Deardarkhead

Some bands seemingly come out of nowhere with a debut release only to turn out to have a long established history, which turned out to be the case with New Jersey's Deardarkhead. Consisting of guitarist Kevin Harrington, drummer Robert Weiss, and bassist/singer Michael Amper, Deardarkhead (the name comes from an Irish poem), the group formed in 1988 and have been happily recording and playing since. The group's sound is openly and proudly Anglophilic, combining both elements of the blissout/shoegaze scene and a slightly older vein of post-punk guitar experimentalism, making at its best a rich combination between the two influences, shamelessly romantic and elegant. Running their own label, Fertile Crescent, the members first released two demo tapes, Greetings From the Infernal Village and Spiral Down and Away, followed in the early '90s by two separate CD singles, Melt Away Too Soon and Ultraviolet. The group then took a lengthy recording break before creating its full album Unlock the Valves of Feeling, which appeared in 1998. The group continued to play into the 2000s, surviving the loss of Amper in 2009 by continuing as an instrumental trio.