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Nov 23, 2015 Issue #55 - November/December 2015 - EL VY By Billy Hamilton

Things aren’t going well in the U.K. right now, politically speaking. The right-leaning Conservative government is dismantling public services and hammering the poor, while the left is, quite simply, a powerless laughingstock. It’s precisely this demoralizing picture of U.K. society that London-based electronic duo Darkstar have attempted to capture on album number three Foam Island.

Impressively, they don’t revert to downbeat rhythms to do it. Instead they pepper interviews with despondent U.K. residents amongst a more uplifting sonic landscape: “Stoke the Fire” is a calypso-infused shuffle, “Go Natural” skitters and flickers to brushing rhythmic textures, and the pert “Through the Motions” oscillates to a hiccuping beat pattern and android vocals.

Musically—with its polished execution and hopscotching melodies—Foam Island should sit naturally aside SBTRKT and its dubstep contemporaries. Yet, what Darkstar have created is something of much more consequence—a harrowing vision of the dystopia that permeates U.K. life today. It sounds and feels inescapable. (www.darkstar.ws)

Author rating: 7.5/10