We here at Resonator have been Digitalism fans for a long time now, at least ever since the boys turned us on to the green lights of Tom Vek with their brilliant remix that made a strange, neo-David Byrne vocal the break out stomper of 2005. Digitalism has been tearing up other people’s work with edgy production work that’s entirely electronic but more likely to inspire moshing than dancing around one’s handbag (hence their recent Mixmag disc, “Rock the Rave”).

One of my favorite of their remixes is for the fairly mellow Cut Copy. They took “Going Nowhere” and added a tension building squiggle and that raises the track from polite cocktail party fare to full on dance floor mayhem. On record, it’s actually Digitalism’s work that better represents the live energy of Cut Copy than the band themselves.

Going Nowhere (Digitalism Remix) — Cut Copy

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Our boys Simian Mobile Disco heavily featured the charmingly named Martian Assault edit of Digitalism’s “Jupiter Room” both live and on their Club NME mix. The original, featured on their new album Idealism, is still my favorite, deserving more than a little bit of a comparison to Daft Punk’s harder cuts off of Homework, especially “Burning” and “Da Funk.”

Jupiter Room — Digitalism

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The Daft punk similarities don’t end there– these guys are definitely in line for the Robots’ crowns (or helmets?) when they retire. “Apollo-Gize” borrows the baroque by way of the year 3000 synth lines from Discovery while managing to brilliantly walk the line between homage and rip-off.

Apollo-Gize — Digitalism

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That’s not to say that Idealism is all French flavored. I hate to court blasphemy, but Digitalism succeeds in delivering a consistently enjoyable record from start to finish, something the Daft ones have never actually done (admit it, you’ve skipped more tracks on their releases than you’ve actually let play through). Their rock influence means that just before they noodle off into quirky and unlistenable, they reign themselves in with a little guitar (as on “I Want I Want”) or some good old fashioned post punk. The best cut on the record, “Digitalism in Cairo,” is a pop and lock masterpiece that cuts, chops, slices, and dices the Cure’s “Fire in Cairo” over a bottom heavy crunch of bass line that, on a good sound system, is guaranteed to make a dance floor shudder.

I Want I Want — Digitalism

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Digitalism in Cairo — Digitalism

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Idealism is available now on Astralwerks from In Sound.