Sunday night at the Grammy Awards
Show, the artists known as Daft Punk took home all 5 of the awards
they were nominated for including: Record of the Year, Best Performance by a Pop/Rock Duo, Best Engineered Album, Electronic/Dance
Album of the Year, and Album of the Year. It was a stellar
night for the French duo who had
previously won two Grammys for Best Live Album in 2007 with
their album Alive 2007
and Best Dance Recording
for “Harder Better Faster Stronger (Alive 2007.) 2013 was a breakout year for them with the release of their latest album, Random Access Memories. With singles such as Get Lucky and Lose
Yourself to Dance getting plenty of radio airtime across the
world, Daft Punk are in the spotlight of mainstream music.
As many already know, the duo consisting of two French robots have been around since the late 1990’s, creating electronic music that gathers inspirations from 1970's era disco, 1980's Brit Pop, and even grunge music of the early 1990's. Since their first album, Homework, in 1997 they've been pioneers in the world of electronic music and have only helped to solidify themselves over the years as one of the very best groups in electronic music. With the sweep of awards last night, I thought now would be the perfect time to detail my thoughts on the duo and why I am such a devout Daft Punk fan.
Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de
Homem-Christo are (allegedly) the two behind the faÇade
of the robots and the music they produce. The two met while attending
the Parisian secondary school Lycėe
Carnot, a prestigious school that was once home to the former French
President, Jacques Chirac. The duo’s first musical expedition was a
rock ‘n’ band they formed with Laurent Brancowitz (classmate and
current drummer for the Parisian band Phoenix) they named
Darlin’. The band was short lived, but they did release an EP with
four songs. A review of the EP in Melody Maker newspaper called the band
“a bunch of daft, punky thrash.” As many have concluded, this is
where the inspiration for their name came from. After the
unsuccessful attempt with a rock band, Thomas and Guy-Manuel sought
other avenues. Trying out toys like synthesizers and drum
machines, they found a sound and style they really enjoyed and
started producing new music. Their first commercial hit, “Da Funk”,
came out in 1995 and brought a new sound to the electronic genre that
had not been tried before. Upon the success of the song, they signed
with Virgin Records in September of 1996 and released a full album,
entitled Homework, the following year. The album met great
success and featured many great tracks that, in time, would prove to
be the songs that started a shift in the style of popular dance
music.
One of my personal favorite tracks from Homework is “Around the World.” Upon the first hearing the track, many complain about the repetitiveness and redundancy of the vocoder vocals speaking “Around the World” a mere 144 times. The song, like most electronic music, has varying series of 8-bar, 16-bar, and 32-bar beats, melodies, and rhythms. The highlight of the song does not lie in the vocals; it lies with the bass guitar and percussion, specifically the high-hat. The bass guitar only plays two different passages over the entire song with each one carrying the song into a different groove and sound. The first bass guitar passage you hear is a “four on the floor” style riff where the accents of the descending notes line up with the bass drum, which is beating on every quarter-note. The second passage is a riff that comes straight from a ‘70s disco gathering, featuring a very smooth and non-linear progression, as compared to the previous passage. As the song progresses, more and more elements are added (such as synthesizer, guitar, tambourine) and others change. For instance, the high-hat dictates how energetic the section is by varying between different patterns and whether or not the cymbals are closed or open; when the cymbals are open, it creates a very bright and lively sound and that is usually used when all the other elements are present as well (synth, guitar.) Conversely, when they are closed the sound turns to a very short, staccato feel where every downbeat is emphasized. Lastly, there is a point where all the elements drop and the listener is left with the vocoder and a closed high-hat. This creates a very separated and intimate sound compared to the rest of the song. This is followed by a counter-melody that is very similar to the isolated vocoder; however, the counter-melody is slightly modified creating an odd, yet satisfying tension between the two. The same elements from the beginning of the song are faded back in and the song comes full-circle but with an added counter-melody.
It seems fitting they called this
album Homework. The duo was fresh out of secondary school and
using their knowledge in the classroom to make their first album. I’m sure many of
the melodies they used came from assignments in their classes and
were molded in the classroom. They were even kind enough to thank all
of their teachers and inspirations on the track “Teachers.” The
Parisians were 22 and 23 when their first major commercial success
came out and they had the wisdom to take what they learned from the
experience and expand upon it.
They began work on their next album in
1999 and set out to create another album that paid homage to the music
of their influences. Unfortunately, on September 9, 1999 at 9:09pm,
there was an electrical accident that occurred into the studio and it
turned the duo into robots! Or so the legend goes. While probably not true, creating the
legend of “the robots” was one of the best decisions Thomas and
Guy-Manuel ever made. It took the idea of two French blokes messing
around with electronics in a basement and turned it into a
pseudo-superhero image of two robots connecting with the hardware to
produce music. Quite honestly, explaining it sounds like
the plot to a Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure or something of
the sort; however, this was something for their fans to latch on to.
The idea of the robots was born!
In 2001 the robots released the
album Discovery, a synth-pop record that took heavily from the
influences of 1970’s disco and bands of their childhood such as The
Beach Boys. In my opinion, this album is their magnum opus and what I
consider to be a “perfect” album. From the start, it is very
apparent that every sound, every beat, every instrument and filter
was specially selected and mixed to exactly what they wanted. There
is so much attention to detail in this album that after ~400
play-throughs I am still finding small nuances that add color to the
songs. Discovery is the album that has most of the hits that
people know from Daft Punk previous to today, with tracks like
“Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”, “One More Time”, and
“Face to Face.” The album is catchy, upbeat, and at times,
downright groovy. The album title can also be interpreted
differently. Discovery can be broken into “disco” and “very”,
and seeing that there is a track titled “Veridis Quo” (very
disco) could show clear inspiration to disco. I like to think that
this was their period of discovery of the music they produce. The
last album was akin to that of a homework assignment, but this album
is the discovery of their passions.
One of my favorite features of the album is that it is an album that tells a story. It is not clear about what the story is, but it is left to interpretation. To help with the story telling, they contacted legendary anime director Leiji Matsumoto to commission a full length anime to coincide with the album. The anime, titled Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, chronicles the journey of an alien band by the name of the Crescendolls as they are captured by a time-lord on earth and forced into the proto-typical role of 1970’s pop group. I think it is a great addition to the album and it really helps tell a story to the album, but anime is not for everyone so I tend not to discuss it much. Judge for yourself!
My favorite track on Discovery is the track aptly titled “Too Long.” The track clocks in at exactly 10 minutes and many fans complain that the track is, indeed, too long. The track is heavily inspired by 1970’s club disco and features all the instruments that you would find in a normal disco band: lead singer, guitar, bass guitar, drum set, synth, etc. The beat throughout the song is the standard “four on the floor” beat, with every downbeat being accented by a bass drum hit. The beginning third of the song is a mellow, but light section that features ride cymbals, a smooth synthesizer, smooth bass line; fairly common instrumentation for a mellow dance tune in the 1970s. There is a bridge section at the 4:30 mark where it drops to vocals and percussion before fading in bass guitar and synthesizer. After the long awaited crescendo, the song turns into a full-blown disco-house hit. Everything is brighter now, the bass drum beats harder, the bass guitar has a groovier feel to it, there’s a new vocal segment that’s repeated every 4 beats that drives the beat into the next measure. Every sound at this point in the song tells you to get off your bum and start dancing, and it does a damn good job at it (no matter how bad I may be at dancing.) This section is simply raw disco that I admire so much. In this section of the song, I have a very hard time keeping a big, stupid grin on my face. Repeat, ad nauseam for 5 minutes, with some minor element changes and additions but nothing major and that explains "Too Long" in a nutshell. It never lets up until the music fades out at the end, and by that time it is the end of the album. There was no better ending to the album, in my opinion.
After the success of Discovery, the robots took a break for 4 years before working on their next album Human After All. This album was still met with fan success, but not on the levels that both Homework and Discovery were met at. The 10-track album was very simplistic and grungy, a stark contrast to that of the previously bright and vibrant Discovery. Rumor had it that Virgin Records required another album from the duo and strictly enforced it, requiring the duo to compose, record, edit, and mix an album in 6 weeks (!). Many believe this to be their worst album, and I agree, but I think there are still plenty of positives to take away from it.
The best song off the album to
showcase what can be taken away from it would be the song
“Technologic.” The song, like “Around the World” before it,
deals with repetition and simplicity. Instead of groovy
disco-era beats, the duo opted for a grungy, hard rock aesthetic
which is showcased in this song. There are very few instruments (3 to
be exact) in the entire song: vocals, drum machine complete with a
couple toms and a high-hat, and a guitar. The vocal line is very
simple, a staple for any Daft Punk song, same goes for the guitar
line and the drum pattern. The song is driven by a very pronounced
eighth-note feel produced by both the high-hat and the vocals with
running eighth-note patterns. The high-hat has added accents on the
offbeat of beat 4 and then again on the downbeat of beat 2 while the
toms have a small fill after beat 3 creating a wonderful feel of
movement. The only melody to come out of the song comes from the
guitar pattern which consists of only power chords. This song reminds
me a lot of an improvisation lesson in jazz studies where you are
given 4 notes, or are artificially restricted in some way, and are
told to create a melodic passage out of it. This track seems to
operate like if one of those exercises were a take-home assignment.
Take that as you will, I think that is perfectly acceptable.
The not-as-successful Human After All was the groundwork for their next adventure, a worldwide tour for the first time in nearly 8 years. The set was going to encompass all of their albums, including some of their lesser known side projects. At a 2006 live show in Bercy (Paris) they set up recording gear and recorded with the intent of making a CD out of the performance. They ended up releasing the set, titled Alive 2007, and it was met with overwhelming praise. Most that did not care for the music of Human After All were turned into believers after the set. The album ended up winning a Grammy for Best Live Recording non-classical along with Best Dance Recording for “Harder Better Faster Stronger (Alive 2007). The stellar music was paired up with a light show to match it. The duo was featured in a pyramid with a myriad of lights coming from every angle. Most everyone that went to one of the tours on Alive 2007 said they would go again in a heartbeat, and hopefully I will be one of those the next time they come around.
After playing the final show of their tour in December of 2007 in Sydney, Australia they took a much needed break. They made only a couple of appearances in the next few years including a 2008 Grammy surprise appearance with Kanye West playing his song “Stronger”, as well as in 2010 when they played an encore track with Phoenix at the Madison Square Garden. During this down time they were hard at work on the soundtrack for the upcoming movie Tron: Legacy. The movie came out and did not meet the success it intended to, but most thought that the soundtrack was top tier scoring. I have not seen the movie yet, so I have no personal opinion on it, but as I understand it is: “A Daft Punk soundtrack with a movie in the background.” Purely conjectures though, don’t take that as a fact!
After adventuring into the soundtrack side of music, they took a long hiatus from the limelight and focused on their fourth studio album, Random Access Memories. The project started in 2008 originally, and the idea was to recreate an album that was everything the two French blokes grew up listening to. The idea was to give the album a "west-coast vibe" inspired by the likes of The Beach Boys and Fleetwood Mac. Making such an album was a monumental task, but they enlisted help from many star producers and talent within the industry. Instead of the electronic synthesized instrumentation they used in previous endeavors, this album was to be done (mostly) with real instruments which requires a very delicate balance and recording process to get the type of perfection that the duo were so well known for. They enlisted the help of multi-Grammy winning producers Paul Williams, Nile Rodgers, Pharrell Williams, famed pianist Chilly Gonzales, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Panda Bear of Animal Collective fame, a lifelong friend DJ Falcon, previous collaborator Todd Edwards, disco mogul Giorgio Moroder and the very best studio musicians money can get (Omar Hakim. Nathan East, Paul Jackson Jr.) It was a truly grandiose effort that was (obviously) met with great success, totaling 5 Grammys in every category they were nominated for. While I have listened to the album plenty of time (totaling ~150 plays on my computer alone) I feel like I don’t have a clear opinion on the album yet. I also don’t feel “comfortable” with the album yet, like I have with the 3 previous albums to which I can talk in such great detail of.
So that is a “brief” history of
the robots up until this past year. I neglected to go into detail of their side projects
(Stardust, Together, Le Knight Club, Crydajam, Thomas’ own record
label Roule, Guy-Manuel’s own record label Crydamoure) or their earlier live
shows such as Alive 1997. It’s hard to omit information when I’m such a devout fan,
because I believe everyone should experience what the robots are all
about, but this post is already a novella at this point. If you would
like to know more about the aforementioned groups, use your google-fu. Most of the songs are readily available on YouTube.
Their sweep of
the awards last night is something that the duo has most certainly
been chasing after their whole careers. When they won for Album of
the Year, the robots shared a very personal hug that seemed to
culminate the entirety of their relationship as musicians and as best friends.
