Darkstar - Blurred

What this video is

Released August 13, 2020, during the UK's COVID-19-enforced live music shutdown, 'Blurred' functions as a collective act of mourning and solidarity. The video assembles Google Street View imagery of UK independent music venues — past and present — submitted by the band's own fanbase, directly implicating the community in an act of communal memory-making. It was produced in explicit alignment with the #SaveOurVenues…

Why it matters

Represents the ambient and post-club strain of Warp Records' 2020s output — a lineage running from early Warp 'Artificial Intelligence' compilations through to post-grime atmospheric electronics. The self-produced, crowd-sourced video format reflects a broader 2020 shift toward democratised,…

The director

Darkstar is the UK electronic duo of James Young and Aiden Whalley, active since the late 2000s and signed to Warp Records. They are known for drawing on UK Grime, Ambient House, IDM, Acid Techno and Progressive Synthpop. Their fourth studio album 'Civic…