In the third part of Daft Punk’s “The Collaborators” video series about the making of upcoming album Random Access Memories (Columbia, 5/21/13), legendary producer and disco guitarist Nile Rodgers talks about his reciprocal experience working with the French duo and plays a lick or two of new material.
Daft Punk
Daft Punk: “Alive” in Color
This story first appeared in Chromatic: The Crossroads of Color and Music. Order your copy today.
Daft Punk: Human After All (Virgin, 3/15/05)
Daft Punk: “Technologic”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/daft-punk-technologic.mp3|titles=Daft Punk: “Technologic”]As the story goes, Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo became robots at exactly 9:09 a.m. on September 9, 1999, in a freak sampler-related accident. However ridiculous, this bit of science fiction may fit no one better than the world-famous French dance duo, whose digitized existence has taken on a mythology of its own. Despite limited material and general unavailability, Daft Punk has managed to grow its legend and vast following, and this hands-off approach has led to speculation and hearsay that do more for the band’s popularity than an interview ever could. Of course, Daft Punk’s prestige is also due to one of the most talked-about live shows of the past decade.
By the early 21st Century, Bangalter and de Homem-Christo had achieved near-ubiquity on a global scale — whether listeners recognized their music as Daft Punk songs or not. But even after the two invented a new origin and delivered a new studio album — Human After All in 2005 — listeners felt like they knew the story. Initial reviews of Human After All criticized the album for being repetitive and not as elaborate, and some felt that the mystique was gone.
Qua: A Digital-Analog “One-Stop Shop” for Texture, Color, and Melody
This story first appeared in Chromatic: The Crossroads of Color and Music. Order your copy today.
Qua: Q&A (Electric Dreams, 4/27/10)
Qua: “Circles”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Qua_Circles.mp3|titles=Qua: “Circles”]Given the proliferation of programmable equipment and digital production techniques, kids all over the world are growing up and playing music without ever touching a physical instrument. Who can blame them? Nearly every imaginable texture, pitch, effect, and beat is just a few clicks away. This sea change from analog to digital musicianship hasn’t just changed the way that we create music; it has changed the way that we see music too. Distinctly electronic timbres are coupled with the colorful swirls of an iTunes visualizer, the bright strobe lights of a dance club, and the neon aesthetics of genre giants like Daft Punk and MIA.
Though he grew up playing guitar in rock bands, Cornel Wilczek, better known as Australian electronic artist Qua, set aside his guitar and took the solo electronic road early in his career. His decision was made possible by a discovery of electronic music, a genre wherein Wilczek realized that he could become, as he says, a “one-stop shop.” He could handle production and technical duties without having to rely on anyone but himself.
At 17, Wilczek won a Yamaha guitar competition and moved to the USA to do session work and guitar demonstrations. “It was really quite amazing at the time,” Wilczek says, “but it was also the end of an era for me, because I had met so many of my guitar and music idols who were complete assholes. I actually came back [to Australia] and stopped playing guitar for about five years, and that’s when I found electronic music.”
Morrow vs. Hajduch: Justice’s Audio, Video, Disco
Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.
Justice: Audio, Video, Disco (Ed Banger, 10/25/11)
Hajduch: When Justice emerged in 2007 with †, it signaled the logical end of Daft Punk‘s arena-house takeover. Chunky Ratatat riffs and absurdly compressed samples, all blown out as loud as possible — it was a tacky 4/4 onslaught that just made absolute sense. Justice was a “rock band” inasmuch as it was loud and had black leather jackets (and maybe lip-synched?) and made dance music that was very clearly informed by the trashier end of the rock-and-roll spectrum.
So now it’s 2011 and the sophomore release is out. For the talk about it being more baroque/prog/(insert term of choice denoting “wanky” here), it doesn’t sound like much else but another Justice album. Every song sounds at least a little bit like Night on Bald Mountain, and everything is loud. Also, “Ohio” pretty clearly samples the throb from NIN‘s “Closer,” which is a really good choice.
Morrow: I like the Fantasia / Modest Mussorgsky association, but I think that those baroque elements are more pronounced. “Horsepower” puts the classical influence front and center, basically from the start of the disc, “Ohio” uses harpsichord flourishes, and “Canon” sounds like, well, the type of composition for which it’s named.
Of course, you’re right that the whole thing still sounds like Justice with its French electro sound and disco bits. But I would echo that it sounds less like future-ized funk and party jams and more like Johann Sebastian Bach writing simplified dance-floor burners (for fame and women, of course).
Chromatic: The Crossroads of Color and Music, out now!
The wait is over! A year in the works, ALARM Press’ collection of color-driven musicians and visual artists is finally here.
Morrow vs. Hajduch: Ford & Lopatin’s Channel Pressure
Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.
Ford & Lopatin: Channel Pressure (Software / Mexican Summer, 6/7/11)
Ford & Lopatin: “World of Regret”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Ford__Lopatin_World_of_Regret.mp3|titles=Ford & Lopatin: “World of Regret”]Hajduch: Ford & Lopatin (formerly Games) is comprised of Daniel Lopatin (a.k.a. Oneohtrix Point Never) and Joel Ford (from indie/’80s-pastiche band Tigercity). Their music together is a jittery, looped amalgam of trashy ’80s vibes. Riffs and vocals are recorded, deconstructed, down-sampled, and smashed back together. Their previous output as Games was a hypnotic series of tightly looped samples from synth-pop hits that never existed.
Channel Pressure takes the conceit a step further, adding occasional lyrics and the nebulous idea of a concept album. If you toned down the funk (and the length) of the poppier songs from Daft Punk‘s Discovery, and made them a bit more spastic, you’d approach the sound of Channel Pressure.
Morrow: To me, it sounds like Prefuse 73 twisting around the Miami Vice theme. The ’80s synth sounds and fake drum hits are out of control. Between those elements, the airy pop vocals, and the deep, bouncy bass, Channel Pressure has enough nostalgia to unleash a torrent of endorphins for anyone born before 1988. (Entertainingly, one song is titled “Too Much MIDI (Please Forgive Me).”)
But there’s enough of a modern and experimental twist (hence the slightly stretched Prefuse comparison), and that prevents it from being strict homage.
Lollapalooza Recap: Day 1
Despite a relatively tame lineup, the first day of this year’s Lollapalooza had some legitimate highlights — the heavy grooves of afrobeat star Femi Kuti, the gorgeous orchestration of The Polyphonic Spree, and the marvelous light show of Daft Punk.