Digitalism on North America's Preoccuption With Dubstep

Posted on Jan 23rd 2012 4:00PM by Anupa Mistry
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Kitsuné Music

Jens Moelle and Ismail "Isi" Tüfekçi, of the Hamburg-born electro house duo Digitalism, were raised on Eurodance and the cultural movement that is Berlin's electronic dance Love Parade, so North America's current obsession with all-things-electronic, particularly dubstep, is a little passé to them.

"Can we skip dubstep?" Isi, faux-tired of talking to North Americans about music they don't even make, asks Spinner. He laughs, and adds, "They are saying it's the new hip-hop."

Moelle intervenes, because even though Digitalism -- who released their second studio album 'I Love You, Dude' in June -- doesn't really do dubstep, it's clearly still a contentious, fun thing for the two longtime DJs to talk about.

"Yeah, apparently the guys from Korn say dubstep is the new metal because they did an album with Skrillex," he says, before elaborating on how the tides have turned for global electronic music culture in general.

"It's weird. 10 years ago, dance music was not really accepted in North America on that level. Even when we first started coming to North America in 2007, there were still loads of dance and electronic artists imported from Europe to play here. But now North America exports guys like Skrillex and Diplo and Steve Aoki into the world. It's the other way around."

Isi thinks the current dubstep explosion is, in particular, a reaction to the David Guetta-ization of pop music. "The successes came in a huge way for that guy when he began producing for pop stars like the Black Eyed Peas, even though he was well-known in Europe before," he says. "So that's why, in America, it seems like dance music blew up so fast and why everyone, of course, got so tired of it and moved on to something else."

What does this mean for European artists like Digitalism? "Well, we're in between because we don't do purely electronic stuff so, maybe, it makes it harder to classify what we do," says Isi.

Moving beyond laptop production, Digitalism incorporate KORG synthesizers and live vocals over top of their work, making it more conducive to a concert hall than to a rave. "The songs aren't really made for a massive dance crowd in the first plays," Moelle explains. "When we made this second album, we worked during the day a lot more than at night. So our first record, 'Idealism,' ended up being this dark very late-night-sounding stuff. And the new one through the melodies and lyrics, and just the time spent on mixing and production, is a lot sunnier. It's brighter and more about relationships and life."

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