“Lilac and kindness and honesty. Just… basic things”, says the young woman with the northern English accent in the first seconds of the new album Foam Island (Warp), therein introducing a melancholically scintillating concept album: the band Darkstar’s provisional moment of glory. For three months, Aiden Whalley and James Young listened to the dreams and fears of young people in their home town of Huddersfield, then seismographically capturing changing realities and interweaving these with their own sounds. The album evolved in parallel to the 2015 election campaign and acted as a reality check against the supposed achievements and grandiose promises of David Cameron, who would continue to win the election much to the dismay of the band. The duo, which has secretly crept in style from dubstep into synth-pop, from the dance floor into the everyday, continues the long tradition of social realism in British pop music—a line that leads from The Smiths to The Streets via Pulp and a source of music that sets a trembling in brain- and heart muscles alike.

–