It’s hard to believe that Darkstar used to release their music on Hyperdub. Was it because of diversification, personal taste or just an accident? However – on Harp, the three gentlemen seem to be much more at home. »News From Nowhere«, the trio’s second record, is the finest electro-pop mixed with psychedelic moments of horror. Easygoing, uncomplicated rhythms are mixed up with washed out traces of synthz and spookily blurred vocals – perfectly attuned to polar-nights and lonely winters in the moor. It’s the oldest news imaginable that the synth-pop-world of the 1980s is being reanimated. And yet, Aiden Whalley, James Buttery and James Young manage as one of the very few bands to wrap up an authentic 2013-record in a garment from the 80s. »News From Nowhere« is not a helpless plagiarism of a time long passed, but instead – just like PVTs »Church Without Magic« in 2010 – a retrospective in a modern format of sounds and structures which has managed to linger on for a few moments between the years. Darkstar must have dwelled on Boards of Canada and Radiohead’s »Kid A« for a while – there’s nothing to go wrong there, really.
News From Nowhere
