Today, Darkstar announce a new remix of their two step banger ‘Jam’ from Horsepower Productions. Applying their own signature style, the revered UK underground producers bring up the tempo, add hints of garage and give the vocal layers a rework. The original track is lifted from Darkstar’s upcoming album ‘Civic Jams’, which will be released on Warp on 19th June.
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.
Speaking about the remix, Benny III from Horsepower productions explains: “When Darkstar approached me to produce this remix I have to say I was more than excited, I hadn't heard their original track at that point, but the prospect of writing a remix for the mighty Warp Records seriously gassed me. As an avid collector of those purple records in the ‘90s, this was a bucket list opportunity, as the long running label has kept up the high standards set in those heady days. On hearing the original track I was no less pleased, the song strangely reminds me of late ‘80s canadian dance hit "give me a sign" (in a good way) and though I'm sure this was fully unintentional something of the vibe is in there still. Having been asked to produce a 'horsepower' remix I thought back to the catalog of our previous releases to try and figure what elements of style the artist and label might be looking for. Much as I love the tempo and pace of the original, horsepower's generally uptempo output led me to perk it up a few bpms and in my opinion it doesn't harm the feeling as a tempo shift can sometimes do. The rhythm and beat harks back to our former style but with a few novel twists on the programming to separate it from the "noughties" sound. I hope the artist and listeners get as much enjoyment from hearing the remix as I did making it!"
Darkstar add: “This was all planned to go out into a world that wasn't going through a pandemic. We don't know what we feel about releasing music in this climate to be frank. Everything we tried to touch on with regards to tangible space and shared moments on the record seems like we were concerned about a luxury we didn't know could be reduced further. With everyone going through isolation in one form or another it certainly asks the question of what people can do to help each other. We made a record and if even just a small number of people can take comfort in it it's more than done its job.”