BALANCING POINT
Jun 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Justin Kleinfeld
With a few exceptions, post-'90s dance music has lacked any identity. Although top-flight DJs continued to thrive in clubs around the world, there was a sense that much of the excitement and relevance of the past was gone. Yes, people are always going to be hungry for a party, but in what new directions was dance music really going? For a time, dance music became extremely uncool — it was caught in a rut. Then, we looked overseas to places like Germany for a resurgent underground trend toward minimal house, techno and electro, names like Michael Mayer and Ellen Allien — and their respective labels Kompakt and Bpitch Control — have championed a form of dance music that appeals to the sophisticated fan with a real sense of history for the genre. The next step in dance music's resurgence falls to crossover rock/dance acts like Soulwax and MSTRKRFT and French labels including Ed Banger and Kitsune. Built with more of a stripped-down, raw vibe and a youthful exuberance, artists and labels of this ilk are producing dance music that's bringing the rock kids back into the dance fold. While the sound may be different than in the past, dance music is back with a vengeance, and it has a wider range of fans than ever before.
Just north of the two dance-music capitols of cool — Berlin and Paris — is the much talked about Hamburg-based duo Digitalism (Ismail “Isi” Tuefekci and Jens Moelle). Known for a series of EPs and several critically acclaimed remixes (Depeche Mode, Klaxons, The White Stripes, Daft Punk, The Cure, The Futureheads), Digitalism might very well be the poster boys for dance music in 2007. Licensed for the U.S. through France's Kitsune label, the act's debut album Idealism (Astralwerks, 2007) is a diverse stew composed of electro, house, punk and even hip-hop. Furthermore, despite being endorsed by the global hipster community, Tuefekci and Moelle have left all pretension and negative attitude out of their new album. Idealism is a blue-collar album in every sense, and aspirant producers will be motivated by what can be accomplished with just the basics, if not less.
HEY, MR. DJ
Tuefekci and Moelle met in the '90s while working at Hamburg's Underground Solution record store. Without any formal music-production training or DJ experience, their first introduction to DJing occurred when the store's owner, Ollie Grabowski, recruited the duo to play at a local party. As employees of a top record store, they had unparalleled local access to interesting records, and Digitalism's DJ sets soon became the toast of the town. The eclectic sets were made even more interesting by special edits of popular rock tracks that Digitalism would incorporate into their sets. Of early note was their edit of the White Stripes “Seven Nation Army,” which sold very well on vinyl and was played out by tastemaker DJs including Pete Tong and Errol Alkan. The remix also led to their first record deal with Kitsune and the subsequent EP releases.
Given the assorted nature of Digitalism's productions, it should be no surprise that the duo has a laundry list of references and influences. Moelle cites classic movie soundtracks (“because we think in terms of images, pictures and movie scenes,” he says), hip-hop producers such as Dr. Dre and RZA (“because they don't take everything too seriously, and a bit of silliness is quite important for us”) and UK emo, disco and '90s-era German trance as the main influences on Digitalism's sound. This diverse cocktail feeds straight into Idealism. For instance, while tracks “Magnets,” “Zdarlight” and “Jupiter Room” have a very dirty and bass-heavy dancefloor sound, the focus often moves into more of a dance-punk realm with hooky vocal tracks, including “I Want I Want” and “Pogo.” Changing things up even further, “Home Zone” introduces a little block-party hip-hop vibe, “Apollo-Gize” taps indie-tronica, and “Echoes” brings the classic Daft Punk nouveau-disco vibe. “Surprisingly, we really didn't have a master plan for this album,” Moelle says. “All we did was stop taking remix requests so that we could concentrate on working on the album, and then we locked ourselves in the bunker studio.”
THE BUNKER
While Idealism might sound like an involved album created with high-tech production methods, that couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, there may not be another act out there who does more with less than Digitalism. As with most current producers, the computer is at the center of Digitalism's production world. However, we aren't talking about a jacked-up Mac with all the fixings. Rather, they created Idealism largely by running Emagic Logic (a pre-Apple version) and basic plug-ins on a very old PC (OS Windows 2000). Moelle insists that what other producers would look at as a disadvantage is actually at the center of what makes Digitalism unique. “We don't have that many possibilities, and we can only use a few tracks in Logic — not hundreds. This is good for creativity because it makes you inventive, and you can make the most out of less. It makes you think of ways to get a certain result in a way that others would laugh at.”
Digitalism's setup is highlighted by the Korg Electribe ESX-1 sampler, drums, guitar and dueling Korg MS-20 synthesizers. “We have two MS-20s and use them because each piece has a totally unique sound,” Moelle says. “Also, the sound that comes out depends on how long it's been on standby and what the temperature was the night before. It's really like a living thing.”
Another key element to the Digitalism sound is their war bunker, which doubles as a recording studio. It's a real converted war bunker, void of the amenities that most music producers are accustomed to. However, in a strange way, this is Digitalism's own Abbey Road Studios. “We just landed there because we didn't have much money, and it was the only cheap space available for us,” Moelle says. “You don't have any windows, no heating and no oxygen — nothing. It's like another world because you are isolated from the outside, and time doesn't matter anymore. There aren't any seasons. I also think the bunker added some edginess, roughness and a lo-fi attitude to the recording. It's also very creative because it's like a cell where you slip in, and you are stuck inside some abstract world.”
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