West London composer, Benjamin Digby, continues his trajectory upwards as his electronic music impacts with a thematic vibrance on his latest E.P., 'Dark Adaptation.'
West London isn't really a place you go to look for the latest uprise in electronic music, but that doesn't hinder Benjamin Digby. Benjamin's productions bring together the thematic sounds of classical composers, and atmospheric techno with his dreamy sonic projections that tend to divulge into ambient, straight-beat, surges and swells. His music's motivating spirit is self-evident through inspiration he has listed like John Murphy, Bear McCreary, and John Carpenter. And this year, Benjamin Digby is exceptionally mesmeric, bringing some of his pristinely texturized compositions to the electronic music scene over his exciting new E.P. 'Dark Adaptation'—and like the most prolific electronic productions, it's naturally pure.
This record's opening manifests through one-continuously oscillating synth-pad discerning in its gritty character that bends into an adjacent melody with a delayed onset. This is what some might like to call background electro; the momentum gradually twists and feels slow, before being chopped up into palpable bite-sized pieces of lush midsection orchestrations. It all seems to create an otherworldly experience when the next song, "Atonement," descends us into another distinct droning noise amalgamation, like when two worlds implode into one another to form a star so dense in mass that they call it a black hole. Still, there's a tangible sense of wonder and excitement in the repetition of what sounds like the music for a feature sci-fi trailer; over and over, droning chords swell and lower with an almost vapor like quality.
As manageable as the song's arrangements might be, Benjamin Digby reveals another side in his authentic profoundness on "Libra." Here, the meter is lethargic in nature, tracing with a staggering beat with the rhythm coiled between a snare and kick. The whimsical and enamoring string and bell orchestrations pierce easily through into our souls, filling us with a sense of wonder as the final samples whistle away. "Scanners" comes crawling in with a central drone that feels like the afterglow from the E.P.'s opening number, like robotic ancestry drones of the past: cutting through the fabric of time and instilling this track with its industrial electronic DNA.
And just when we thought the drones would never subside, Benjamine Digby, throws "Celestial Orders" into the loop, injecting some bounce into this intrinsically interlaced connection of precise and crystalline pulses and drum back-beats: like the soundtrack to a covert space mission on an alien ship. It's all flooding in the mix's expanses but always seems to serve a more profound sensation through the song's ability to create a dynamic picture in your mind of what this song might soundtrack to.
The concluding cut from this record comes from "The Vortex," a track that starts off like the credit music to a cult classic Sci-Fi flick but quickly develops into this final ballad between saturated synths and a rounded low-end end sub. Some parts of this track stand out in how effortlessly each melody from the separable synths finds a synergistic trade-off of sorts, like a short rally over the nets of this song's steady rhythm. The defining results of Benjamin Digby's 'Dark Adaptation' is the pristine example it presents as a tangibly and skillfully composed electronic music hit, creating an entirely new world through the sonics of each passing track.
What inspires you most about some of the composers you have listed as leading influencers in your career?
John Carpenter, he wrote his films and some of the most iconic soundtracks out there and I can listen to these nonstop. However, there was a time when I was a fan of the SyFy channel and a huge fan of Battlestar Galactica. I loved the theme music. Most music at the start of any of my favorite television series gave me goosebumps and got me hyped for the episode. There was a television adaptation of a game called ‘Defiance’ and it was the theme to this game that the name Bear McCreary came on my radar, even though he scored the remake of Battlestar Galactica (which he wrote at the age of 24). I’d written Treason from my Discovery EP because of the ‘Theme from Defiance’. That is what I’d loved to hear, that music I’d written gave someone goosebumps or hyped a listener up for whatever reason.
How long have you been composing music for, and has it always been a venture under the enormous umbrella of electronic music?
It's been a while and I’ve always written electronic-based music. I had been writing under an alias, but I was still growing into what I was about and refining the craft. When I released my first EP last year, I felt it was right to use my real name because what I had written was personal, it represented me. Hence the title Discovery.
Do you have any critical milestones you're aiming for in your career, and have you made any steps towards those intentions in 2020?
For me, every release there's a milestone and each one critical. Because now there are so many different aspects to an artist's career. From sales, streams, social media, fans, who are following, plus more. Personally, a goal, or a high milestone, would be scoring for a major project in the film or video games market. As for intentions, it's all about hard work, writing music, getting heard, and making contacts, which is always important.
With regards to your musical endeavors in electronic music for the rest of this summer, what can we expect?
There are a few tracks coming out between the end of August and October. One being ‘Tom’s Blessing’. I was at the late Tom Petty's concert at Hyde Park a couple of years ago. During the end, I started recording the crowd cheering, and out of nowhere Tom blessed the crowd, so that was special and I used the recording in this single. I’ve been waiting until the release of Dark Adaptation to release it. It's a banger.
What are you doing these days to stay positive, passionate, and inspired?
I’m a positive person really, but there have been some days where the lockdown was tough. However I was busy with the release of the Dark Adaptation album plus working on new material, so that kept me in good spirits. Also having close friends, family and my dog kept me sane. As for inspiration, for me, sound design and jamming with the number of synths I’ve collected, I get lost into creating some crazy landscapes of sound. That for me keeps me passionate with new ideas to bring out in future tracks for people to hear, hopefully causing a few goosebumps here and there.
Comments