Considering that
Warm Digits' body of work is peppered with high-concept, historically minded projects, their desire to change things up on
Wireless World is understandable. By working with vocalists -- including several old friends --
the Digits give a more literal voice to their concerns and bring their fascinations with technology, infrastructure, and politics to the fore with a newfound urgency. The need to wake up fuels the album, transforming
Warm Digits analog synth-driven Motorik into doomsday pop. Unsurprisingly, many of the best moments feature their longtime collaborators. On "End Times," they enlist
Field Music -- with whom they've worked so many times that they might as well be honorary members of each others' groups -- to add falsetto vocals to its funky paranoia, and the results are as much fun as a song about partying at the end of the world that isn't
Prince's "1999" can be.
Warm Digits go in the opposite direction on "Growth of Raindrops," where
Saint Etienne's
Sarah Cracknell adds sensuality to the song's celebration of nature's enduring strength and beauty. At other points on
Wireless World, it feels like the band slightly oversimplifies their music and concepts to make room for their vocalists; while Mia La Metta's turn on the geologically inspired "Better Friction" and the
Devon Sprule-featuring "The Rumble and Tremor" are appealing, they're not necessarily as evocative as the album's instrumentals. On "Two to Four Degrees" and the title track,
Warm Digits blend bustling rhythms and soaring melodies into eloquent statements of 21st century anxiety. Similarly, interludes like "Always On"'s dense fog of electronics, the deceptively pretty "Deluge and Delusion," and the eerie portrait of marine devastation that is "Mute Ocean" serve as reminders why
Warm Digits excel at soundtracks. Even if it's not quite as accomplished as some of their purely instrumental albums,
Wireless World is an ambitious, and largely successful, experiment.