''DSVII'' (short for ''Digital Shades Vol. II'') is the eighth studio album by French

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...

band M83, released on 20 September 2019 through Naïve and Mute Records. It is a sequel album to ''

Digital Shades Vol. 1 ''Digital Shades Vol. 1'' is the fourth studio album by France, French Electronic music, electronic group M83 (band), M83. The album was released on September 3, 2007, and features only founding member Anthony Gonzalez. The album consists of track ...

'', released in 2007.

Background

Anthony Gonzalez said the album was inspired by playing 1980s video games while in Cap d'Antibes in France in 2017, calling the "old-school games" "naive and touching" as well as "simple and imperfect". He was also inspired by the soundtracks of

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

and fantasy films of the decade, as well as the synthesizer music of

Suzanne Ciani Suzanne Ciani (; born June 4, 1946) is an American musician, sound designer, composer, and record label executive who found early success in the 1970s with her electronic music and sound effects for films and television commercials. Her career ha ...

Mort Garson Morton Sanford Garson (20 July 1924 – 4 January 2008) was a Canadian composer, arranger, songwriter, and pioneer of electronic music. He is best known for his albums in the 1960s and 1970s, such as '' Mother Earth's Plantasia'' (1976), He also ...

, Brian Eno and

John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, actor, and composer. Although he worked in various film genres, he is most commonly associated with horror, action, and science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s. He ...

Recording

Gonzalez recorded the album between 2017 and 2018 using only

analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...

equipment, splitting sessions between both his

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

studio and producer

Justin Meldal-Johnsen Justin Meldal-Johnsen (born March 26, 1970) is an American musician, record producer, songwriter and musical director. He is best known for his work with artists such as Beck, Paramore, Nine Inch Nails, M83, Air, and St. Vincent. Meldal-Johns ...

's studio in Glendale, California. Band member Kaela Sinclair contributed vocals and arrangements.

Critical reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album earned a score of 68, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Track listing

Personnel

M83

* Anthony Gonzalez – keyboard, synthesizer, guitar, bass guitar, vocals, producer, programming, arranging, mixing, drum machine, drum pads * Joe Berry – piano, synthesizers, saxophones, flute, winds, pedal steel, accordion, co-production, string arrangements * Kaela Sinclair – vocals, vocal arrangements

Background

Recording

Critical reception

Track listing

Personnel

M83

Additional musicians

Charts

References