Daft Punk 2013

[Tiny Poster]

So... Does Panda Bear have a rhotacism?

[The Βoston Crab]

Your dead mate

Edit: 'deaf'

[Tiny Poster]

Check out the "break into the light" bit again.

[The Βoston Crab]

Oh, he certainly does, just wanted to make a threat so watch it.

Funnily enough, it's not as noticeable when he speaks (possibly because he's constantly mumbling anyway) but it's much more pronounced when he sings live and on something like Young Prayer, which is just guitar and ululation (for the most part) it's very distinctive.

My favourite example is on Daily Routine, though, with the 'stwwwwap a stwwwwoller to my back...' line.

[Tiny Poster]

Somehow I'd never noticed it before.


I should say that it's obviously my favourite track on the album.

[mobias]

Did anyone catch the Daft Punk documentary on BBC4 last night? It wasn't short on hyperbole but it was still excellent and really well put together. I didn't realise Glasgow dance label Slam released their first 12''

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05zlk3w/daft-punk-unchained

[jobotic]

yeah, was good.

Not got that first 12" but got the first Soma release of Da Funk. It's worth about four quid. The Stereolab thing with Darlin' on though is worth a bit more.

I'll let you know the value of some of my other possessions in good time.

[steveh]

Admittedly I've never really been a Daft Punk fan but I thought this was straying too far into hagiography territory. It was very much a mainstream American view of dance music that was too ready to credit them for innovations that others had done before, both underground in the US and in Europe's dance music scene. Unless I missed it, it also omitted Bangalter's dad's involvement in the music business (we have him to blame for D.I.S.C.O.) and the pair's privileged background, which allowed them to network at levels their musical peers couldn't and seems to be as much a component in their success as their music. Of course if they were rubbish they wouldn't have got anywhere, but give me Slam over them any day.

[mobias]

Watching the documentary for a second time has made me realise Daft Punk basically ruined modern day dance music. If the roots of the dreadful EDM scene can be traced directly back to Daft Punk's performance in Coachella in 2006 then we have them to thank for the likes of Skirllex and DeadMau5. So thanks for that Thomas and Guy-Manuel.

[checkoutgirl]

This doc featured over the top gushing praise and Gervais style mealy mouthed nonsense about Human After All (people just didn't understand it). No love, it was shite. The woman journalist describing "One More Time" as so amazingly unique and I'm thinking it may be unique to you but not to anyone who's actually listened to music before. They look a right couple of cunts in their white get up at awards ceremonies.

And the journalist guy going on about their Coachella appearance like it was god finally agreeing to do a gig. I've seen loads of great live dance acts, Orbital, Leftfield, Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, Underworld and Daft Punk etc, and in that context Daft Punk are fine but hardly overseeing dance music gods among men. They're fine but let's face it, they don't do that many live gigs. They don't continually drag their arse out on tour to show their mettle in front of the coal face of a paying audience. And by the time they did their 2006 tour they already had a ready made, sycophantic bunch of amateur Sunday drivers and teeny boppers ready to cheer their every utterance. I was at that gig in 2006 and while impressive, I remember being pissed off that the people on the bus I was on were playing Daft Punk. I was like, lads, come on, not more Daft Punk, they're not that good!!!

Interesting to see Bangalter in an early gig using the hum of a jack connector as a bass line. Fucking stupid thing to do of course because it damages the speaker but interesting none the less. Also they recorded Random Access Memories over 4 fucking years in top of the range studios. If they were renting them that would cost an absolute fortune.

Also their recording of Random Access Memories was depicted as some sort of amazing thing because loads of people record digitally now and they were using old style analogue techniques. What a load of horse shit. The Future Sound of London and millions of dance acts and music acts in general still use analogue techniques and pull their sounds from very non digital, natural sources. Aphex Twin springs to mind.

I'm not sure that Daft Punk are responsible for kicking off the breaking of dance music as a mainstream thing in America. I think that's rubbish. I reckon that dance music in America was way way way overdue breaking into the mainstream and the slowness that this happened was almost a running joke in dance music. Like mainstream American audiences are musically retarded and stuck in some puritanical view of music, like machines are the devil. I mean America invented half of dance music so sooner or later it was going to break. And the Coachella guy saying all the rock journalists saw Daft Punk and suddenly realised why dance music was good. That can't be true, and if it is then shame on the journalists rather than praise be Daft Punk. I mean surely the Prodigy and Chemical Brothers broke America before them. I think the Daft Punk tour and the upsurge in interest in America just coincidentally happened at the same time. It's coincidental you idiots. So I don't think Daft Punk should have to take the blame for Skrillex and Deadmau5. It's not fair to blame them for that mess.

So an extraordinarily myopic documentary and really just an extended puff piece for the band but with some interesting footage and insights buried beneath the sickening gushing praise.

Oh and by the by, even though I don't generally dig Daft Punk's sound, well 85% of it anyway, Homework is still a great album and certainly one of the best in dance music history. If Homework alone is their only legacy then it's still a fine one.

[checkoutgirl]

If the roots of the dreadful EDM scene can be traced directly back to Daft Punk's performance in Coachella in 2006

I don't think it can. I reckon this just suited the overall thrust of the documentary.

[checkoutgirl]

and the pair's privileged background, which allowed them to network at levels their musical peers couldn't and seems to be as much a component in their success as their music

I really thought that Daft Punk came across as so very stereotypically French in this. No we will own our music (clever). No, we will not compromise (okay). No, we will not play Coachella (eh, okay). No, we will not etc etc. No we will not show our face (fuck sake). No we will not play more than one gig on American television (fuck off). No we will not do a live show for years and years.

It is a philosophical standpoint to now show our faces, to not compromise blah blah blah.

Fuck me are these guys French or what? They're as French as French can be.

[mobias]

I don't think it can. I reckon this just suited the overall thrust of the documentary.

You're probably right. I was just reading some interviews with Daft Punk this afternoon and Thomas Bangalter said he dislikes the EDM scene in America and downplays any influence they've had over it.

Also they recorded Random Access Memories over 4 fucking years in top of the range studios. If they were renting them that would cost an absolute fortune.

Listening to Random Access Memories today I have to say it really is an utterly mediocre over blown spunk fest of a record. I can find a lot to enjoy in all the other Daft Punk albums (I actually really like Human After All), including their excellent Tron sound track, but Random Access Memories really is lacking. The fact that so much weight has been put behind it really doesn't help my enjoyment of it either.

[checkoutgirl]

Listening to Random Access Memories today I have to say it really is an utterly mediocre over blown spunk fest of a record. I can find a lot to enjoy in all the other Daft Punk albums (I actually really like Human After All), including their excellent Tron sound track, but Random Access Memories really is lacking. The fact that so much weight has been put behind it really doesn't help my enjoyment of it either.

I think it's relatively easy to find an American journalist who's willing to gush effusively about whatever the fuck you're making a documentary about. Kraftwerk, The Prodigy, Amon Tobin. You name it there'll be a clueless American music journalist with no idea about music history or theory all too ready to prattle on talking complete bollocks.

I didn't really give Random Access Memories a really thorough listening so maybe it reveals itself as a masterpiece on repeated listens but I doubt it. I whizzed through the tracks with the same quick consideration that I'd give to any other song or set of songs. None of the songs made any impression other than Get Lucky (which I hear could be the big song next summer).

I generally incline away from their synth heavy disco laden French house sound. They're actually an extraordinarily conventional band musically, apart from Homework which was innovative. All their albums after that are just French disco house. Their real genius is in how they present themselves. Rarely making appearances or giving interviews. Rarely doing gigs or playing live on telly. Rarely showing their face. Rarely accepting paid engagements. Rarely doing anything really, when you think about it.

But anything they've done, musically or presentation wise, has been done before by other people. Their success amazes me but they're a mainstream band musically so it shouldn't be that much of a surprise. I bet they gave this documentary their seal of approval which would be a warning sign.

Having said all that their live show from 2006 was very well put together and delivered. No doubt about it, it takes a true artist to put a show like that together and that's what they did. I just feel they are generally overrated as underground legends by mainstream people when the majority of their career has been mainstream success with conventional music. No amounts of white spray paint and bicycle helmets will change that.

[Johnny Textface]

I turned it off after 10 mins or so. Really annoying lack of knowledge of what came before them and far to gushing. The boys even list a bunch of influences on Homework.
Nothing came close to Homework did it?

They're like the Tarantino of dance music. Indie, interesting and cheap roots eventually leading to overblown shite with little to recommend it. (Apart from old school techniques if that floats your cock).

RAM is everything I hoped they'd never do. Listened through once.