M83 have announced a new album, DSVII. Short for “Digital Shades Vol. 2,” it’s the follow-up to the project’s 2007 album Digital Shades Vol 1, and was inspired primarily by video game music.
Anthony Gonzalez has written a lengthy explanatory statement to accompany the announcement, in which he describes feeling disappointed by the critical reaction to his last M83 album, Junk, and drawing influence from all sorts of movies, music, and video games.
“The inspiration behind this record is mainly video game music,” he explained. “It felt so refreshing to play all of these old-school games again. There is something so naive and touching about them. It’s simple and imperfect. And this is exactly what I tried to achieve with Digital Shades Vol. 2.”
Among the classic titles he listed as references were The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Dragon Quest.
Gonzalez also cited classic ambient and electronic albums like Eliane Radigue’s Trilogie de la mort, Mort Garrison’s Plantasia, Eno’s Discreet Music, and Wendy Carlos’ Switched-On Bach. As for the aforementioned films, they included Fellini’s Satyricon, Carpenter’s oft-overlooked In the Mouth of Madness, and Fantastic Planet, which is having something of a renaissance in contemporary music.
“Digital Shades Vol. 2 is, in my opinion, far more advanced than Digital Shades Vol. 1,” he wrote. “The first volume was way less ambitious and didn’t require as much energy and work. I was also 26 years old at that time. I had different goals, taste in music and knowledge. With Digital Shades Vol. 2, I wanted to come back with something stronger that featured the depth of a proper studio album without the pressure of providing pop music – faraway from Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming and Junk.”
DSVII is out September 20 on Mute; find the artwork and tracklist below.
