Darker (album)
# Darker (album)

Darker is the debut studio album of C-Tec, released on 1 September 1997 by Synthetic Symphony. 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 with an additional track titled "My Unbreakable Code" and written by Marc Heal.

## Reception

Professional ratings :

| Review scores ||
| - | - |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Pitchfork Media | (8.2/10) |

Greg Prato of AllMusic 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 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

All lyrics are written by Jean-Luc de Meyer, except "Epitaph" written by Dorothy Parker.

## Accolades

| Year | Publication | Country | Accolade | Rank |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1998 | CMJ New Music Monthly | United States | "Top 25 Dance" | 8 |
| 1998 | CMJ New Music Monthly | United States | "CMJ Radio Airplay: Top 75" | 61 |
| "*" denotes an unordered list. ||||||

## Personnel

Adapted from the Darker liner notes.

C-Tec

* Jean-Luc De Meyer – vocals
* Ged Denton – keyboards
* Marc Heal – keyboards, vocals, production

'Additional performers

* Phil Barry – sampler
* Rhys Fulber – sampler, additional production
* Björn Jünemann – sampler
* Daniel Myer – sampler
* Dejan Samardzic – sampler

Production and design

* Jim Marcus – cover art (reissue)
* Doug Martin – engineering, additional production
* Jules Seifert – remastering (reissue)

## Release history

| Region | Date | Label | Format | Catalog |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| Europe | 1997 | Synthetic Symphony | CD | CD 085-61572 SPV |
| United States | 1997 | Wax Trax!/TVT | CD | TVT 7252 |
| United States | 1998 | Wax Trax!/TVT | CS | TVT 7252 |
| Poland | 2004 | Союз/Synthetic Symphony | CS | 085-61572 SPV |
| United Kingdom | 2018 | Armalyte Industries | DL | |
