Pop music and classical music have always been at odds with each other. Even though music has reached a level of sophistication where genre blending is pretty much the norm, pop hasn’t found many takers when it comes to embracing classical music. Consumers of pop might consider classical too haughty, and connoisseurs of classical music might look down upon pop as too tawdry. 
However, these two disparate worlds do come together in harmony every once in a while, sometimes resulting in a combination that is embarrassing. But Dark Model’s foray into this rarely visited and strange world is not embarrassing by any standards. In fact, his synthesis of classical and pop is downright cool.
Tatsuya Oe has garnered quite a reputation as a DJ (under the moniker of Captain Funk) and as an eclectic music composer. His music, which combines a variety of different genres, has been featured in films, TV, games, and advertising. As an extension of his work, his latest project, Dark Model, is a cinematic collision of the square and hip worlds of classical and electronica in the form of a soundtrack for an imaginary movie.
There is absolutely no docility in the classical influences on this album, as Tatsuya uses the orchestral arrangements in a dissonant and rhythmic way. He gives a slick and modern facelift to classical music by giving the orchestral arrangements a futuristic, almost machine-like dystopian appeal. On the other hand, the “electronica” aspect of this record ranges from manically energetic dance music with massive beats to ambient electronica, incorporating influences ranging from trip hop, to big beat and glitch.
On the whole, Dark Model is delightfully aggressive, and could be classified as The Prodigy’s The Fat Of The Land interpreted as a film score. The combination of dramatic orchestral scores and infectious electronic grooves on this record is anything but a disparate mixture of two contrasting genres. In theory Dark Model is a frankensteinian experiment; in reality, it is a great record.