Digitalism
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Digitalism

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Many of the explosive ingredients that made 2007’s Idealism impact hearts and minds are there on I Love You Dude. As the vocalist-producer describes it though, there are stronger connections to stadium pop and commercial dance this time around. The subtle, yet apparent, change can be heard in the soaring keyboard breakdown of Forrest Gump. Same can be said for the chorus, which would be worthy of being belted out by a Muse-type FM rock outfit. At the very sound of the slow-grooving Stratosphere you can hear chill-wave maestros like Neon Indian wetting their pants. Then there’s 2 Hearts, the most blatant, heartstring-tugging pop ballad on the album. Somehow though, the earnestness of the lyrics adds real charm. Meanwhile, Just Gazin’ and Miami Showdown find them in a strange yet alluring Jan Hammer-meets-Kraftwerk sensibility. A free-flowing, and open-minded, approach may have been just what the boogie doctor ordered. “We thought ‘ok let’s do what we always do, collect our ideas’ and then we just kind of turned out favourite ideas into full tracks. Then we discard the worst ones and you have the album pretty much.” Nonchalant words from Mr. Moelle.

It wasn’t all unstructured, he affirms however, “We always knew, more or less from the beginning, which songs were going to be on the album, but we didn’t know in which shape.” Composing the instrumental tracks first, Jens says “Some tracks just scream out for vocals, while others ask to be left alone as instrumentals.” Not above poking fun at himself, bashful Jens jokes, “When we start writing lyrics for a track that’s already finished, it sounds a bit like boring cheap karaoke.” The mental image of the skinny, fair-skinned German performing in a karaoke lounge filled with Japanese businessmen is too great to bear. Despite his somewhat reluctant role as lead singer he does enjoy the freedom and power of performing vocals. “For me it’s just fun to do it. I don’t know if it’s the most exciting voice, but it’s so much fun that there’s no discussion about it.” He believes if they write the songs they might as well perform them too. Before the vocals though it all starts with the good ol’ trusty keyboard, sorting out the melody and chords, then building on top. “That’s the formula that’s worked for us.” The relaxed formula has resulted in a project that Jens believes places them more in “the pop region.” A dirty word to some, pop is a direction Digitalism have enjoyed venturing into. “For us it’s just a matter of how precisely you write your melodies. When you have a perfect melody, that’s when people call it pop.” And pop melodies don’t get much purer than those on the aforementioned 2 Hearts and the up-tempo Circles.

Despite its geographical distance from their native Hamburg, Digitalism has strong roots in Australia. Most obviously we do share a party hardy attitude. The title I Love You, Dude was in fact inspired by the culture the duo was exposed to and the friends they caught up with when they toured here at the start of summer last year. “We have so many friends in Australia that have said that [I love you dude] to us. Everybody was so excited to see us. There was the sun and the sea. It was so relaxed and we got really relaxed too.” The sun-soaked excursion in-turn helped them polish off the album. “We kind of had the album finished but we didn’t really feel it.” After taking a much-needed break, it was like a moment of divine intervention. “We all of a sudden realised what we had to do to finish the album. When we went back to the studio, within two months that was it. We were completely happy with it.” The album title, which mirrors the album’s sound quite closely, was born out of their desire, “Adding twists to things and doing unexpected stuff. We chose to not go with our usual album title criteria, and wanted to go with a phrase that’s been stuck in our heads for ages. I think it’s brilliant. It’s very Australian.” The relaxed atmosphere of an Australian summer informed the positive vibes they hope the album radiates. “We just wanted to tell everyone to relax, don’t be such a hater. We wanted to bring a bit of sexiness back to the dance scene, because it’s just been too full on. It’s too hard and in-your-face, too compressed with all this ‘dun-dun’ stuff.” These sentiments relate to a party the DJs recently performed at. “There were all these kids moshing around for like the first 10 rows. They were just jumping up and down. It doesn’t really matter what the DJs play, it’s just so extreme at the moment. You just have to take the pace down a little bit or things are going to explode soon.” Unlike a Harold Camping-style crackpot, this man may have a point.

Above all, the sounds on the album reflect “what really excites us music-wise at the minute.” He says, for example, if reggae was what had their attention at the minute then they would do reggae. German electro-reggae does sound intriguing. The line between appeasing a certain crowd and being true to themselves is one Jens and İsmail prefer not to tread on. “As a DJ you can’t always play hits only. You can do that and have a lot of people come to your party or you can educate the crowd by playing some really interesting stuff, and people still get into it, just a bit slower.” I Love You, Dude he believes is a fresh start, almost considering it a “new first album.” Their debut effort, 2007’s Idealism, was a representation of the mental space they were in at the time. It could have easily however been named Aggression, thanks to cuts like Pogo and Idealistic, which came out full force in their intense, distortion-heavy dance punk. The aggressive sounds were topped off with the somewhat melancholy Brit-Pop quality of Jens’ vocals and underlying quirky Euro-dance melodies.

Being self-contained works he doesn’t believe that the same listeners who enjoyed Idealism will necessarily be along for the ride on the new project. “If we have some of our old fans listening that’s super cool but we don’t expect them to like this one. Maybe it’s completely different people. We just put it out there, see what happens.” Not having any preconceived expectations of who will listen to the album or how it will be received keeps their egos in check. Using the current craze of reviving the 1980s as an example, Jens believes “people will always be recycling sound.” However he questions the notion that no original music would ever be made again. “People said the same thing back in the ’60s, but look at what’s happening now it’s a completely different style.” The appeal of the ’80s sound he thinks lies in the carefree party attitude it exudes. “There’s something for everyone, including the ladies, not like hard techno or something. If you can then update it a bit it can be quite a good thing.” Knowing the peaks and valleys of a live gig and what people react to has given Digitalism some extra insight. “We approached the first album like DJs I think. This time we’ve gone a different way. I think when you write and produce songs as a DJ you tend to make very long tracks and breakdowns and all that DJ stuff. This time we tried we tried to keep things short and to the point. No excess stuff on the tracks, nothing too much longer than three minutes. This time we thought ‘instead of being hypnotised and dancing around to the same track for six, seven minutes or something it should just be to the point’. If you want to listen to it longer, just play it again.”