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Mind your language

Digitalism rep the French sound—the German way

by RAF KATIGBAK

The first thing you might want to know about electro-tech act Digitalism, in town to play the Neon Loves Paris New Year’s Eve party, is that their French isn’t that good. “Actually, we are from Hamburg,” laughs 23-year-old Jens Moelle who, along with 26-year-old Ismail Tuefekci, makes up the deutsche digital disco duo. “Everyone thinks we’re from France, but we don’t even speak French”

The confusion is understandable. After all, little is known about the pair who, on the strength of their shit-hot white label “Idealistic,” released early last year, signed on to French label du jour Kitsuné and garnered a flood of remix requests from the likes of Daft Punk, Cut Copy and Tom Vek.

But Moelle takes the association with French producers in stride. In fact, for him, it’s a compliment. “We have lots of support from French bands like Justice and [head of Kitsuné and manager of Daft Punk’s label Roulé] Gildas Loaec. Maybe our sound is even a bit French.”

While “French sound” means different things to different people, for Moelle it translates to “huge basslines, and delivering tracks where you don’t care about what people think about it afterwards. It’s an attitude. We have a really rough sound and we don’t care much about if it sounds hi-fi the way it’s produced.”

Their latest single “Zdarlight” is a perfect example of their middle-finger-flying DIY ethos—dirty, pogo-ing electro beats and meaty basslines collide with jagged pop guitar loops and thumping kick drums, producing a strangely elated, gritty synth pop sound that’s got Paris written all over it. No wonder it’s pricked the ears of taste making disc jockeys Soulwax, Tiga, Tiefschwarz, the Glimmers and Erol Alkan.

With gigs all over the map, things are moving fast for the self-professed studio junkies, who met a little over two years ago at a record store and bonded immediately over a shared interest in bands like Nirvana, U2 and Depeche Mode, but it wasn’t always that way. “When we started, we were playing a lot in Hamburg, but people didn’t really notice us, so we had lots of stress with organizers of parties, always making sure they put the right name on flyers. They didn’t really care. Now they’re paying more attention, but we didn’t care when they didn’t know us. They’ll get to see us now.”

Indeed, Hamburg and the rest of the world will surely be seeing and hearing more from Digitalism, especially with a new single slated for release in February and an already eagerly awaited full-length album due out in the spring. “For the album, we don’t want to make it just a collection of tracks. When we release it, it will be everything you need to know about the word ‘digitalism’ in one CD and one booklet,” Moelle says slyly. “There’s some work left there, but there’s even more potential.”

With Alex Gopher, Jordan Dare, Sean Kosa and Emmanuelle & friends at SAT on Saturday, Dec. 31, 9 p.m., $35