Dark Soho are (or were, rather) three very talented guys from
Haifa,
Israel, who work together to create
psychedelic trance. (Haifa is about an hour and a half from
Tel Aviv). They have a tendency to refer to
Israel as "
Israhell".
Their name is derived from the two groups that merged to form Dark Soho: Boxer and Rizo as Soho, and Zeev Diukman as Dark Entity. Zeev has recently left the group, but Boxer and Rizo continue on with the moniker.
From their website:
"Their cooperative effort is to explode the internal structure of your mind... Dark streams of ionized psychedelic sounds that blows continuously outward through the darkness....."
Boxer
Boxer is 25 years old, and at that young age, has somehow managed to become successful in management and industry, and then leaving it to become even more successful in producing and playing electronic music. He plays bass guitar as well as lead and rhythm guitar, and his main musical tastes are heavy metal and doom, along with any other psychedelic music, including trance and metal.
His list of musical influences includes Iron Maiden, Dream Theater, King Diamond, The Delta, Massive Attack, Dino Psaras, and the "Spice Grille's" (sic). He was only kidding about the Spice Girls part, though.
His life philosophy is as follows:
"I worship the air-conditioner. The air-conditioner is god. It gives you all the benefits a normal god gives but....this god cools you during the summer & keep you warm through the cold winter."
Rizo
Rizo is 24 years old, likes to play guitar to death, smoke until morning, and travel to lots of beautiful places. I'm sure that his place as one of the top psy-trance artists facilitates that last one quite nicely.
He, according to his profile, started in trance after "10000000" years of playing guitar in a variety of bands. Hey, you've got to love a musician who can bend the very laws of space-time. Eh? Eh?
He started in trance in 1995, which he says just "took him in" when he heard it. He spent a while listening to it, and then began to produce using a simple piece of software provided to him by a member of Shidapu. After a year or so of practicing, him and Boxer got together, and with a bit of help from Eriz Izen (from Infected Mushroom), they began to produce under the name "Soho".
His list of musical influences includes Dream Theater, Megadeth, Metallica, Pantera, X-Dream, Simon Posford, Tim Schult, and The Backstreet Boys. He was only kidding about the Backstreet Boys part, though.
Zeev Diukman
Zeev has left Dark Soho, and is now running his own solo project under his old name, Dark Entity. His name is commonly misspelled "Dukeman".
He left a post on the Isratrance forums, dated November 14, 2003, announcing his departure from Dark Soho. It is recreated below, with no editing whatsoever.
hi,
after long time as part from from the band(darksoho)
its time to say good bye.
i want to say 10x to evry 1 tht was/is involved.
THANK u all !!!
peace to all
Zeev Diukman
Dark Entity.
Their Music
It is very difficult to describe the sound of electronica, and Dark Soho, with their quite original style, is certainly no exception. They specialize in dark, bass-driven nighttime music, masterfully blending elements of psychedelic trance, dark industrial, and metal into a final product that is best enjoyed at an eardrum-splitting level of volume. Keep turning it up, more, more, aaand... There... Now. Are your ears bleeding? Good. That's what's supposed to happen.
Discography
Sun Spot
This album is widely considered to be a monumental release, on par with Infected Mushroom's Classical Mushroom album. With dark, industrial influences and chuggy, strong basslines, this album is certainly a very strong showing. It was released in September of 2000, on BNE Records.
Track Listing:
- Unusual Ceremony
- Uine Saracomm
- SuperNova
- From Beyond
- Depth Of Emotions
- Tales Of Tragedy
- Suckobus
- Sleepwalking
- Gothic Prayer
- Orchestra Pile Pile (featuring YAHEL)
Combustion
I unfortunately have yet to hear this album. So I will include the review from psyshop.com. This album was released in December of 2002, on Alchemy Records.
"Israel's finest Dark Soho present another masterpiece full of emotion and energy with Combustion,
The second studio album since the highly acclaimed debut 'Sunspot'. Deep, dark and brooding, Combustion's dose of atmospheric synths, driving rhythms and melancholic metal riffs, combine to create a spontaneous explosive reaction.
Featuring nine tracks with an exclusive bonus Quicktime video of Uring Saracom live, Combustion is a truly stunning and full power frontal assault of the seven senses. Dark Soho once again delivers to the dance floors a nerve-shattering album that literally tears apart the boundaries of the psychedelic trance genre.
With extensive releases on psytrance compilations on Alchemy, Sphere and Hom-mega Records, Dark Soho have a reputation for ecstatic and energetic live shows which stand out next to many other live trance acts with their ultra heavy guitar laden riffs and symphonic sound on stage."
Track Listing:
- The New Age
- Dark Moon in Stonehenge
- The 14th
- Kerberos
- Noise 6
- Combustion
- Save Me God (rmx to concrete nature)
- The-H
- My Wish
Compilation Releases
- Depth of Emotions - (BNE Records, "Generations")
- The 14th - (Alchemy Records, "Digital Tribe")
- Weird Combination - (Ambivalent Records, "Conspirators of Pleasure")
- Sun Spot - (Alchemy Records, "Electrum")
- Kapa Kuchak - (HOM-mega Productions, "U.S.F. 3")
- Aggressive - (Aurinko Records, "Catcher")
- Supernova - (Agitato Records, "Spiritual Moves 2: Busted Grooves)
- Terra Sancta - (Hom-Mega Records, "IsrAliens 2")
- MADNESSSS - (Hovek Olam records, "Voojoo Rituals")
- The Fusion - (Digital Dance of Shiva, "SST")
- Dark Memory - (Alchemy Records, "Conspirators of Pleasure")
Unreleased Tracks
(With descriptions as written by Dark Soho, directly from their website.)
- Dark Soho - "Minimalistic" - Believe it or not - Dark AMBIENT. Relaxation combined with spooky dark melancolic atmosphere. LOVE IT!
- Dark Soho - "Morning Glory" - Full on guitar power!
- Dark Entity (Zeev Diukman)- "Alone" - Another one of Zeev's masterpieces...
- Dark Entity (Zeev Diukman)- "18 Angles" - Truly amazing...... no words can describe it..
- Yurtan Germany- "Lunatic Walk" (Organic Tribal Trance Mix) - really good(space sound) for his first track. you will hear this name again (I can sure you) :-) he is going to play in the
- Doom - "Why" - kinda tachno but realy nice...heavy & kick ass
- Dark Soho - "Alian's Cream" - melodic groovie n' gothic
- Dark soho VS. Fatali - "Moments" - was nice to work together - killa resolts full on ;)
- Dark Soho Vs. Anushka Shankar - "Long Way Home" - thats what u all talking about :)
- Dark Soho Vs. Anushka Shankar - "Chillin" - chill out lounge peace of music
- Dark Soho - "Away" - thats how we sound like with no zeev around ;)
(Only minor editing made to the above: If there are any grammar mistakes, blame Dark Soho, not me).
Sources:
www.darksoho.com
www.psyshop.com
forum.isratrance.com/viewtopic.php/topic/24836/forum/8