I talked with dude out of Digitalism for the Phoenix this week. I like how German music bros sound really happy about everything. Go read it over there, or here, or both, I dunno. See you at the show tonight you guys. Come say hi. To someone, not me, just say hi to someone. Video of what might be the funnest song of the year after the jump.
Obviously there are no real line meaningful lines between electronic and indie rock anymore, as more and more instrument-focused acts are leaning on the world of producers to modernize their sound. But sometimes that transition works the other way around too, when a traditional DJ-culture act starts to focus more on the songwriting process you typically find in a rock band. Take Digitalism, the German electro/house team, for example. Their “2 Hearts”, a careening, guitar-driven, post-neo-disco-punk-indie/whatever track may be the most exuberantly danceable “song” (as opposed to a “track,” mind you) of the year.
It's not an aberration on this summer's widely diverse, one-stop-genre-shopping record “I Love You, Dude”, which also lays down screaming club-bangers like “Reeperbahn”, atmospheric Air-like daydreams like “Just Gazin'”, the glitchy, chopped up beats of “Antibiotics”, and the pulsing house throw-downs of “Blitz”, alongside the straight-up guitar-focused dance rock of “Circles” and “Forrest Gump.”
While they flirted with vocal song-oriented material on their 2007 debut Idealism, Jens Moelle, one half the duo explained on the phone from Switzerland – songs like the New Orderian (or Cut Copy doing New Order, rather), pulse of “Pogo”, or the The Rapture-like dirty basement show dance punk of “I Want I Want” – those were examples of their moving outside their comfort zone. Songwriting, as such, he says, is something they wanted to improve upon this time around, while producing it and recording it in a more polished electronic style.
“I think the new album is song based,” he explains. “We started as DJs, did instrumental tracks, and ended up writing 'Pogo' and 'I want I want', full songs with a chorus and verse and everything, but I think there's more of that on new album. After the first album we just got into songwriting, and definitely wanted to do more of that stuff. It's less garage band, a bit more electronic, a bit more what you'd call indie, more proper songs... In a way it is electronic sonically, but also more indie as well, more dance stuff. For us it was a natural step, we've always have feet in both worlds in a way.”
They also set out to effect a shift in dynamics and rhythm as well. On “Idealism” everything essentially revolved around the standard clubby 130 bpms. Not so anymore, as tracks range from fast, to hard, to creepy and slow, to thrashing. “We have more disparity now in a way. We have the spectrum, like all the songs are further apart from each other. Like when the big bang happened everything was really close, now there's lot of space between everything.”
The group, who've been back and forth to the States numerous times in recent years on festivals like Hard Fest, Coachella, and Lollapalooza, have noticed a literal big bang as well as far as the shifting tide in music here since their first visit around 2005. “People are loosening up, there are more festivals popping out every year, new parties, new big lineups touring the States. I think in America, when we started coming over, it was mostly electronic acts from Europe coming over and playing. Now the US and Canada have their own artists and are really proud of that. There are loads of very good, big domestic acts, and everyone is really celebrating that which is really nice to see. People are going completely mental nowadays.”
On their last visit for the Hard Fest, he says, he noticed a change in American's style choices as well. “It looks better everywhere. It was funny to watch everyone be dressed up for proper rave stuff when we came over last time. We had that already over in Europe.” Now we have it here too. I love that, dude.
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