Digitalism

German duo Digitalism fuse indie rock with dance music by shifting between vivid, high-voltage new wave and sharp, fragmented electro-house. By fusing raw garage-band energy with surging club rhythms, the pair surfaced in the mid-2000s and frequently appeared on stylish compilations from the French house imprint Kitsuné Music. Their widely praised first album Idealism surfaced in 2007, after which they reworked tracks for Daft Punk, Bloc Party, Depeche Mode, and numerous additional artists. Beyond their celebrated DJ performances, the duo assembled a live band that incorporated modular synthesizers and a drummer. They have kept releasing expansive, cross-genre albums such as 2016’s Mirage and 2019’s JPEG, while reserving straight club material for EPs including 2020’s Reality 2 and 2023’s Back to Haus.

Jens Moelle and Ismail Tuefekci first crossed paths inside a record shop, formed a DJ partnership, and launched the dance act Digitalism as a project that would function like a band. The 2004 single “Idealistic,” initially issued on white label before reaching Kitsuné, presented the outfit as Daft Punk fronted by an actual live drummer. Subsequent releases “Zdarlight” in 2005 and “Jupiter Room” in 2006 broadened their audience, and with indie rock increasingly occupying dancefloors, conditions were ideal for their debut LP. Idealism arrived in 2007 and was picked up by Toshiba EMI in Japan and Astralwerks in the United States. Following an international tour, the duo returned in 2010 with the Kitsuné EP Blitz and moved to the V2 label for 2011’s I Love You, Dude, which included a guest vocal from Julian Casablancas of the Strokes. Their installment in !K7’s DJ-Kicks series appeared in 2012.

After scattered standalone singles and EPs, Digitalism delivered their third album Mirage on their own Magnetism Recording Company imprint in 2016. A steady run of club-focused EPs and singles ensued, among them 2017’s 5KY11GHT and 2018’s Zdar C1U6. Their fourth full-length JPEG followed in 2019, once again merging gritty electro-house textures with indie dance. The duo placed 2020’s Reality 2 EP on Gerd Janson’s Running Back label. An expanded reissue and first vinyl edition of the 2019 album, titled JPEG_complete, emerged in 2021. Diytalism arrived on Diynamic Music in 2022, and Running Back issued Back to Haus the following year.