Digital Shades Vol. 1 - M83

Digital Shades Vol. 1

M83
Gooom Records.

SCQ Rating: 50%

Over two years after Before the Dawn Heals Us became M83’s pinnacle achievement, Anthony Gonzalez made a wise decision. In only three LP’s time, Gonzalez’s moniker had become synonymous with hundreds of synth-lines, cathartic eruptions of drums and Cocteau Twins’ styled guitars; all parts being appetizing to the ear, but nonetheless predictable. And by the dramatic close of 2005’s 15 minute 'Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun’, it was evident to critics, fans and Gonzalez himself that he had maxed out his own sound, scraped the bottom of the Goth-pop barrel, scrubbed it clean and armed those songs to the teeth. Back to basics, then, on Digital Shades Vol. 1 – a stopgap release before M83’s official 2008 follow-up.

Those readers who just crossed their arms in disagreement over my ‘scraping the bottom, scrubbing it clean and arming it’ theory have some evidence to face on this 35 minute palate-cleanser. Some of this material is actually album-worthy; ‘My Strange Path’ has a techno pulse barely hidden beneath its shoegaze envelope, while the lonesome two-part-er ‘Sister’ could easily be developed into a fan-favourite. The problem is that even the most promising song ideas here are built to sustain M83’s aforementioned trademarks; they’re simply bare-boned sketches of songs we’ve kinda heard before, without the cacophonic drums and such. In fact, the best of this material feels like alternates to the segue-tracks on his proper albums; transient mood pieces that complement the more traditionally structured songs. So if you take one of Gonzalez’s heavily equipped proper LP tracks, and skin it of everything but its vital synth-lines, you’ll likely hear ‘Strong and Wasted’, a simple synth progression, looped repeatedly, with bird calls and generic fuzz. No bother that you could bulls-eye every previous M83 track that bore those same song elements; what’s worse is that in its less-than two-minute running-time, you still feel like you’re wasting your time.

The reason I’m disappointed is because I enjoy M83, not to the degree of superfans who romance his myspace page and declare Digital Shades their favourite record ever, but to the point that I’m insulted when a man of Gonzalez’s talent wastes such a awesome idea. This was his opportunity to branch out, take his maximal strengths and turn it inward, focus on texture and atmosphere, or toy with actual field recordings and new instruments. He hasn’t done any of that here. Instead, we get an unfinished M83 record - a rather slow one at that - which is no closer to ambient than ‘Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun’ is. On a quiet autumn day, you could do a lot worse than Digital Shades in your headphones, but in a market brimming with talented ambient artists, this falls flat.