There must have been something in the air in 2006. For some seemingly magical reason, everything that came out that year, and I’m talking even the should-have-been-crappy bedroom produced remixes, was magical, and that includes everything from MSTRKRFT’s The Looks to Myths of the Near Future, or hey, even Boards of Canada’s Trans-Canada Highway. Hell, especially Trans Canada Highway. (Side note: what on earth happened to Boards of Canada / someone please assure me that they are, indeed, going to release a new album soon) To be direct, 2006 Was a great year for music, at at the time, it felt like it was going to last forever. Unfortunately, it didn’t. I suppose what HE giveth, HE eventually take away.
Kind of reminds me of that terribly awesome movie The Pick of Destiny where Jack Black discovers the secret pick that gives whoever uses it the musical talent of a God. Perhaps there was some equivalently holy laptop circulating among electronic musicians in 2007? (Though to be realistic, if anything were going to circulate among this crowd, it’d probably be a cracked copy of Reason.) Whatever it was, it must have disappeared shortly after, because of all albums following up to 2006-7 debuts, only a handfull have even been passable. Calvin Harris pulled it off, as did Simian Mobile Disco (albeit with only half the luster of Attack Decay Sustain Release), but the rest of those guys made us wait three years for next to nothing. Fist of God was hyped up to nothing. Boys Noize’s Power was anything but. And Justice’s followup, well…. let’s just say it may not even exist.
Despite the devastating results of so many of these albums, one thing helped me hold it together all this time: Digitalism had yet to make a move. Their 2007 “Idealism” was a god among records, and since they took longer than anyone to make their move, I found myself quietly pleading that theirs would be the record that redeemed them all; the one that helped us all find the value in wading through crap for so many years. Disappointed again.
Though it retains the sound of Idealism, Digitalism’s Blitz EP, is a tired, half assed effort at an epic return. Both of the EP’s original tracks start out with massive arpeggios that seem to set the stage for something more, but the something more never comes. It’s almost like the guys started these two tracks back when they were writing Idealism, and came back with only half a heart to finish them for this release. The intro’s just get drawn out for three minutes, right to the end, without so much as a breakdown or variation of any kind. Oh, and Jense’s signature vocals? They’re gone.
Have Digitalism moved on to other things? Will there ever be a followup to Idealism? Who knows.
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Digitalism – Blitz
