Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

[dr lopez]

lol totally. we all know they're good enough producers to pull off another barry manilow with vocoders and have us not get bored

[Guest pixelives]

Bangalter's dad produced a lot of those old 70's jams and had some rights to some of them. That's how they got them carte blanche. Cola Bottle Baby is one, I seem to remember.

[joshuatxuk]

Bangalter's dad produced a lot of those old 70's jams and had some rights to some of them. That's how they got them carte blanche. Cola Bottle Baby is one, I seem to remember.

 

No fucking shit!? That makes sense though. All the other "filtered house" DJs made excellent disco loop based tracks but none of them every gained any "mainstream" success and I'm sure they never worried about getting sued for pressing 12" for club use. Daft Punk on the other hand had major label albums and heavy MTV promotion and but were never (to my knowledge) sued for sampling.

[Guest pixelives]

They were all cleared but for basically very little $$. You'd be surprised though that even moderate "underground" successes these days have all samples cleared. I guess it's much easier to get caught with the internet and all. Tensnake's underground hit from a few Summers ago, "Coma Cat," used a super obscure Jellybean Benitez produced early 80's track as the main hook ("Can I git, can I git git"). That track was huge in Europe and Tensnake would have seen a lot of cash from it.

 

Jellybean's people caught wind a few months down the road and well, all the royalties went to him.. Tensnake saw nothing...

 

SO back to this ideas that DP is using a live band for tracks, this make sense in a lot of ways. I guess it's something that hasn't been done in decades, but it also gives you the loophole that even if you are apeing another persons production, it's technically a "cover" so you really don't even have to get permission for that. I think there's a ridiculously small fee if any...

[joshuatxuk]

They were all cleared but for basically very little $$. You'd be surprised though that even moderate "underground" successes these days have all samples cleared. I guess it's much easier to get caught with the internet and all. Tensnake's underground hit from a few Summers ago, "Coma Cat," used a super obscure Jellybean Benitez produced early 80's track as the main hook ("Can I git, can I git git"). That track was huge in Europe and Tensnake would have seen a lot of cash from it.

 

Jellybean's people caught wind a few months down the road and well, all the royalties went to him.. Tensnake saw nothing...

 

SO back to this ideas that DP is using a live band for tracks, this make sense in a lot of ways. I guess it's something that hasn't been done in decades, but it also gives you the loophole that even if you are apeing another persons production, it's technically a "cover" so you really don't even have to get permission for that. I think there's a ridiculously small fee if any...

 

The wide spectrum of legal results and overall context of situations regarding sampling and lawsuits never ceases to amaze me. You're right though about the live band/new recording aspect, interpolation is the term I believe.

[dr lopez]

daft punk are a really interesting group to me. it took ten years and two parisians to make chicago house commercially successful. What did they do to pull that off? how did they distill acid house into da funk... it's not that different from washing machine or something... but it just caught on. Same thing with discovery... make us listen to a dance style that is constantly derided as vapid shit but "update" it so it's not obvious or pathetic throwback... clever guys.

[Tamagotchi San]

Chicago House was quite commercially successful in the UK and Europe before Daft Punk to be fair though... But I don't really think people paid too much attention to its origins of Chicago, and Daft Punk definitely took things to a much larger scale.

 

I think a lot of it has to do with how they are marketed, and who they are marketed to.

 

That Random Access Memories/No End youtube track is quite nice btw.

[manmower]

All this about how "interesting", "clever", "well marketed" they are makes you guys sound like you think there's some evil masterplan behind them, or like you're desperate to rationalize the fact that you like their music. IMO they pulled it off by making great tunes, simple as that.

[Guest pixelives]

There may not be an "evil" master plan, but it is VERY VERY well thought out. For instance, from the get go, they've always owned their publishing and masters and essentially licensed out the LPs to labels on their own. Not so rare, anymore, but in the 90's it was basically unheard-of, especially for a few 23 year old Parisian kids with a 909.

 

This is probably why we're just hearing about publishing and label. I'm sure they were still inking the deal.

 

 

Also, FWIW. They are definitely a gateway aesthetic for tons and ton of people. During that late 90's period. I did not "get" house. I was into techno, IDM, etc. But I thought house (or what I heard of it) was big dumb club music, also probably too "gay" or black, even. They basically changed that for me.

[chim]

All this about how "interesting", "clever", "well marketed" they are makes you guys sound like you think there's some evil masterplan behind them, or like you're desperate to rationalize the fact that you like their music. IMO they pulled it off by making great tunes, simple as that.

 

 

I agree

[dr lopez]

I fucking hate the "its just good music" argument. SOOOOO BORING. Half the fun of music like this is that it exists within a collective cultural consciousness, filled with samples, retro styles, and references. Daft Punk aren't pushing the limits of electronic music and sound design like Ae, nor are they stylizing themselves as loner bedroom geniuses like AFX. The music itself is cultural criticism just waiting to be explored. Daft Punk is so much more than just fun great tunes. They're smarter than that and frankly its insulting to minimize their intentions and impact to a "good tunes, simple as that" mentality.

[Lane Visitor]

But I don't really think people paid too much attention to its origins of Chicago, and Daft Punk definitely took things to a much larger scale.

 

One of the first house tracks to use Speak n Spell... Early Chicago house stuff.. I could definitely imagine how this must have unfluenced Daft Punk and other Acid House/Filtered acts through out the 90's/2000's.

 

http://youtu.be/WExOtiiZdgM

[goDel]

so, ehm, you think they're underrated or underachieving?

 

@ the dr lopez

Edited March 27, 2013 by goDel

[Guest pixelives]

Love that Mickey Oliver trk

[Joyrex]

i sure hope they continue the trend of the cover art of their studio albums: just text saying 'daft punk' in their font, but presented in a new way

I don't - took ages to find the right album art in iTunes!

[joshuatxuk]

There may not be an "evil" master plan, but it is VERY VERY well thought out. For instance, from the get go, they've always owned their publishing and masters and essentially licensed out the LPs to labels on their own. Not so rare, anymore, but in the 90's it was basically unheard-of, especially for a few 23 year old Parisian kids with a 909.

 

This is probably why we're just hearing about publishing and label. I'm sure they were still inking the deal.

 

 

Also, FWIW. They are definitely a gateway aesthetic for tons and ton of people. During that late 90's period. I did not "get" house. I was into techno, IDM, etc. But I thought house (or what I heard of it) was big dumb club music, also probably too "gay" or black, even. They basically changed that for me.

 

They and Basement Jaxx were my introduction to house music, and I listened to them a lot along with Fatboy Slim and Chemical Brothers when I first started seeking out electronic music to listen to. They could of easily been the very first electronic group I really got into (instead of the CB's)

 

I fucking hate the "its just good music" argument. SOOOOO BORING. Half the fun of music like this is that it exists within a collective cultural consciousness, filled with samples, retro styles, and references. Daft Punk aren't pushing the limits of electronic music and sound design like Ae, nor are they stylizing themselves as loner bedroom geniuses like AFX. The music itself is cultural criticism just waiting to be explored. Daft Punk is so much more than just fun great tunes. They're smarter than that and frankly its insulting to minimize their intentions and impact to a "good tunes, simple as that" mentality.

 

I still think Discovery is their best album for that reason and probably why Human After All, while technically as good, just felt like another electro-house LP. I remember seeing the video to "Digital Love" on MTV in middle school, before I ever listened to any dance or electronic music, and finding it so memorable that they were one of the first groups I started listening to when I got into electronic music later on. It just sounded very familiar and as saccharine as it was something about it emotionally gripped me. I even remember my mom hearing it from the kitchen and she said "is this new? sounds like something straight out of a 70s disco station to me."

 

And I don't even need to elaborate on how much that album influenced the entire last decade of dance music.

 

 

But I don't really think people paid too much attention to its origins of Chicago, and Daft Punk definitely took things to a much larger scale.

 

One of the first house tracks to use Speak n Spell... Early Chicago house stuff.. I could definitely imagine how this must have unfluenced Daft Punk and other Acid House/Filtered acts through out the 90's/2000's.

 

http://youtu.be/WExOtiiZdgM

 

It's very much an influence. Bangalter has directly cited Carl Craig and Kenny "Dope" Gonzales, among other underground DJs like DJ Sneak who remixed their music back in the 90s, as inspiration for his early filter house tracks and the sound on Homework.

 

It's probably important to mention that before he and Guy-Manual formed Daft Punk they and one of the founders of Phoenix were in a short-lived band called Darlin' which was derided as "bunch of daft punk" in a Melody Maker review. I suppose he got into house around the same time.

Edited March 27, 2013 by joshuatx

[qnio]

about their influences:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu43m2k8FB0

[manmower]

I fucking hate the "its just good music" argument. SOOOOO BORING. Half the fun of music like this is that it exists within a collective cultural consciousness, filled with samples, retro styles, and references. Daft Punk aren't pushing the limits of electronic music and sound design like Ae, nor are they stylizing themselves as loner bedroom geniuses like AFX. The music itself is cultural criticism just waiting to be explored. Daft Punk is so much more than just fun great tunes. They're smarter than that and frankly its insulting to minimize their intentions and impact to a "good tunes, simple as that" mentality.

I'm not minimizing anything, but again we wouldn't be having this discussion if the tracks hadn't been good enough to grab everyone's attention first. Which is what we were discussing right: how did it catch on? The concept only works because the music is there to carry it, not vice versa.

[Guest pixelives]

 

There may not be an "evil" master plan, but it is VERY VERY well thought out. For instance, from the get go, they've always owned their publishing and masters and essentially licensed out the LPs to labels on their own. Not so rare, anymore, but in the 90's it was basically unheard-of, especially for a few 23 year old Parisian kids with a 909.

 

This is probably why we're just hearing about publishing and label. I'm sure they were still inking the deal.

 

 

Also, FWIW. They are definitely a gateway aesthetic for tons and ton of people. During that late 90's period. I did not "get" house. I was into techno, IDM, etc. But I thought house (or what I heard of it) was big dumb club music, also probably too "gay" or black, even. They basically changed that for me.

 

They and Basement Jaxx were my introduction to house music, and I listened to them a lot along with Fatboy Slim and Chemical Brothers when I first started seeking out electronic music to listen to. They could of easily been the very first electronic group I really got into (instead of the CB's)

 

>I fucking hate the "its just good music" argument. SOOOOO BORING. Half the fun of music like this is that it exists within a collective cultural consciousness, filled with samples, retro styles, and references. Daft Punk aren't pushing the limits of electronic music and sound design like Ae, nor are they stylizing themselves as loner bedroom geniuses like AFX. The music itself is cultural criticism just waiting to be explored. Daft Punk is so much more than just fun great tunes. They're smarter than that and frankly its insulting to minimize their intentions and impact to a "good tunes, simple as that" mentality.

 

I still think Discovery is their best album for that reason and probably why Human After All, while technically as good, just felt like another electro-house LP. I remember seeing the video to "Digital Love" on MTV in middle school, before I ever listened to any dance or electronic music, and finding it so memorable that they were one of the first groups I started listening to when I got into electronic music later on. It just sounded very familiar and as saccharine as it was something about it emotionally gripped me. I even remember my mom hearing it from the kitchen and she said "is this new? sounds like something straight out of a 70s disco station to me."

 

And I don't even need to elaborate on how much that album influenced the entire last decade of dance music.

 

 

But I don't really think people paid too much attention to its origins of Chicago, and Daft Punk definitely took things to a much larger scale.

 

One of the first house tracks to use Speak n Spell... Early Chicago house stuff.. I could definitely imagine how this must have unfluenced Daft Punk and other Acid House/Filtered acts through out the 90's/2000's.

 

http://youtu.be/WExOtiiZdgM

 

It's very much an influence. Bangalter has directly cited Carl Craig and Kenny "Dope" Gonzales, among other underground DJs like DJ Sneak who remixed their music back in the 90s, as inspiration for his early filter house tracks and the sound on Homework.

 

It's probably important to mention that before he and Guy-Manual formed Daft Punk they and one of the founders of Phoenix were in a short-lived band called Darlin' which was derided as "bunch of daft punk" in a Melody Maker review. I suppose he got into house around the same time.

 

They're all from the same Parisian suburb near Versailles. Cassius, DP, Phoenix, Jackson, etc, etc...

[Tamagotchi San]

All this about how "interesting", "clever", "well marketed" they are makes you guys sound like you think there's some evil masterplan behind them, or like you're desperate to rationalize the fact that you like their music. IMO they pulled it off by making great tunes, simple as that.

 

I dont really think their music is very clever at all, I do like it though (some of it very much) and do find it interesting, but there are other electronic music acts who aren't in the same position as Daft Punk, and it isn't because of a lack of great tunes.

 

I do think the music caught on because it was as you mention good enough to grab attention. But I dont think that is the reason for their greater commercial successes. They are very good, but they are equaled by plenty of other artists musically who are nowhere near as famous.

[Guest pixelives]

I have this saying, which I tend to keep to myself for fear of ruffling feathers, but I say to myself that Daft Punk is the Weezer of House Music.

[Tamagotchi San]

I have this saying, which I tend to keep to myself for fear of ruffling feathers, but I say to myself that Daft Punk is the Weezer of House Music.

 

Hahahahahaha

[Lane Visitor]

I have this saying, which I tend to keep to myself for fear of ruffling feathers, but I say to myself that Daft Punk is the Weezer of House Music.

 

isn't it ironic?

 

http://youtu.be/ITuMknU8eVo

[Guest pixelives]

Don't mind if I skip that. FUN FACT: Aoki aka Kid Millionaire (yes that was once his DJ name. barf) aka Son of Benihana and I share a birthday.

[Guest isaki]

"Random Access Memories", like in RAM? really wtf.

yes, like RAM, they are robots. it works

Edited March 28, 2013 by isaki