It would have been roughly about a year ago that our lives were first touched by Digitalism’s magic dance floor dust, as DJs around the country were quick to pick up on their epic debut breakthrough ‘Zdarlight’. A super sized electro track that found it’s way to the top of most clubbers’ ‘defining track of 05’ list, it still shows no sign of disappearing anytime soon. For most DJs it’s a guaranteed climax to any set, they know that as soon as they throw it in the mix, it’s met by excited faces and knowing smiles around the room, before bringing the crowd to a state of complete mayhem as they lose themselves within the track’s buildup.
Now for the first time, this amazing German outfit are set to bring it to us live as part of the Modular Infinity and We Love Sounds tours. As the days continue to roll by at a steady pace and the wait for these unstoppable disco rockers to touch down on Australian soil gets ever shorter, I managed to catch up with the refreshingly excitable Jence Moelle. Finding him in a jovial mood this early on a Wednesday morning is a rare occurrence, especially if he’s not on tour. But the past few weeks have seen Jence and Isi (his Digitalism partner in crime) trying to subscribe to the early rise way of life, in order to extend their work days in the studio. “I’m still trying to get used to early mornings,” yawns Moelle, who is getting jittery on the other end of the line, while waiting for his flatmate to hand over some coffee.
Their eagerness to get to the studio early each morning is understandable, now that the boys have managed to fit in enough work around hectic touring schedules and remixing duties. They their highly anticipated debut album ‘Idealistic’ almost to the final stages of completion. “We’ve finally got about 25 tracks done now, so by the end of the week we should be able to start listening back and picking out the final 12 or 15 tracks to go on the album, then we have to work on sequencing,” explains Moelle excitedly of their recent progress.
The new album is going to take a further step into the hearts and minds of dance and rock fans around the globe, as they get to fully show off how far into each genre their taste and musical expertise actually extends. “We’ve both always had a very varied taste in music, we used to listen to a lot of hip hop, punk stuff and sounds tracks as well as dance music. We love melodies and harmonics and the way music can create atmospheres, we’ve always been influenced by acts and producers who weren’t afraid of trying new things and didn’t take themselves too seriously.”
So, with the varied ground covered in their new tracks, it’s little surprise that the duo have decided to bless the work with the same name as their debut single, after all the luck it brought them early on. “Idealistic is the perfect name for the album, I think it sums up the way we feel about the tracks and our idealistic sound that we’ve found,” he reveals. “When we first released the single, it was originally pressed on a limited vinyl run and we had no idea it was going to go as well as what it did,” says Moelle of their instant success. “After it did well for two months and sold out, we sent copies out to labels around the world.”
One of the lucky labels in question happened to be France’s Kitsune, who’d fallen instantly for the boys’ appeal to both the electronic scene and their strong rock influence. So excited were Kitsune about the track after dropping it into a club set one night, that they couldn’t contain their excitement any longer. They had Digitalism in their sights and they just had to let them know it, even if time differences between Paris and Hamburg didn’t always have the most polite clashes. “It was really funny, cause we were woken at about 4 or 5am to a text message from the label, telling us how excited they were about the track and asking if they could license it,” he laughs of the memory.
From that point on there’s been no looking back for the duo, as they’ve been almost constantly on the road ever since playing with fellow disco punks from around the world, including a notable string of shows with Belgium’s masters of mash-up, Soulwax. Any time off that the tireless duo have had on their hands in between has seen them busily holed up in the studio adding their reworking sheen to a drool-worthy list of artists, including Daft Punk, The Fututreheads, Tiga, Tom Vek, Cut Copy and of course their future tour mates come June, The Presets.
“I heard ‘Down Down Down’ on one of my friend’s myspace pages and got our manager to contact Modular to see if we could get a copy to play live and they asked us to remix it. So we were happy about that, cause we’re fans.” The result is a stomping dance floor dominator, charged full of rock chic, with big dirty drums and a driving bassline. It’s any wonder the two electro punk outfits have managed to work so well together and are keen to continue bludgeoning the clubbers of the world over the head together in the near future.
“We met them at some of the Soulwax shows a couple of months ago and had fun with them, so it’ll be good getting catch up with them again next month,” he adds mischievously. “We’re looking forward to this, coming to Australia is going to be a lot of fun, plus we’ve got a few dates off in between and that’s always great to end a tour on.”
Digitalism touch down in June, don’t miss out!
Thu Jun 1 – The Prince, Melbourne – Infinity Rave Tour w/ The Presets
Fri Jun 2 – ANU Refectory, Canberra – Infinity Rave Tour w/ The Presets
Sat Jun 3 – The Forum, Sydney – Infinity Rave Tour w/ The Presets
Thu Jun 8 – Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle – Infinity Rave Tour w/ The Presets
Fri Jun 9 – The Tivoli, Brisbane – Infinity Rave Tour w/ The Presets
Sat Jun 10 – Great Northern, Byron Bay – Infinity Rave Tour w/ The Presets
Sun Jun 11 – Hordern Pavilion, Sydney – We Love Sounds
