Today, Darkstar release their Civic Jams Remixes 12” on Warp Records. This LP presents a selection of album reworks by John Talabot, Parris, Horsepower Productions and Loraine James.
Speaking about how it feels to be releasing this latest body of work into the world, Darkstar explain: “So over the last few years of making music and putting this together we’ve obviously been listening to a lot of stuff. The Loraine James album last year on Hyperdub was a highlight, Talabot’s output on his label is always something we check for, Parris is someone who’s music we think is really exciting and then the legend that is Benny Ill past and present makes this remix EP really special for us to have as part of the Civic Jams project. It’s a really chunky well rounded independent part of the album and listening to all the different interpretations has been cool. We love it, it feels like a proper collectible and Ruben did an amazing job with the art direction. As a package it’s made us really proud that it’s coming out.”
Darkstar find themselves at once looking homeward and venturing further into their own psychic hinterland with each record. They’ve covered a lot of ground from the introspective expanse of their debut ‘North’ [2010], to utopian visions of society in ‘News From Nowhere’ [2013] and the unique dynamics of a pre-Brexit northern England on ‘Foam Island’ [2015]. On their latest offering ‘Civic Jams’, home is within reach. Inspired by the intervening years, Darkstar (aka Aiden Whalley and James Young) show how the personal can be political and reveal more of themselves than they’ve ever done before. Imagine emotional realism built from spectral rave echoes, anchored in timeless songs of love and loss in the digital now and you’ve got it.
Darkstar’s (aka Aiden Whalley and James Young) idiosyncratic take on electronic pop music has positioned them as key voices within the scene for the best part of two decades. In recent years, Darkstar have worked with the likes of Actress, Wild Beasts and Zomby. They have also released music with Empress Of (XL) and Gaika, collaborating with director Lucy Luscombe and Random Acts for Channel 4, working on ground-breaking live dance performances with choreographer Holly Blakey (Mica Levi) and scoring the Palme d’Or nominated short film ‘Dreamlands’.
Darkstar have continued their dedication to collaboration and been commissioned by PRS to create a piece for the New Music Biennial, in a response to the 2017 City of Culture, which was performed at Royal Festival Hall with organist James McVinnie. This collaboration with McVinnie has since continued and saw Darkstar compose a new work for Organ Reframed festival which they performed together with the London Contemporary Orchestra in 2018 at Union Chapel. In 2019 they performed two of their new compositions at Queen Elizabeth Hall for Unclassified Live.
Alongside these, the band has worked with St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, in Minneapolis, Metal Liverpool, Arts Council England and Harthill Community centre to create an installation and performance piece with teens from migrant communities. The final performance, TRACKBED, was performed at the Barbican in London.
Civic Jams Remixes 12”
1. Wolf (John Talabot’s Euphoric Remix)
2. Wolf (Loraine James Remix)
3. Jam (Parris Remix)
4. Jam (Horsepower Productions Remix)
5. Wolf (John Talabot’s Materia Dub)