Dark Room Notes

DarkRoomNotes

I can't figure out how to embed youtube videos on this forum (sorry!) - you can see the video for Love Like Nicotine here

We're playing in Crawdaddy on 11 July.

Some reviews:


The Irish Times - The Ticket

Two years after the smoking ban, this Dublin quartet are still feeling the craving. Might as well face it, they're addicted to love. What better way to distract the mind than by writing a killer indie-rock tune and making a video in Temple Bar that climaxes in a choreographed line-dance routine a la OK Go? In a word, smokin'. ****

Edel Coffey - Phantom FM & The Irish Independent

Dark Room Notes, true to their name, sing dark songs of obsession, addiction, lust and passion. Despite this, they manage to be strangely uplifting, the songs buoyed along on a wave of electro-indie and male-female vocals calling to mind Human League and Joy Division. Dark Room Notes are a smart and stylish young band, exciting and exhilarating with sophisticated tunes to boot.

Entertainment.ie

Not only are Dark Room Notes in possession of perhaps the coolest band name of 2007 (if you like that sort of thing), their debut single - the so-hip-it's-in-need-of-a-replacement Love Like Nicotine - is equally as marvellous as their opaque moniker. It's a superb, dark, danceable, funky, sleazy synth-riddled, uptempo indie track that recalls both Interpol without the monotone Ian Curtis-esque vocals and Bloc Party without the overly studious art-rock sound, all coated in a thick layer of experimental, yet not alienating fuzz. B-sides include a stripped-down remix of the track by Trixton, and an eerie sci-fi compound by U2/Depeche Mode producer Flood. For a debut single, it's not only scarily accomplished, but also one of the best of the year so far.

The Torture Garden

...this is a song wrapped inside its own dramatic self. Dark, love, nicotine - you may already have an idea of what it sounds like. Still, there's enough talent at work here to take an old sound and make it new, to craft a melody that easily hooks you in, and build up the tension to a nervy chorus. It's been a while since I heard a song that scratched this particular itch so well. It's something like Interpol but with genuine personality and the same forwardness, and keyboard-playing that reaches back two decades to find just the right notes for the feeling that runs underneath this like a tunnel, or a vein. It genuinely improves with repeated listening... It looks like it's going to be a mighty year for Irish music.

Star Scene

The Dublin music scene is in rude health at the moment, not least due to the explosion of new, original and wholly modern bands. Leading the pack are newcomers Dark Room Notes who create music as intimate and dark as their name might suggest. Channeling the likes of Joy Division, My Bloody Valentine and Depeche Mode, the three boys and one girl recently released their blistering synth-driven single, Love Like Nicotine. It's certainly an exciting taste of great things to come - layered, complex and unique, this is electro-indie pop at its loveliest. With buzz growing on the young noiseniks by the day, expect their handful of Irish dates in early June to be rather memorable indeed.

In Dublin - Live Review

Upon hearing their stunning opener Broken Nail, its apparent we're in the presence of a band who demand to be watched with the same intensity that they apply to their performance and writing... In fact, such is the outfit's natural pop sensitivity, that their brilliant single is far from their finest moment. This dark, sophisticated and superior homegrown pop is precisely what our undernourished chart has been screaming out for.

Hot Press

"Love Like Nicotine", the exciting single from Dublin-based Dark Room Notes, is a classy and hugely promising debut for this electro-rock four-piece. The swooping intro immediately grabs your attention, the chorus is catchy, and the vocals are intense throughout.... Dark Room Notes are a welcome addition to our radios: sharp, edgy, seamless electro-rock. More of the same please.

NME Ireland

If the music industry is just, and we all know that it's not, then some corner of 2007 must surely belong to Dark Room Notes. You heard it here first.

Road Records

The main track blasts off like some mixture of later new order meets the electronic tinged indie rock sounds of the likes of the bloc party, its an infectiously catchy piece of uptempo indie rock with lots of lovely eighties new wave tinges and heavy synth sounds.

Frequency Ireland

What you get is radiant electro-indie-pop which has been likened before to both New Order and The Human League, though overall they are more uplifting in purpose, and have veerings into Muse rock territory at times.

Clare People

With the possible exception of the long-awaited Delorentos album, the emergence of the Dark Room Notes and their debut single 'Love Like Nicotine' is the most hotly-tipped ticket in an admittedly slow opening to 2007. Frantic, catchy and tuneful (in that out-of-tune Arcade Fire kind of way), 'Love Like Nicotine' is a barnstorming debut that is crying out for hours of radio play. 9/10

Dublin Event Guide

Each gig the band play is accompanied by an intense air of anticipation: an anticipation which was transfered to the recent release of their debut single. 'Love Like Nicotine' lives up to even the highest expectations. The influence of classic 80s pop is strong, while a convincing new electronica base fortifies the song's place in the annals of this decades alternative.

Galway Entertainment Guide - Single of the Week

Having gigged everywhere from Galway (Roisin Dubh and support to Psapp in Cuba) to Berlin over the last year the Dublin based foursome with a Galway connection (two of the lads hail from the musical hotbed of Menlo) come good on all the hype surrounding them with their excellent debut single "Love Like Nicotine". Insistent guitars, melodic synths and driving drums come together in an infectiously catchy perfect electronic indie pop way. Expect big things!

The Sun

Dark Room Notes feel like they have been on the scene since keyboards first morphed from piano ties. This latest offering is electro rock at its finest and is destined to take the Dublin music scene by force.

For more about DRN see www.myspace.com/darkroomnotesireland