Hey everyone - welcome back at the discotheque!
For today's post - I wanted to do something a little bit different. A few days ago, I wrote about how I got into French house music (and a bunch of the adjacent genres which are also featured on the blog!) - and in that post, I only very briefly mentioned the greatest duo to ever grace French touch - and possibly electronic music - Daft Punk. They've been my heroes for several years now - and also my biggest inspiration musically - so, in today's post, I'd like to shine a light on how I found them, my favourite tracks and my (quite long) history with them.
Without further ado - let's get started!
Okay, so - a lot of you readers might think that I initially discovered Thomas and Guy-Man through all of the usual hits - One More Time, Harder Better Faster Stronger, Technologic, Robot Rock, you know the drill - but in fact. it was the opposite - as when I was around eight years old - in 2017, I discovered Crescendolls (the filter-led disco classic from their second album Discovery) and Rollin' and Scratchin' (the raw, uncompromising techno jam from their debut album Homework) thanks to YouTube autoplay, and as you can expect - these tracks definitely spiced up my playlists hugely, especially as during this time, I pretty much exclusively listened to mainstream pop and dubstep.
I soon caught on to a bunch of their more mainstream work spanning pretty much every era - but if you asked me back then who Daft Punk were - I'd likely have come out with the same answer most people seem to - they were the "robot guys that made electronic music..." and if you asked me what my favourite album of theirs was - I genuinely wouldn't have been able to come up with an answer - as back then, I was super narrow minded!
Fast forward a few years (in particular, to autumn 2019) - and by this point in my life, I was beginning to explore music more broadly (but I was still a massive elitist - more on that later...) - and after browsing through Spotify one day, I decided to stick on Daft Punk's first album, as I'd heard it was very good. I pretty much fell in love with it instantly - it was raw, extremely energetic, built for dancefloors and extremely bold. funky and bad-ass - so it quickly became one of my favourite records ever - a position it still proudly holds today.
However, here was the thing - as I was getting so into late 90s electronic music - I essentially swore off anything else, believing it was all just cheesy pop music - in this case, the same thing happened with the rest of the duo's work. I believed at the time that after Homework - they "sold out" to make pop music - basing my assumptions on whatever was playing on the radio that was Daft Punk related. Just to clarify - I now deeply regret this, and as a massive fanboy that loves all of their work - I can confirm that they did the opposite!
Anyway - for the next few years of my life, Homework was all I listened to in the realm of Daft Punk - and I hadn't planned to continue with their discography, until I was gifted Discovery on CD for Christmas 2022. A few months later, I was bored in my bedroom - and seeing as I had nothing better to do (plus, it was raining, like it always does here in England!) - I decided to stick Discovery on, assuming that it would be a house record that was mostly cheesy with a couple of bangers stuffed in there for good measure.
I was very quickly proven wrong - as every single song was perfect. and it blew me away completely. Although Discovery lacks the rawness and thumping energy of Homework - I loved it because it was such a happy, carefree and innocent record, which was playful, groovy and so much fun - and it quickly became my all time favourite record.
I quickly realized, that I had some catching up to do!
Within weeks, I set out to get acquainted with all of Daft Punk's studio work - as I felt like I had missed so much, especially as this was two years after they split. I made my way through their work chronologically - listening to Human After All, I loved the dystopian elements, the lack of polished, clean production which Discovery prided itself over, and the robotic, dark nature of the record. Then, I decided to listen to Random Access Memories - and was equally floored at the sheer scale of the album, the musicality and the incredible production which was extremely warm, grand at times and full of brightness.
I then went back to the Alive series of live albums - which I equally enjoyed - especially as they managed to show off how much the duo transformed themselves with every new release. Alive 1997 was stuffed with the deep, raw vibes that ten year old me initially fell in love with - while Alive 2007 was epic, effortlessly electrifying and impressive, with several of the mashups blowing my mind when I was 14 - especially the legendary encore, and the killer mix between Burnin' and Too Long - I still play it all of the time!
Throughout 2023 and early 2024, I remained a devoted Daft Punk fanboy - I listened to them daily for months, asked for Daft Punk related things at every birthday and Christmas, and within a year, they'd become my heroes. Around this time, I was itching to find out more about their individual work, and thanks to a video essay by Pad Chennington (the very same one mentioned a few days ago in another blog post!) - I ended up discovering Crydamoure and Roule, the two labels that Guy-Man and Thomas owned throughout the late 90s and early 2000s.
This led me down another massive rabbit hole, and it's through finding these labels that I became a massive fan of Thomas' solo work - especially the first Trax on Da Rocks volume - and also Guy-Man's work under the duo Le Knight Club with Eric Chedeville - with the releases from both of these labels sound-tracking summer 2024 for me - and also the start of my final year at school. By this point in my life, I'd started to move away from rave music - as I was beginning to become enamored with French touch - especially as it was so upbeat, fun and really, really funky. I guess that if I didn't discover Daft Punk's work - this blog may not have even been started, nor would I have found one of my biggest passions!
Finally, to end this post out - I would also like to say that it's through Daft Punk, that I've been able to have some of the best times of my life so far. Their music has been there for me during some of the most awesome times - holidays, events, before gigs, summer nights - you name it, there's likely a Daft Punk song I associate with it. Furthermore, their music has enabled me to make some great friends - and to prove this - going to see the Daft Punk Experience in Fortnite on launch night with Opierm, Luv4Loop, Guv'nor Funk and DJ Supernick was one of the most memorable, fun and genuinely incredible nights I have ever had.
So, to sum it up - my history with Daft Punk has been quite long - but I'm super glad I found them. Their music is beyond incredible, and without them (and a few others!) - my life would have likely taken a different direction musically and in general - so I am super, super thankful for everything they have done.
There you have it, everyone!
I hope you've enjoyed today's post - I've been trying out different things to end out ATD's anniversary week - and I apologize if this one seems a little short - it took a little bit of brainstorming to think of this idea - and I've been super busy today - so I haven't had as much time to write this post.
Either way - I hope you've enjoyed, and as always - keep enjoying your stay at the discotheque.
Comments
Post a Comment