Polish artist Co.LeGa has built a reputation on dark electro-pop and concept-driven soundscapes, with an EP, “Nobody Goes to Heaven,” that reached the NACC Top 30 for Electronic Music and a notable collaboration with jazz legend Michal Urbaniak under his belt. “Digitally Modified,” released May 29th, continues that trajectory with a track explicitly about surveillance and the creeping suspicion that our choices aren’t entirely our own anymore. The reference points are serious ones – Radiohead and Björk for conceptual ambition, Depeche Mode and Portishead for tone, Massive Attack and Nine Inch Nails for the industrial weight underneath it all. It’s a lot of company to invoke, but Co.LeGa has the track record and the songwriting instincts to make the comparisons feel earned rather than aspirational.
The psychedelic industrial production is the most intriguing element here, especially how it blends with real guitar layers woven into the electronic textures. The result is rhythmically very stimulating and overall surprisingly groovy, in the way a buoyant boat moves down a river of introspection – propelled forward by something steady underneath, even while the surface keeps shifting and catching light differently from moment to moment. That combination of organic guitar work against the colder, more mechanical electronic elements mirrors the song’s subject matter well: the tension between something human and something processed, both fighting for control of the same space.
“Digitally Modified” earns its place in Co.LeGa‘s catalog by committing fully to its concept without letting the message overshadow the groove. It’s a song built to provoke thought, and it manages that without sacrificing the part where you actually want to keep listening. For a project this consistently interested in the friction between technology and identity, this is one of the more compelling entries yet.