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 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.Digi-beater. While a certain magazine tries lighting a fire under the damp squib of new rave, bands that make a mockery of the insipid likes of Klaxons and Shitdisco are springing up all over the place. To the obvious stars like Simian Mobile Disco and Justice you can now add the name Digitalism, a duo whose music strikes with all the energy of the acid house explosion, but with the love of random, discordant noise you’d find in experimental rock. Surprisingly, despite their obvious debt to Daft Punk, being signed to the Parisian Kitsune label and calling their breakthrough single Zdarlight (which we suspect is a cheeky reference to French dance don, Philippe Zdar), Digitalism are from Germany. “Most promoters used to start talking to us in French,” admits Jens Moelle, one half of the duo alongside Ismail Tuefekci. “But we did used to buy a lot of Crydamoure (Daft Punk’s label) back in the day. We were really into records that didn’t take themselves too seriously and had some kind of punk attitude inside. These records definitely had it, even though it wasn’t punk music.” Their mutual interest in noise for dance’s sake was sparked when they first met in the Hamburg record shop where they both worked. Bored beyond tears by the influx of rigid, formulaic house and techno records every week they resolved to look beyond their obvious and immediate influences of 70s funk and disco, as well as electronica. So is their kitchen sink approach a Hamburg reaction to the home of minimal techno, just down the Autobahn in Berlin? “I don’t know if that’s a Hamburg reaction to Berlin, more of a Digitalism reaction,” Jens laughs. “In Hamburg you’re free to do anything you like. When you go to Berlin I can predict you’ll turn into a minimal artist very soon.”  Digitalism’s open minds are being reciprocated by European crowds, where they’re already finding themselves in demand at some of the most eclectic festivals. Crowds more accustomed to alternative rock can hang on Jens’ Robert Smith-ish vocals (their Idealism debut also includes a cover of The Cure’s Fire In Cairo, a hangover from Digitalism’s earliest days making post-punk re-edits) and records like Pogo have already become fixtures of the more adventurous indie clubs. This isn’t rock music for dance clubs; it’s dance music you can rock to.
Steve Yates
Digitalism – Idealism, released 11 June 07 on Virgin.
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