Darkstar

London's Darkstar craft fractured experimental pop that pulls from the U.K. bass lineage together with R&B and classic synth-pop textures. Early on tied to the dubstep and garage underground, the duo gained notice toward the close of the 2000s through vocoder-laden pieces like "Need You" and "Aidy's Girl Is a Computer." Later albums steered clear of club music, beginning with the wistful ambient pop of North, issued by Hyperdub in 2010, and continuing through several Warp projects capped by the 2015 conceptual release Foam Island.

The project first appeared in 2007 when producers James Young and Aiden Whalley put out the singles "Dead 2 Me" and "Lilyliver" along with a split 12-inch alongside Zomby. Several further 12-inch records surfaced across 2008 and 2009, the most notable being the jittery Hyperdub single "Aidy's Girl Is a Computer," which arrived with a Kyle Hall remix and landed on year-end lists compiled by outlets such as The Guardian. Once vocalist James Buttery joined, the trio finished their first album, North, released by Hyperdub in October 2010; a subdued reading of the Human League's 1982 B-side "You Remind Me of Gold" served as its single.

The group resurfaced in November 2012 with "Timeaway," whose parent album, the breezier News from Nowhere, reached listeners via Warp the following February. Buttery subsequently departed, returning the lineup to a duo with Whalley assuming vocal duties. In 2015 they issued the mixtape Kirklees Arcadia, a collection of fresh tracks, joint efforts, and reworkings that led into the third album, Foam Island—a patchwork record interleaving rhythm-driven songs with exploratory passages and interview fragments drawn from young residents of Huddersfield, England. That same year Darkstar and Gwilym Gold joined choreographer Holly Blakey for the dance work Some Greater Class; The Vinyl Factory later released a two-track single from the piece titled "Rope" and "Folk." Also in 2016 the duo delivered the EP Made to Measure, which featured joint tracks with Empress Of and Gaika.

Further commissions and partnerships followed. For the 2017 New Music Biennial they created a composition performed at Royal Festival Hall alongside organist James McVinnie, then appeared with the London Contemporary Orchestra at the 2018 Organ Reframed event in Union Chapel and contributed pieces to 2019's Unclassified Live at Queen Elizabeth Hall. Darkstar rejoined the Warp roster in 2020 for their fourth album, Civic Jams, an effort that filtered shoegaze, rave, and 2-step elements while chronicling life in the duo's immediate surroundings.