Published on May 6, 2005
What does the band name The New Digital Sound (NDS) suggest? To
me, it sounds like a hardcore electronica band, proudly bearing the
label “Made In Europe,” consisting of two bald DJs (most likely
hardly able to speak English) and an occasional female singer from
the UK, attempting to give the music an international appeal.
Well, for one, NDS doesn’t hail from Europe; it is a product of
Boston, in America. But it is electronica, and it does consist of a
(not two, just one) DJ — Don Smith (also called Copelinn) — with
no female singers whatsoever. NDS is a part of the new sub-culture
of the American alternative music scene that is seeing a growing
number of bands embracing European techno/electronica music.
Copelinn describes his sound as closest to The Chemical Brothers
and Moby. I would however like to go further to say that his music,
in addition, sounds like listening to the soundtrack of the
psychedelic audio-narratives on “This American Life” on National
Public Radio.
To try making sense of the analogy, let me describe NDS’ music
on
The Depressed American Dream (and, I wouldn’t be the least
surprised if this title happened to be the name of an outtake that
didn’t make it to Green Day’s
American Idiot).
The album has absolutely no singing, but plenty of vocals. The
music is comprised of simple but subtly complex techno rhythms,
with sampled speeches acting as the vocals. If vocal samples from
antiquated numbers on Play are what made Moby’s sound completely
fresh and ingenious, then the weird appearance of bits of speeches
and conversations — stolen from the radio and the television — on
the numbers on
The Depressed American Dream act as a signature style for
NDS.
The music on this 13-track LP is laidback and simplified
electronica like that of Moby’s or the Protection era of Massive
Attack’s, but with a quirkier edge. The titles are quirky too —
“Exclude 17,” “Type Two Army Ants,” “Infection Crisis” — no less
than the ones by Stereolab. The songs would have been boring
without the voices of all kinds that speak randomly about
everything, from space missions to the purchase of a hammer
dulcimer. Since every number is blessed with these voices, the
album makes for a very interesting listening experience.
There is but one exception to the above. The song “Basement
Analog Playset” has vocals that actually sing, presumably sung by
Copelinn himself. It does not have any speech samples, and has but
an electric guitar strummed angrily as music. It is a wonderful
anomaly to the album, and, considering that it is one of the best
tracks on the record, indicates that NDS is capable of more than
just being a band that fools around with mixing different sounds on
a computer.
Copelinn’s mixing of painstakingly discovered sound-bytes with
his music has been done with near perfection: plagiarism couldn’t
sound better.
The Depressed American Dream is no longer than 39-odd
minutes. It flows as one whole song, passing through soundscapes of
a soundtrack for human confessions captured off guard. NDS’ sound
is progressive and original; a “new digital sound” indeed.
[
For more information on The New Digital Sound, and to buy the
cd, visit
www.thenewdigitalsound.org]