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Watch Darkstar Perform Their Impressively Human ‘A Day’s Pay for a Day’s Work’

Darkstar A Day's Pay for a Day's Work Yours Truly Video

London may not have a glut of post-dubstep psych-pop trios, but if they did, Darkstar would be the kings of the scene. After planting a flag for their distinct sound back in 2010 with debut LP on Hyperdub, North, the fellas signed to Warp for their upcoming album News From Nowhere, due February 5. We’ve heard the lush cybernetic garden that is first single “Timeaway,” plus toyed around with the abstracted song loop snippets “News #1-10” and their corresponding GIF-like clips, but in the new Yours Truly-directed video for “A Day’s Pay For A Day’s Work,” we get to see a rarer side of this already uncommon group. The camera opens on the three discussing a clutch change: translating their studio-born songs into something playable in person. “It’s all kind of backwards,” says singer James Buttery, “in that we write, produce and make an album, and then we deconstruct that and figure out how we can make it work in a live setting.” Backwards perhaps, but they make it work, with pensive piano play setting the scene for a highly emotive, harmonically sound trip through digitized music that moves to a genuine human heartbeat.