''Darker'' is the debut studio album of

C-Tec C-Tec (or The Cyber-Tec Project) was an EBM band originally formed as a side project in 1995 by Jean-Luc De Meyer (of Front 242), Jonathan Sharp (of New Mind), and Ged Denton (of Crisis n.T.i.). The name was taken from Cyber-Tec Records, ...

, released on 1 September 1997 by

Synthetic Symphony SPV GmbH (short for ''Schallplatten Produktion und Vertrieb Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, GmbH'', "Vinyl Production and Distribution Company") is a German independent record label. Founded on 1 January 1984, it has slowly grown to be one ...

. The album showcases the band wanting to experiment by integrating different styles and textures into their compositions after the release of their 1995 EP '' Cyber-Tec''. On 5 October 2018 the album was reissued as a

music download A music download (commonly referred to as a digital download) is the digital transfer of music via the Internet into a device capable of decoding and playing it, such as a personal computer, portable media player, MP3 player or smartphone. T ...

with an additional track titled "My Unbreakable Code" and written by

Marc Heal Marc Heal is an English musician, television producer and writer. He is best known as an industrial music artist of the 1990s, noted for mixing metal and techno with more traditional industrial sounds. His extroverted onstage behaviour was un ...

Reception

Greg Prato of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

said "the aptly titled ''Darker'' is industrial-influenced, aggressive electronic dance music with all of the necessary ingredients for success -- the vocals are sung with the mandatory pissed-off foreign accent, and the music drills into your brain with ease."

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

described the music as having "high-energy, egomaniacal attitudes" and claimed "as any good darkwave album would, it also takes a plunge into the lonelier side of despair and isolation." In May 1998 the album peaked at numbers eight and sixty-one on '' CMJ New Music Monthly's'' top dance releases and top radio airplay.

Track listing

Accolades

Personnel

Adapted from the ''Darker'' liner notes. C-Tec *

Jean-Luc De Meyer Jean-Luc De Meyer (born 1957 in Brussels) is a vocalist and lyricist who is best known as the lead vocalist of the Belgian EBM group Front 242. He started singing in the experimental group "Under Viewer" with Patrick Codenys. Both joined Front ...

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

* Ged Denton –

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

– keyboards, vocals,

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

'Additional performers * Phil Barry – sampler * Rhys Fulber – sampler, additional production * Björn Jünemann – sampler *

Daniel Myer Haujobb is a German electronic musical project whose output has ranged drastically within the electronic music spectrum, from electro-industrial to ambient and techno. They have become a staple crossover act, bringing several forms of electro in ...

– sampler * Dejan Samardzic – sampler Production and design * Jim Marcus – cover art (reissue) * Doug Martin –

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

, additional production * Jules Seifert – remastering (reissue)

Release history

References

External links

*
''Darker''
at

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

''Darker''
at iTunes {{Authority control 1997 debut albums C-Tec albums Synthetic Symphony albums TVT Records albums Wax Trax! Records albums