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Album reviews Music

>>> Digits

Get Through is Digits’ first full-length album since the Toronto synth pop musician’s 2009 debut, but Alt Altman has kept busy making home-recorded mixtapes and EPs, and gigging overseas. The big difference between it and those more informal releases is that he recorded it at the Gas Station, resulting in an album with more warmth and depth without sacrificing his minimalist approach or covering up his hooks with unnecessary ornamentation.

Some tracks appeared on a few of those stopgap releases, but the re-recorded updates were worth including. Digits’ R&B influences are less prominent than before, but new wave has always been the more dominant reference point anyway. Rather than giving his electro-pop tunes a glossy makeover, the studio treatment has lent things a soft, organic vibe and accentuated the raw, analog feel of his synth textures. If the whispered, melancholic vocals are occasionally overly affected, they suit the music and are sincere enough to work.

Top track: Love Is Only Affection

Digits plays Exvee at Artscape Gibraltar Point on Saturday (May 30).

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