The Pale Young Gentlemen’s most comely feature is Mike Reisenauer’s voice. The man’s got the voice of a European, despite being from Wisconsin. It’s that thick, mellifluous sort of thing that’s got some sort of (affected, I suppose) accent that’s just not quite placeable. Reisenauer’s voice perfectly fits the cabaret aura that the other members kick up. The Gentlemen (actually, four gentlemen, and one girl who obviously didn’t care about the band’s name) know exactly what they’re doing, and it’s a little surprising that they haven’t exploded yet, considering indie fans’ current preferences for strings, theatricality, over the top-ness, and big, quivering, powerful voices.

This band never missteps. Listen up: They’ll be big soon.

Pale Young Gentlemen - Single Days

The #1 Album of the Year: Digitalism - Idealism

“Digitalism is a 2-person duo making very French-sounding funky electo house in Germany. Their realease “Idealism” is going to be pretty darn close if not #1 on my top albums of the year for 2007. Picking one track was hard but here’s ‘Idealistic’, listen to it and try not to dance. Seriously. It’s nice to see somebody besides Thomas Bangalter revitalizing house music nowadays.” - I posted this, and their title track Idealism, back in November, and I haven’t changed my mind..

For a production team like Digitalism, it must have been tempting to approach their full-length debut without much thought. They’ve got the tracks—at least three monster club singles already, and some otherworldly remix work—as well as the DJ skills, so just cobble it together, slap on a cover, sit back, drink a soda and laugh. Instead, Idealism is cleverly structured around—neverfor—such established cuts as “Zdarlight,” “Jupiter Room” and the Cure rework “Digitalism in Cairo,” re-contextualizing them as pillars supporting this record’s 53 minutes. In full, Idealism plays like an exhilarating journey through space with eerie 2001 vibes punctuating the grinding robot rockisms. Vocaldriven tracks stagger bassthrobbed acid burns to facilitate a feeling of physical progression— the same location never visited twice—and interludish “departures” and “approaches” fill uneven mood jumps. Not quite a DJ mix, though the cues are certainly present, Idealism reaches a platform higher by being better as a whole than as its pieces. Idealism packs in more memorable riffs and tunes than the recent Bloc Party and Futureheads albums put together.

The three previously released singles that are all fine examples of state-of-the-art dance music but they are far from the whole show: Virtually every track on the CD holds something of interest be it cool electronic effects smartly juxtaposed meters and rhythms, immense danceability, driving bottom end or some combination of all of these. Moelle and Tuefecki maintain close control over all of this so that beats, effects and rhythmic changes are pinpoint sharp and delivered for maximum effect. Fifteen seconds into the brief “Jupiter Approach” a low bass note is accompanied by a powerful subsonic depth charge. The bass note decays normally but the subsonic continues unabated for 45 seconds. This isn’t some weak “do you feel something?” effect; if you have the subwoofers to produce the frequency and the room correction to insure that the sound wave doesn’t become muddied and smeared at the listening position, it feels like your torso has been turned into the world’s largest vibrator. It’s amazing.

The word meteoric is rarely used to describe the emergence of an electro act, but with publications finding plenty of column space for them, Digitalism seem to have propelled themselves on to a pedestal closer to the likes of Daft Punk than most of their native German producers. Their French sample-based approach has inevitably lent a hand to them landing a deal with Kitsune Music alongside the likes of Boys Noize and Simian Mobile Disco, which also neatly packages them into that ‘nu-techno’ genus. It’s pretty hard, if you’re inclined to label that is, to take them out of this ‘nu-techno’ pigeonhole after yet more remixes of Tom Vek, Klaxons and The Futureheads. However, despite this they still maintain a Germanic approach and their production stays close to their techno roots with a dirty blaring synth often preferred over a cute French house sample.

Representing the most complete conceptual catharsis of electro-rock’s uphill struggle to define itself, Digitalism’s debut LP is an exhaustive foray into the uncharted potential of electronic composition. Artfully evoking the full spectrum of sound qualities, from lo-fi bleeps and low-res interference upwards into sophisticated, esoteric conglomerations of organic and digital instrumentation, the disc stands out on almost any scale of production. Couple that with an uncannily developed emotional arc throughout the album and clever, shifty-eyed songwriting, and you’ve got the music album of the year.

Digitalism - Echoes
I posted ‘Idealism’ previously.

The Field - Over the Ice

It goes without saying for Stockholm-based Axel Wilner better known as ‘The Field’ that it’s been one hell of a whirlpast year. A year ago none of us ever imagined everything that’s happened to the guy… his album From Here We Go Sublime immediately leaped to become the biggest crossover indie-dance releases on KOMPAKT since BURGER/INK’s Las Vegas was licensed to MATADOR way back when… we’ve been elated by the many people would be touched by his ‘nu-gaze’ style of combining familiar music sources into layers and layers of blissful repetition. In the meantime, for those of you that yet uninitiated with him, I glad to offer you this firm fan favorite, “Over the Ice.”

Madvillan - Eternal Broadcaster

Daniel Dumile, aka Madvillan, MF Doom, The Super Villian, Viktor Vaughn, Metal Fingers is one of the most talented artists of our time, and while he can flow with the best of them I really love his instrumental work, wether it’s his Special Herbs mixes or his Beat Konducta series I love putting a CD on and feeling bad ass for a day, my life could be a rap video, right?

Digitalism - Idealistic

Digitalism is a 2-person duo making very French-sounding funky electo house in Germany. Their realease “Idealism” is going to be pretty darn close if not #1 on my top albums of the year for 2007. Picking one track was hard but here’s ‘Idealistic’, listen to it and try not to dance. Seriously. It’s nice to see somebody besides Thomas Bangalter revitalizing house music nowadays.

Dropping Daylight - Brace Yourself

[22:21] Jamie: do you hate me because i like dropping daylight
[22:22] Tyson: what is “dropping daylight”???
[22:23] Jamie: they’re like something corporate
[22:23] Jamie: but way more cheesy
[22:23] Tyson: oh Jamie!
[22:23] Tyson: if that’s really how you describe them
[22:23] Tyson: then I’m already upset
[22:23] Jamie: i’m a huge sucker for loud piano rock
[22:23] Tyson: are they at least a band you can sing along to easily?
[22:23] Jamie: oh yes
[22:23] Tyson: I’m learning to forgive that
[22:23] Jamie: come on, don’t you love piano rock?
[22:24] Tyson: because there are few things more enjoyable then a catchy song to sing along too
[22:24] Tyson: who doesn’t?!
[22:24] Jamie: in fact i’m going to post a song now

—

This is Dropping Daylight, from a place dear to my childhood, Minnesota.. they’re just waiting to be signed and played on mainstream radio until they’re stuck in your head forever. Until then, enjoy this cheesy piano punk rock from Minneapolis. :)

Jay-Z - Ignorant Shit

This is the best rap song released in the last 10 years.

RYU VS. M.BI$ON - The Green Leaf

I have no idea why I like this band so much, I really really don’t. RVMB is an experimental comedy group from Las Vegas who I saw live one time and thought “these guys are awful” - the problem is; I had their songs stuck in my head for weeks to come afterwards. A typical RVMB song consists of a infectous beat, clever synth playing and awful screaming lyrics (or even freestyling!) - It’s miserable and amazing all at the same time.