Digitonal – Be Still My Bleeping Heart

 

London duo Digitonal once played at a base for NASA, which suits that starry glare in their eye down to the ground, or rather off into space. This collection of disparate early releases is dreamy – almost too dreamy – and proffers a 'Phillip Glass jamming with The Orb' type mash-up of modern classical and electronic music. Their tantalising hybrid of book smarts and street cred (read: classical training plus programmed beats) produces some breathtaking moments, such as the ambient driftworld of Seraphim (Angel Mix), surely a trick missed by licensers of TV advertising music everywhere. Also brilliant is the ten minute long, Steve Reich-esque, Drencrom. Although these 11 tracks of rarities are technically outstanding, Be Still My Bleeping Heart might appear a little like fodder for by-the-numbers, classical 'chill out' compilations at first glance – helped in no small part by some of the slightly dated trip-hop beats. Dig deeper for the prize. [Martin Skivington]