Hell, it even has vocals that get you screaming, but it's not Finnish metal. What the funk is it? Digitalism. Formed by Konstantinos Gerodimos and Stefan Konstantinides properly in 1999, Digitalism may just be the hottest electromofos on the planet. This ain't record company hyperbole, babydoll, this is telling it how it is. Or how it has become in (basically) the last two years.

Germans have gradually been getting funkier since the wall came down (17 years ago now), with people like Ian Pooley, Patrick Lindsey, Thomas Schumacher and recently Tiefschwarz showing the jacking, fun side of Germania. Digitalism hail from Hamburg and bring magical marching machinations with lashings of originality that has seen them pop up at festivals and steal acres of magazine space everywhere Kraftwerk were ever popular. Which, aside from Angola and perhaps Coober Pedy, is pretty much everywhere.

You can tick off the Jean-Michel Jarre influence, along with every soundtracky type Enoism that you can't think of. Konstantinos kicked off his recording career using the cromagnon Sinclair ZX Spectrum Micro Computer, then moved up to an Amiga 500. These days the duo practically get begged to go in and remix on the most updated sonic toys, but stick to their guns and keep true to the style they first invented together: Atmotechnica. Yes, that's a big word and the explanation is better saved for a rainy day. Be satisfied knowing that when Digitalism obliterate the Prince of Wales with their insexious grooves your slack-jawed yokeling will sound something akin to speaking in Atmotechnica tongues.

Idealistic started slaying the dancefloor when it was hatched in 2004 and even featured on a recent Mixmag CD put together by those Midas men: Radio Soulwax. But Zdarlight was the one that really sped the world's axis up. Squelchy, synthy sex music full of slow, spanking segues. Sumptuous. Since then, it's been a heady drive along remix strausse for the boys - Nothiing But Green Lights by Tom Vek was layered n licked, Technologic by Daft Punk was stroked n poked, then Cut Copy's Going Nowhere got a Digitalism rebooting.

Undoubtedly, Cut Copy and Digitalism have stepped into the void Daft Punk left when they made their last *‘album’. Our local lads and the Hamburg homeboys hit gold while Daft Punk dropped the ball. It's a difficult first question for Stefan Konstantinides, as he rubs his eyes and his alarm clock goes off in the background for the second time in his bedroom. "Sorry I'm a bit sleepy," he replies, skipping the query for a moment. “I don’t think space has been made by Daft Punk. Maybe they haven’t been around in the last month, but they always have a ceratin attitude, a certain je ne sais quoi," he laughs through a croak and a coffee. “The remix for Cut Copy was interesting, they wanted us to remix them and afterwards it turned out to be the one people really liked. We played live with them recently and I’m curious to see what they do next." Daft Punk's next movements are being likewise examined.

"It’s a pumping sound!” he states, suddenly getting animated about Bangalter and De-Homem Christo like those two did in Daft Punk Interstellar 5555. While we're sure Daft Punk will come good, the tracks have been laid down for the Digitalism train to career through. But we haven't actually seen much of the Digitalism duo, thusfar. Stefan disagrees, contending "Until now, there’s been more photos of us than Daft Punk.” Hmm, not from where we're standing buddy, but we see your tricky point. Methinks most people reading this now would be glancing over at that clever pic of them for the first time. Everybody is snuggling up to them like old chums though.

Digitalism's other contemporaries include The Presets, Kitsune, Erol Alkan, Gatz, Ladytron and Alex Gopher. And of course, a look at their myspace site shows all of these artists as 'Friends' on their homepage. Our levitating lads The Presets have also had relations with Digitalism.

"At the end of last year we discovered The Presets. I told my manager to get in touch with them. The Presets said ‘Only take a song from us if you’re going to remix it’. When we got in touch with Modular we got in touch with Island in the UK and they were freaking out about what we did,” Stefan remembers, emphasising the F word. The resulting remix was Downdowndown, an undeniably NOW sounding rework which takes you into its home and gives you a 5 course meal of wonderment. “I can’t choose my favourite remix, like I can’t choose my favourite child.” Instead, Stefan speaks about Wolfmother. “Lots of people are freaking out about Wolfmother”.

Recently, Digitalism have had the opportunity to cry wolf with everyone's favourite Belgians too. “We toured with Soulwax and got to meet Erol Alkan and Justice. Soulwax take like 20 friends on tour so it’s like seeing the family again when we catch up and drink vodka-tonics in the afternoon." Digitalism like to write tunes while they are on the road too, but so far they have been too busy getting schmoozed over.

“There’s pressure, but sometimes I come up with lyrics on the road, not really the music though. Maybe that’s gonna change... time is disappearing. Maybe we will have to start making music (on the road)," he admits. The irony is that everyone seems to have time for the German duo and all their shimmery, thumping sounds.

*Compared to the brilliance of Homework and Discovery ... sheeeet, finding out they were Human After All was highly disappointing.

ART MOUSEY TACHES
“We are talking about moustaches quite a bit lately, that is our running joke. I think a moustache will appear in the artwork for our next single. David Guetta is the real moustache guy from the past. Watch out for our moustaches.