Electronic: Year in Review 2010

Page 9

Features Year In Review Dec 2010

9. Darkstar North (Hyperdub)
Instead of mostly irrelevant dubstep comparisons, it's more pertinent to ask whether Darkstar is this era's Portishead, or perhaps the Human League, whose "(You Remind Me Of) Gold" is gorgeously transformed on this disc. Darkstar have updated a winning formula combining dramatic, Anglo-melancholic songcraft with cutting edge mid-tempo electronic music. North's strongest association to UK bass music is its simultaneous double and half-time rhythms, as well as a tense, spare sound. But North impresses most as a pop album: chord changes are reassuring in their minor-key way, and vocals are perfectly cool yet fraught.
David Dacks

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3Comments

Posted by Nameless Poseur On 2010-12-03 22:54:16soul-baring not "soul-bearing"

Posted by Nameless Poseur On 2010-12-24 05:20:20Where the hell is Four Tet!?

Posted by SilenceNogood On 2011-01-11 14:54:58"to sound both familiar and like nothing you've ever heard." so true.

Pretty Lights & Emancipator had runners too.
Check out my top ten :) http://silencenogood.net/...-top-albums/