One record at a time: 81. Digitalism - Mirage

I bought this record when it was released in 2016. I think I must have listened to it, decided it was another nice Daft Punk pastiche and promptly forgotten about it. 

Fast forward around three years and I was on a long and stressful train journey listening to my phone whilst it played on shuffle. As I sped through the countryside, a mysterious piece of music began to play in my earphones. The blurred images and flashes of light coming in through the window seemed perfectly attuned to the music and I became transfixed. Only when the song had finished could I wake my phone and see what had been playing. As it turned out the track was "Mirage, Pt 1" from this album and it led me to reappraise this record. Whilst I no longer neglect this album, it has been a while since I listened to it so I'm looking forward to giving it a spin again.

Digitalism songs tend to fall into two camps: disco stompers or indie-dance tracks. The first two tracks on this album illustrate this dichotomy perfectly. "Arena" is a slice of satisfying dance music that is redolent of Daft Punk and "Battlecry" is a catchy indie-pop song with a distinctive chorus. I can just imagine the third track "Go Time" being played in a tent at Glastonbury with bucket hat wearing young men singing along in appreciation - not somewhere I long to be. "Utopia" continues the pattern of schizophrenic style swapping and is an arpeggio driven EDM creation. The hook on "Destination Breakdown" doesn't quite deliver for me and the whole thing is a little too noisy, but "Open Waters" is much more successful.

I regard the two part, twelve minute opus that is the title track as the zenith of this album. When "Mirage, Pt, 1" opens you could be forgiven for thinking some sort of fault had occurred as the synths burble and pulsate erratically. As more layers are added the sound becomes mesmerising until our reverie is broken by a pounding kick drum. The finale of the track sees us gently lowered into the melodic introduction of Part Two, which then evolves into a slightly more beat driven piece. "Indigo Skies" and "The Ism" are rare misfires that are best forgotten but "Dynamo" moves outside of the usual Digitalism formula with more success. As the album plays out there is a fine slice of  French House courtesy of "No Cash". which pounds away like its 1997 all over again. A slight less rewarding experience that some of the band's other albums but there are some fine moments. 4/5