Inspired by the idea of a world teetering between progress and collapse, Warm Digits’ third album combines disparate parts of analogue warmth, Giorgio Moroder-esque electronic exploration and an often beautiful, battering propulsion. Armed with live drums, guitar and electronics, and a few guest vocalists (Field Music’s Peter Brewis, Saint Etienne’s Sarah Cracknell and Devon Sproule), the tracks on ‘Wireless World’ flicker between rich, widescreen ambition and polyrhythmic playfulness.
On ‘Fracking Blackpool’, the Northern duo propel forward with a steady Motorik insistence; on ‘Always On’ they channel a sub-two minute blast of ‘Tarot Sport’-era Fuck Buttons; on ‘Victims of Geology’ they come alive with a potent blend of guitar angst and electronic complexity that both 65DaysofStatic and Vessels continue to perfect. But in-between the cracks, Cracknell and ‘Growth of Raindrops’ emerge with a burst of blooming M83-inspired shoegaze and Sproule adds some sass on the wonky pop of ‘The Rumble and the Tremor’ to ensure there’s some levity to Warm Digits’ impressive machine funk march.
