Darkstar: North auf CD

DARKSTAR in der Version des Jahres 2010 sind ein eindeutig verbessertes Modell der DARKSTAR, die Ende des Jahres 2009 die Single "Aidy's Girl Is A Computer" veröffentlichten. Dieser Song zusammen mit den vorhergehenden Singles "Need You" und "Squeeze My Lime" gaben bereits Hinweise auf ein aufkeimendes Songwriting Talent und das pure Können an der Front der klebrigen Synthie Drones, die hier auf dem Debüt "North" zu ihrer vollen Bandbreite explodieren.

Die Band hat neue Schwerpunkte gesetzt und polstert das Produktionsteam aus James Young und Aiden Whalley mit Sänger James Buttery auf, um ein mutiges, zurückhaltendes Popmeisterwerk zu schreiben, das die billigen Effekte und wiedergekäuten Ideen eines regulären Popalbums mit einem erhabenen Schulterzucken hinter sich lässt. Stattdessen rückt "North" bei jedem Durchgang näher an den Hörer heran und verführt mit seinem fast schon schmerzhaft hinreißenden Songwriting.

Vom Introtrack "The Wings" bis zum Ende, der üppigen neuen Version von "Squeeze My Lime", das jetzt auf den Namen "When It's Gone" hört, verbindet "North" beißende Synthies, barocke Streicher, Klavier und sanfte Gitarre mit Gesangsharmonien, die von Glitches und Noise leicht eingerahmt werden. DARKSTAR legen damit ein Album vor, von dem Bands mit mehr Erfahrung nur träumen können - ein Klassiker für kurze Tage und lange Nächte.

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The background: Darkstar got some attention in 2009 when their single Aidy's Girl Is a Computer, released on the dubstep label Hyperdub, was acclaimed as one of the best of the year in niche titles as well as more mainstream publications. It was sublime, a mini masterpiece of subtly emotional electronica, which immediately made you wonder what a whole album of this sort of music – whatever it was, and it probably wasn't dubstep – might be like.

And now we know, because North, Darkstar's debut album, is here, in promotional form, bearing interruptions from a stern female voice – "You are listening to a promo of Darkstar's new album", delivered in such appropriately cold android tones you can't help wondering if they're part of the fabric of the music – that suggest this release is quite a big deal, for Hyperdub if not the wider world. In fact, just as April to March is the fiscal year for economists, so the rock equivalent should be the period allowed for nominations for the Mercury prize, ie September to July, in which case we should probably start thinking of North as the first great release of the Mercury year.

Like the xx album, North is a response to, or a departure from, modern dance mores. It bears the same relationship to dubstep that the xx do to R&B, and it is similarly achromatic: it feels enervated, dark and drained, music for the early hours after the devastating night before. You can tell Darkstar want to distance themselves from dubstep. The influences here are 70s electronic pioneers from Bowie / Eno to Vangelis, and early-80s synth-pop – like Phil Oakey, Martyn Ware et al, they're northern working-class boys in love with the kling-klang of heavy machinery and there's a cover on the album of You Remind Me of Gold, the B-side of the Human League's 1982 hit Mirror Man – as well as Warp-infatuated Radiohead (the latter opened their shows with Darkstar's Need You single). They also like the atmosphere and drama of soundtrack music: they've written stuff for Nokia, Dunhill and Toshiba adverts, and they're fans of Badalamenti and Bernard Herrmann.

They scrapped one album at the end of 2009 then painstakingly assembled these 10 tracks earlier this year. The attention to detail is exhaustive – North is a treat for hi-fi buffs, if indeed such creatures still exist. It's music designed more for bedrooms than clubs, unless the clubs are decked out like bedrooms or vice versa. The beats are post-garage, the synths Teutonic, the sonics tinged with Oriental exotica, the vocals processed, the textures glitchy, there are keyboard washes and rhythms that build and build, rise and swell – basically, it would take somebody who could get to grips with the materiality of this sound to truly do it justice. We'll just be simple and say that North is one the best albums of its kind since My Computer's Vulnerabilia and advise you to keep an eye out for it at the bookies next September.

Rezensionen

,,Darkstars Mission im tieftraurig-melancholischem Pop oder die momentan schönste Identitätskrise der Welt. Wenn für "North" - Achtung! Floskel - der Weg das Ziel sein sollte, dann möchte man fast gar nicht, dass diese Band je ankommt." (musikexpress, 12 / 2010)