometime in 1995 Dark Network started writing tracks that
ended up being misinterpreted as house music (viz
Pizza,
Carpet Tirade).
To make sure no one could make this
mistake again Dark Network pretended to forget they'd ever recorded and mastered a complete
album, then lowered
the tempo knob and settled on the lo-fi (read
"ineptly produced") analogue sound you can still hear in their recordings today -- ie if you
ever heard them doing one of their extremely-late-night sets at Klub Kooky (Sydney) or
Headspace (Melbourne) then you can pretty much assume they'll sound the same next time
next time you hear them. Unless of course some hapless promoter has booked them for a 1am slot, in
which case there's no point trying to guess what will happen.
The new album Late Set is out now through
Clan Analogue, and
features live recordings from shows across
the east coast of Australia along with a couple of direct-to-tape studio numbers. More info
here.
Dark Network's two current members (Tim O'Loghlin and Bo Daley) are based in
Melbourne and Sydney respectively.
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