Digitalism – I Love You, Dude (Album Review).
Digitalism don’t really need an introduction, but I’ll do one anyway, because it’s polite and stuff. It’s two guys from Hamburg, Germany who formed in 2004 and their names are Jens “Jence” Moelle and İsmail “Isi” Tüfekçi. Originally part of the whole Kitsune movement way-back-when they were probably one of the first acts of that whole “electro-era” to become very come big. All the cool dudes played their remixes, they played massive festivals and their debut album contained heavyweight tracks such as Zdarlight, Jupiter Room and Pogo. It’s been four years since that debut, has the time been well spent?
もうDigitalismの説明は必要ないと思うけど、とりあえず礼儀と言う事で、おさらいも兼ねてご紹介します。ドイツはハンブルグのJens “Jence” Moelleとİsmail “Isi” Tüfekçiによる2人組で結成は2004年。Kitsuneブームの先駆者的な存在でエレクトロシーンでも大注目を浴びていた2人です。彼らのリミックスはかなり色んな人にプレイされ、フェス等にも沢山出て、デビューアルバムにはZdarlight, Jupiter Room, Pogo等の人気トラックも収録されていました。それから4年…彼らはこの4年間で更に成長したのでしょうか?
Uh… in a word. No.
そうでもなさそうです…
The album starts off on a bit of iffy-note, “Stratosphere” the b-side to last years Blitz EP. It’s not like it’s awful, it’s just it’s not very interesting. It’s a b-side. Totally forgiveable as an album intro though, I guess….
アルバムのスタートトラック、”Stratosphere”はちょっとぼんやりしていて、コチラ去年リリースされたBlitz EPのBサイドでもありました。ヒドイ!とは言いませんが、なんだか個性がないというか、Bサイドらしいトラックで、アルバムのイントロだからと言われたら納得なんですが。
The next track is the first “proper” single, “2 Hearts”. How much you enjoy this song is about how much you can tolerate Jens’ vocals. I personally think they are quite acceptable on this and melody and hook carry it through. It’s a fun indie-pop song, very much in the vain of “Pogo”. If you missed it and the bizzare video I posted a few hours ago, here it is again.
お次はシングルトラック“2 Hearts。これはあなたがどれだけJensのボーカルに寛容であるかによってどれくらい楽しめるかが決まると思います。個人的にはほとんど問題ないんですが。楽しいインディーポップソングで、”Pogo”と同じ線上にあるような感じ。先ほどポストしたビデオを見逃した人はコチラでチェック。
Sadly, the next track “Circles” is the unacceptable and annoying side of the Jens vocal. He’s yelping about something and a boring electro beat is bouncing around in the background. Irony is one of the more hearable lyrics is “Play it again and again”. Which you won’t. Seriously. No need.
そして次の”Circles”はJensのボーカルがボーダーラインから出てしまってる感じ。彼がなんだかんだ言っていて、更にビートもおもしろい感じもなく…ようやく聞こえてくる歌詞は“Play it again and again”ですが、まぁこのトラックを繰り返し聞く事はあまりないでしょう。
All is forgiven though. Because the next track is “Blitz” and it’s quite good. So yeah! We’ll forgive that piece of shit we’ve just heard guys! 
ただ、次のトラックが”Blitz”なので許してあげましょう。これを聞けば気持ちもクリーンに。
The following tracks are “Forrest Gump”, a passable vocal track. “Reeperbahn” which is such uber-meh nonsense I can’t even be bothered to say much about it and “Antibiotics” a KLF meets the soundtrack of videogame Wipeout and all in all is bit of disaster.
そして次の“Forrest Gump”なんですが、まぁまぁってな感じ。”Reeperbahn”は意味がよく解らないので深く触れないでいこうと思います。そして”Antibiotics”はKLF meets ゲームのサントラってな感じで、出来は残念な感じ。
Then a super-lol moment happens.
そしてこれ・・・
WHAT THE HELL IS THIS STUPIDITY?!
ってか、これは何?!
OK. Maybe that was harsh, but that’s some sub-Air unoriginality right there!
And it’s just all the more frustrating because “Miami Showdown” is actually a pretty big return to form…. it’s awesome.
厳しいと思われるかもしれませんが、なんだかAirを真似た様な感じがプンプンします。でも”Miami Showdown”はなかなか素敵なのでちょっと混乱しちゃいます。
Digitalism – Miami Showdown by RTribouillier
There is another track, an “encore” but it wasn’t needed because I’ve heard Idealism.
そして最後に“encore”というトラックがありますが、Idealismを聞いた事があるので特に必要ないと思います。
Final Score?!?!?!
3/10 – Buy Miami Showdown.
Hate you, dude.
It’s out June 5th if you are a masochist.
ファイナルスコア?!?!?!
3/10 – Miami Showdownを買いましょう。
朝鮮したい方は6月5日がリリースですよ。
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Naww… I loved Idealism (and all the remixes) so much I want to believe this isn’t so bad
Or if you don’t want to buy Miami Showdown… I believe they are currently giving it away on their website.
For once we fucking agree
(TMS Review that is)
Wow, just when I thought nothing could be worse than SebastiAn’s album, haha.
TMS, what happened to our blog friendship? Anywho, if you’d like, add WDPK to your blogroll. That would brighten up my day.
wdpk837fm.com
I really like:
Blitz, 2 Hearts, Miami Showdown & Forrest Gump, but I agree with you the rest it a bit gash. Still I’d give it 5/10 for those songs.
Thought you might be interested… I just did a video interview with Digitalism about their new album. Let me know what you think of it… It’s pretty indepth http://youtu.be/jA81fU1E5_8
its weird.. i pretty like that album… quite a masterpiece … the “just gazin” track remembers me of some royksopp mild with air track.. which is a mello nicey tune. The blitz track is just awesome. I find you guys very rude on digitalism last album, especially when i see you guys posting some sketchy gayishh tunes often (no offence to TMS neither homo ppl).
On an other note, you should post more of Cécile remix in here.
Vivement l’frenchy taste.. Vivement l’nuDisco
and good job TMS
Ax
I havn’t had a chance to listen to the whole album yet, but i don’t get the harsh critic on the ‘Reeperbahn’ track. It’s the only track besides the 2 singles I’v listened to so far, and ohhhh god !! That track is banging, it catches the roughtess of the Reeerban area. And i’m sure if would do wonders at any party/club !
Really really bad compared to their first album. I’ll pass on this one. They lost it
Sometimes these big act reviews seem more political then analytical. I cant help but feel if Digitalism or Sebastian would have dropped their albums back during 06-08 all the people hating them would have been praising them but now that theyre big and practically buried in hype they arnt hip so you are all shitting on them. Im not gonna give anybody some line about how I think those releases are fantastic or what I expected but I do call bullshit on the general sense that they dropped the ball. I keep reading these blogs where crappy producers from the 3rd world are getting the thumbs up because they figured out how to use Abelton, but Digitalism gets no love? Really?
ahahah word Aric !!! there’s a french sentence that says : Tout les gouts sont dans la nature. which means everyone has his own taste.. or some like that.. but yeah haters can be “BORING !!!” lets say we both liked that last digitalism album and f*ck everyone else
Going to my best to address some of these comments…
I wanted this album to be good. I didnt like that it wasn’t good and I was terrified when after I had typed the review out it was very negative. I actually dont take pleasure it giving something a massive kicking..
Calling me a hipster is a bit laughable. This blog is probably the least hipster/cool blog in the “scene” (such a dumb word, Hahaha). Also, if I compare Digitalism to the “third world producers” I do post, that’s not fair, they are young kids who give out their work for free and not guys who expect you to pay £50 to see them live and £12 to buy their album. So, it’s judged differently. I personally believe that music blogs get it wrong when THEY DO compare the work of a kid in his bedroom against some guys with a studio, major label money and ample time to create an album.
Dancing is not homo.
Idealism is still great.
I Love You, Dude is not great.
Truth up toomanysebastians. So disappointing. It also feels like salt in the wound that they take so long to release the sophomore and have the nerve to make it only 11 tracks and having two of which already pre-released songs.
When I was listening to this album I thought somebody was playing a prank on me, swapping out half of the Digitalism tracks on it for some awful generic electro act that shirtless meatheads sweat to at festivals while they king hit each other in the back of the head.
Also, what the hell is up with the album artwork. I’d make a much better one for half the price they paid the hack in charge of this one.
Idealism was more enjoyable than even † back in the day, to release this album feels like a direct insult to me as a fan.
“Sometimes these big act reviews seem more political then analytical.” What a useless and redundant distinction!
My review..
German electro duo Digitalism exploded on to the scene back in 2007 with their release Idealism. The album was praised for creating a sound that could only best be described as indie-electro or as one reviewer at the time captured it, ‘The Stokes taught rockers how to dance, just as Digitalism got ravers to rock’.
Digitalism follow up their 2007 release with the much anticipated I Love You, Dude out 20 June 2011. When the name and artwork for the album were leak months ago, there many asking themselves the question, have Digitalism pulled off the biggest anti-leak ever or was this the beginning of a very painful public audition to be Germany’s representative at Eurovision 2012? After the release it is evident that the first proposition is not correct, but the jury is very much still out on the second.
It seems ILYD is the product of the German duo becoming victims of their own success. In the reviews that followed Idealism saying that the band had defined a genre, ILYD tries to recreate that sound – totally without the same experience. Tracks such as 2 Hearts, Circles and Forrest Gump aim to the indie-electro genre, are catchy and worth a second listen; but they will never be played or remembered in the same vein as the single Pogo, and are even less likely to get a playcount in double figures.
Other tracks such as Blitz, Encore and Stratosphere would have been well placed on Idealism, recreating the journey into a intergalactic mass of sound that only feels appropriately to listen at night.
However, the mess that makes up the remainder of the album beggars belief, and leaves you with an uneasy sensation that maybe you got Digitalism worked out wrong from the beginning. Reeperbahn and Miami Showdown are a heavy mix of guitar, bass and synths that do more to create confusion rather than a genuine sound. Baselines are more reminiscent of heavy metal outfit, Rage Against the Machine, rather than something you would listen to in a club setting. The tracks offend the flow of the album greatly and may have been better, not even as a b-side, but left out altogether. Similarly Antibotics seems the work of a bedroom DJ (rather than international headliners) who is testing out Ableton for the first time and realising just how easy it is to create the pitch for an acid riff.
Whether or not Digitalism have spent the last 4 years becoming infatuated by reviews of their album, is uncertain; though an appearance by Stokes singer Julian Casablanca on the track Forrest Gump is more than coincidental. The attraction behind these musical geniuses getting together is obvious but the result sadly lacking. Forrest Gump with its scant, repetitive and drown-out singing is a complete misuse of the talent Julian Casablanca and produces a pseudo-pop-rock sound that would not be out of place on a Rouge Traders album… it packs no punch, not even a bitch slap.
Sadly those hoping for “Idealism (Part 2)” or even an album that makes an attempt to create a genuinely different experience – will be let down. ILYD is a great excuse to purchase albums by song only
a little harsh, some of the emphasis’ (yelpings) thrown into his lyrics were a too much. but just gazin is butterz and antibodics is probably one of the greatest acid house sounding tracks, not to mention how awesome it was for digitalism to make a song like that. “you will be disqualified”
I think you were expecting Idealism 2.0 and got your hopes up too much. Why all the hate, can you make electronic songs this well too? I highly doubt it.
The “can you make blah blah blah” argument is perhaps the worst argument of all time. The whole reason this album blows is because it is Idealism 2.0.
After listening to it, I only really enjoyed Stratosphere, Blitz and Forrest Gump. The rest felt far too tame and passive, and while it may be still Digitalism, I am afraid I simply dislike where they took themselves after Idealism and the Moshi Moshi EP.
That said, I’m glad I’m not the only one who disliked some of the other tracks. I was for a time wondering if it was just me.
well said. fuckin a. blitz was pretty good, miami showdown kinda rocks (in a 3am electro-acid kinda way), the rest is fucking rubbish. and whoever said sebastians album sucks is full of shit, that album rocks major.
i think TMS is right. half-hearted indie tracks (better listen to phoenix), acid-nonsense (better listen to boys noize), space-synth (better listen to the idealism) and yes, just gazin´(better listen to…you name it). why should anyone hate on digitalism? they seem nice people who did a fantastic first record. this disappointment comes from the bottom of our hearts
If you don’t like Circles, you can’t like anything on Idealism. Circles is by far less obnoxious than Pogo, Apollo-gize, or any of those. It’s a great song. Just saying.
I am a little disappointed with this album I have to admit. Its not dreadful, but you have seen what have happened to The Chemies with their new and newer albums, which was hoped to be amazing……. they even coincided with a mediocre film Hannah with a mediocre album, to pass off to fans. I think they have become too commercial for their fan base. I know digitalism would not be as big but if they continue in this path of ‘modern music’ I think it will be a bad move……. bring back the old!!!!!