DIGITALISM BIOG / I Love You, Dude

Some bands are dance and some are indie, some are pop and some are punk, but very few cover all bases with equal aptitude and pizzazz. Digitalism certainly do. With the exception of the ballistic ‘Blitz EP’ last year, they’ve been keeping a low profile, but now hurtle back to the fray with a new album, ‘I Love You, Dude’, ready to kick over statues and realign expectations.
First off, though, where did that title come from?
“We didn’t think too much about it, it’s just a very human natural thing to say,” laughs Jens Moelle, the lean blond half of Digitalism. In truth, for a long time they intended to call the album ‘Tourism’, following in the footsteps of their 2007 debut ‘Idealism’, but blissing out in the Australian sun on tour at Christmas they threw that out in favour of a phrase that emanates straightforward euphoria and peak-time rave bonding.

“The first album has an outer space style,” muses Jens, “but this one arrives down on earth, it has more songs, more humanity, more depth.”
Anyone worried that they’ve changed direction to become whiney singer-songwriters needn’t fear, however, for Digitalism rock as hard as they ever did – if not harder.
The duo came together when Jens, working afternoons in Hamburg’s Underground Solution record shop, became mates with Ismail ‘Isi’ Tufekci, who worked at a vinyl distributor. Isi and Jens bonded and became a DJ tag team. They were soon using early CD-writers to burn their own edits. In jokey tribute to Bob Sinclar’s Africanism All Stars project and to their own love of electronic dance music, they scribbled the word ‘Digitalism’ on the CDs to identify them for playing out. A band was born, with Isi the dark-haired, occasionally bearded co-producer contrasting visually with Jens who’s equally happy as vocal frontman. Their 2005 tune ‘Zdarlight’ put them on the radar of a new network of young DJs across the globe pushing club culture in a heady rock’n’roll direction.
“The Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, Underworld, great though that music was, it was pretty faceless,” explains Jens, “whereas we were about leather jackets, post-Strokes music. It definitely changed things.”
Digitalism were leaders in a vanguard of producers who broke through in the mid-Noughties, supported by DJs such as Erol Alkan and labels such as Parisian hipster magnet Kitsune, to whom they were signed. Many, in fact thought they were French due to the Kitsune connection and the steroid Daft Punk flavours in their music. Suddenly here was an electronic live act that was pure rock’n’roll energy rather than just men prodding laptops.
They recall early shows in Paris where they really didn’t know what they were doing, playing scuzzy Parisian nightclubs, supported by the Colette Dance Class doing dancercise routines. “We didn’t have any money to be hi-fi so we had to be lo-fi,” laughs Jens, “We were young and trying to rebel.”
Soon they’d honed a live show that became hugely in demand and took them all over the world, with firing tunes such as ‘Jupiter Room’ and ‘Pogo’ backing up the hype alongside remixes for Depeche Mode, Daft Punk , The Klaxons and many more. They toured the ‘Idealism’ album for a couple of years and then went to ground, cutting back to a few DJ dates a month so they could concentrate on crafting ‘I Love You, Dude’ in their Hamburg bunker studio. The first taster last year, the ‘Blitz EP’ showcased a band on fine form, a Kitsune dance-off that rocked floors when they dropped it in clubs from Japan to Jakarta. It was, however, only the tip of the iceberg for all ten tracks on ‘I Love You, Dude’ boast their own vibrant identities.
Digitalism have always dragged indie kids to their electronic party and now they have yet more ammunition. ‘Circles’, with its Who-ish keyboard and apparently existential lyrics, sets a new bar for them. The song’s plot, however, is even more bizarre then you might suspect…
“We wanted to write about cassette tapes we recorded in the early ‘90s,” says Jens, “You could always rewind them then play them again. We developed this idea that maybe if you did something bad back then you could rewind life, ending up in a loop that drives you mad.”
Like all energized rockin’ music there’s a heavy seam of madness in Digitalism’s sound. The track ‘Reeperbahn’, named after their native city’s notorious red light district, is a festival-friendly breakbeat monster that will give The Prodigy a run for their money.
“It’s in your face,” agrees Jens, “There’s fighting in the breakdown, slaughter, horror, splatter, brilliant for head-banging but also pretty dangerous. ‘Reeper’ is German for ‘ripper’ so it’s a graveyard vibe.”
It’s not all heavy duty, though, ‘2 Hearts’ is a curveball of a pop song that could hold its own against Elbow and the like, albeit with bigger, badder drums, and ‘Just Gazin’’ is most unexpected, a delicious combo of local Hamburg singer Cathe and luscious computer-programmed acoustic guitar, all inspired by Britt Ekland’s spooky singing in the cult horror classic ‘The Wicker Man’. Expect to hear a lot more of that when it’s borrowed for TV ads and montage sequences.
Elsewhere are tracks fine-tuned to lethal dancefloor weaponry through use in their DJ sets. ‘Antibiotics’ is a techno explosion reminiscent of the KLF, with a looped sample exclaiming, “You will be disqualified”, while ‘Miami Showdown’ is equally epic, an acid-fest they hope will conjure visions of, “‘Miami Vice’, a scene at the harbour with speedboats, Mafiosi with moustaches, aviators and black suits, like the Beasties ‘Sabotage’ video”.
There are more gems, including the cracking new wave electro-pop song devoted to and named after ‘Forrest Gump’ co-written - via email - with Julian Casablancas after an introduction from a mutual friend. Like the Tom Hanks character who ran and ran and ran, it’s about “constantly keeping on moving otherwise you’ll be in some sort of psychic peril.”
Crowds will constantly keep moving when they hear ‘I Love You, Dude’, although it will work equally well elsewhere. Jens even has a vote of confidence from an unexpected quarter.
“My dad’s parents were opera singers, he doesn’t go to clubs or concerts and he doesn’t like a lot of things,” he says, “I sent him the new stuff and he texted me, ‘I think this is going to be a hit.’ So it’s been approved.”
Approved by Mr Moelle Senior and soon to be approved by rockers and ravers across the globe.