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Digitalism

From: Belgium
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Biography

Introduction

Digitalism is a German dance punk duo founded in 2004 in Hamburg and consisting of Jens "Jence" Moelle and ?smail "Isi" Tüfekçi. They are signed to French label Kitsuné Music, and have released four singles to date: "Idealistic", "Zdarlight", "Jupiter Room", and "Pogo". Jens likens Digitalism's songs to simple chapters in a complex novel about social interaction and attraction, with distorted bass lines and thumping rhythms comprising the punctuation.

Digitalism has remixed tracks for The Presets, Tom Vek, The Futureheads, Daft Punk, Tiga, Klaxons, White Stripes, Monk, Depeche Mode, Cut Copy and many others, including a re-edit of "Fire in Cairo" by The Cure (entitled "Digitalism in Cairo"). Their tracks and remixes are played by DJs such as Erol Alkan, Soulwax, Boys Noize and Justice.

Digitalism have made appearances at festivals such as Coachella, South by Southwest, and Ultra Music Festival as well as various clubs worldwide.

Jens Moelle has two solo releases on Kitsuné Music; "I Ragazzi Del 1982" as Palermo Disko Machine and Wired as Jence.

Band history

Moelle and Tüfekçi met at a record store in Hamburg and became friends. Later, the store's owner asked them to DJ a party, and they then began mixing and recording. Moelle said they record in a World War II bunker they own in Hamburg.

Digitalism's debut album, Idealism, was released 9 May 2007 as Digitalism (?????? Dejitaru Shugi?) on Toshiba EMI Records in Japan, on 21 May 2007 on Kitsuné Music in France, on Astralwerks in North America and etcetc/Virgin Music in Australia and New Zealand. The album includes re-edits of the previously released singles "Jupiter Room", "Zdarlight" as well as their "Digitalism in Cairo" original re-edit of a track by The Cure.

The Pogo EP was released as a single in support of the LP in May, with two alternate versions of the track.

Influences

They claim Daft Punk and movie soundtracks as influences. It's often said that they named the song "Zdarlight" after Philippe Zdar from Cassius. Zdarlight, however is not an homage to Philippe Zdar, only a less conventional spelling of the word "starlight".

Live act

They perform live using a Macbook Pro laptop as the heart of the act, along with a Behringer BCR2000 and BCF2000 MIDI controller, a KORG microKORG, a KORG KP3, a Roland MC-202, a set of Roland V-Drums, along with some other synthesizers (such as the KORG MS-20), and various drum machines (such as the KORG Electribe ESX-1 and EMX-1).[citation needed] Moelle performs live vocals over the top.

Discography

Releases

Year Title Format Label
2004 "Idealistic" 12-inch single White label
2005 "Idealistic" 12-inch single Kitsuné Music
2005 "Zdarlight" 12-inch single Kitsuné Music
2006 "Zdarlight" (Edition Moonlight / Discodrome) 12-inch single Kitsuné Music
2006 "Jupiter Room" 12-inch single, CD single Kitsuné Music
2007 "Terrorlight" 12-inch single Kitsuné Music
2007 Idealism Vinyl, Compact disc, digital download, Cassette Tape Astralwerks
2008 The Moshi Moshi Ep (Japan Only) LP/CD EMI Japan Records
2008 Kitsuné Tabloid: Mixed by Digitalism CD Kitsuné Music

Remixes

All remixes named Digitalism Remix, unless otherwise specified.

In popular culture

The single "Pogo" is featured in the official soundtracks of Electronic Arts popular video games Need for Speed: ProStreet and FIFA 08. It was also featured as the soundtrack for a Canadian Virgin Mobile advertisement, both in French and English, during December 2007. For a while it was also used on Sky Sports live football coverage as the pre-halftime-break highlight clip backing music.

The track "Idealistic" is used in the first trailer for Rockstar Games' title Midnight Club: Los Angeles. An uncredited remix of "Zdarlight" was also used in the trailer for Nadeo's TrackMania Nations Forever released in early 2008.

The Flemish tv station "Canvas" used a slightly edited version of the track "Magnets" in their introduction trailer "The New Canvas". The trailer was intended to introduce the radical new look of "Canvas". This VRT tv station featured a more serious style in the past.

The British television programme Masterchef featured various Digitalism songs in the semi finals.

References

Biography from Wikipedia