Daft Punk Discovery Appreciation

yuichiyuichi Urban sprawl 11,331 Posts
edited January 2013 in Strut Central
Great LP front to back. That is all.

  Comments


  • skelskel You can't cheat karma 5,033 Posts
    You are not wrong there , sir.

    'Something About Us' is perfect blap music.
    I need like a 45 mins extended version of that.

    Minor grumble: the cover is shit.
    I don't want no black n multicolour chrome splodge shit stinking out my stack like some 15yo doom metalhead wet dream.

  • JuniorJunior 4,853 Posts
    Have we had the conversation on here before about it being the most influential album of the past ten or so years? Can't remember anymore so, if not, then let me state fro the first time that I think it's the most influential album of the past ten years regarding trends in pop music and beyond.

    Also, being a fan of Homework, I detested this album when it came out - mainly due to the ubiquitous presence of One More Time everywhere I went which grated horribly with the less poppy earlier work. I have since come around. Insane that it's been that long since it came out.

    B/w

    skel said:

    I need like a 45 mins extended version of that.

    :the_mack:

  • DocMcCoyDocMcCoy "Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,913 Posts
    Junior said:
    Have we had the conversation on here before about it being the most influential album of the past ten or so years? Can't remember anymore so, if not, then let me state fro the first time that I think it's the most influential album of the past ten years regarding trends in pop music and beyond.

    Also, being a fan of Homework, I detested this album when it came out - mainly due to the ubiquitous presence of One More Time everywhere I went which grated horribly with the less poppy earlier work. I have since come around. Insane that it's been that long since it came out.

    B/w

    skel said:

    I need like a 45 mins extended version of that.

    :the_mack:

    Yeah, we've definitely had that convo before - on here too, I'm sure, although I can't find the thread in question. Certainly, when Graduation came out I remember thinking how funny it was that Discovery had turned out to be such an enormously influential record, and not for the obvious reasons either. It wasn't universally lauded upon release, IIRC, and it was quite some time before its influence really became apparent.

    In light of which, this lengthy quote from Jonathan Meades is kind of apropos;

    ???Being ahead of one???s time is an obligatory condition of avant garde legitimacy along with novelty, progress, absence of precedence, clear breaks, clean slates, daring to be different, scaling the unknowns heights and so on, ad vomitum.

    And before we forget there???s also the assumption that collective currents somehow carry the forces of inevitability, that things are destined to be. Here???s a way of looking at the World, a retrospective way, which quite ignores serendipity, which doesn???t accept that it might all have turned out differently had it not been for this circumstance or that chance. Which fails to recognise that there are no patterns save those that we self-fulfillingly impose after the event.

    When applied to art this way of looking at the World necessarily places undue value on alleged mould-breakers, on works which supposedly lead onwards, works which are deemed to have pointed the way forward, which have come first in the great competition that art is routinely deemed to be, but isn???t. Art isn???t sport, it isn???t the wretched Olympics, the reduction of art to awards and prizes and gongs is risibly dumb.???


    Discuss.

  • yeah, I really ride for this album and I do think we had a long convo about it here, maybe even pre-Graduation.

    my shit:



    but there are so many other pieces to the album, ranges of emotion that even "One More Time" begins to (finally) fit.

  • JuniorJunior 4,853 Posts
    Ah, thought we'd had the conversation about influence but sometimes it's difficult to separate the board from the mindgarden. Wasn't actually checking reviews when it came out (funny to think that as recent as 2001 I was still making purchases based on peer recommendations, labels and blind listens in stores) but it took me a fair while to get over the "selling out" vibe I got from One More Time's relentless radio play. Once past that though it didn't actually sound anywhere near as different from Homework as the extremes of both albums had suggested.

    The thing about Discovery's influence is how slow burning it seems to have been. At the time it seemed to have much less of an impact than Homework which brought a whole wave of new producers to my attention. Almost like it's influence was on the next wave of producers rather than Daft Punk's peers.

  • JuniorJunior 4,853 Posts
    Also, Alive has jams:


  • Junior said:
    Also, Alive has jams:


    i love how the minor arpeggios added for the live mix COMPLETELY change the entire mood and tone of the record.

    discovery was a strange record for me. I KNEW it was ahead of it's time, but i also knew i didn't like it YET. it's as though it forced me to resign myself to the general curve.

  • toby.dtoby.d 254 Posts
    Totally agree. It's a great album although I haven't given it much time over the last few years.

    If you haven't seen it before, watch the film!

  • yuichiyuichi Urban sprawl 11,331 Posts
    there are so many other pieces to the album, ranges of emotion that even "One More Time" begins to (finally) fit.

    Definitely.

    I remember bumping a few tunes off "Homework" when I was in college. Started listening to Discovery only last year, and it's definitely grown on me two fold over that period. I mean, even the relatively simple tunes are so damn flawless with its intricate rhythms and melodies. If the current brand of EDM (for the most part) is on some orgasmic body high, then this is just the opposite, even though it has its share of hype tunes.

    Aerodynamic and Digital Love are probably ones I've listened to most and enjoy, since they're on the front half of the album.

    Yall have any suggestions to similar artists? Kraftwerk?

  • yuichiyuichi Urban sprawl 11,331 Posts
    'Something About Us' is perfect blap music.

    butter.

    I also forget which song, but there's definitely one track that sounds like Kool and the Gang.


  • yuichiyuichi Urban sprawl 11,331 Posts
    Short Circuit is def another fav. so ill.

  • yuichi said:
    Yall have any suggestions to similar artists? Kraftwerk?

    Early Phoenix Albums
    ("United" and "Alphabetical")

    JUSTICE?

    "Veridis Quo" has some serious Moroder vibes

  • bassiebassie 11,710 Posts
    They are supposed to be releasing a new record this Spring.

  • SIRUSSIRUS 2,554 Posts
    nile rodgers and gorgio moroder are both on it. i cannot wait.

  • dayday 9,612 Posts
    It took me a really long time to get into Daft Punk (I'm talking years after the fact), mostly due to close minded-ness and "keep it real"-isms and I regret not listening to them sooner. This song just does it for me.



    That whole album has some great cuts on it that will probably continue to stand the test of time.

  • m_dejeanm_dejean Quadratisch. Praktisch. Gut. 2,946 Posts
    toby.d said:
    If you haven't seen it before, watch the film!

    Interstella 5555 is great. I guess most people have seen parts of it as the videos for the Discovery singles, but you really need to see the whole film. Always wanted to see Electroma too. Excited about the new album.

  • End to end burner for me. fuckyaface.

    I remember listening to this, In Search Of, and Psychoanalysis in front of administration. I felt embarrassed and empowered.

    The TRON album was such a LET DOWN. Real wack :(

    Saw them do a show in Toronto in an airplane hanger with the SoulStrut homeboy Aser. It was AWESOME!!! Supposedly it was that format "played off a CD" show! Mad American Apparel girls in neon trying to impress. Kavinsky opened and he SUCKED real bad as a DJ!

  • coquicoqui 42 Posts
    This one's a great record. Always loved the slow burn of "Verdis Quo", which sounds something like a precursor to the "Solar Sailer" track from the aforementioned Tron soundtrack.

    Thought there were some great moments in that soundtrack, but there was a lot of orchestral input too. Really liked the Hoenig/Moroder-esque stuff though, tapping into that sound you had on things like Midnight Express and the Thief ost.

    I also remember distinctly that there's a track that must have been beefed up by the time the movie came out... I think there was an organ overdub or something that really brought one track over in the film, which only stands on the verge of getting it on for the album version. Of course, I could be imagining the whole thing... will have to revisit soon.

  • JATXJATX 258 Posts
    I'm pretty disconnected. I've never properly listened to any Daft Punk material. Can a Strutter recommend a good starting point?

  • Mike_BellMike_Bell 5,736 Posts
    FACE TO FACE

  • yuichiyuichi Urban sprawl 11,331 Posts
    JATX said:
    I'm pretty disconnected. I've never properly listened to any Daft Punk material. Can a Strutter recommend a good starting point?

    "Discovery" album holmes. I'm pretty sure you'll find a few tracks you'll like.

    From "Homework"

  • coquicoqui 42 Posts
    JATX said:
    I'm pretty disconnected. I've never properly listened to any Daft Punk material. Can a Strutter recommend a good starting point?

    I agree that you can't go wrong with the whole "Discovery" album (their second full length). Probably the best one to check first, if you're an album kind of a guy. That one's on some Moroder digital disco madness. Some tracks I'd single out as a way "in":

    "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger"
    "Voyager"
    "Digital Love"

    I love "Verdis Quo" most of all, but that's by no means a typical recommendation!

    Here's some earlier material of theirs, on the house tip, that I heartily recommend:

    "Musique" - early 12", predating the first album
    "Revolution 909" - straight up house, off the first album, "Homework"
    "Rock Shock (Thomas Bangalter's Start-Stop Mix)" - essential remix of a great Roy Davis Jr. single by half of the duo

  • Still prefer Homework over Discovery. But Discovery does sound a whole lot better when it's not being played everywhere. The singles got played the fuck out.

    Definitely ahead of it's time.

  • coquicoqui 42 Posts
    BeatChemist said:
    Still prefer Homework over Discovery. But Discovery does sound a whole lot better when it's not being played everywhere. The singles got played the fuck out.

    Definitely ahead of it's time.

    Yeah "Homework" is for real. "Rollin' And Scratchin'" and "Burnin'" are both monster trax. I probably like those first two lps about equally, for different reasons. That first one is without a doubt one for the house heads, many of the tracks on that one (although I remember it appealing to a lot of rock and hip hop cats back in the day too).

    You're definitively right about overplayed though. I got burnt out on "One More Time" pretty quick back there... (although I love Romanthony (the guest vocalist there) and his work, "The Wanderer" is one of my all time favorite 12"s).

  • white_teawhite_tea 3,262 Posts
    To this day, one of my absolute Daft Punk tunes is the "Daft Punk remix of Ian Pooley's 'Chord Memory'" -- as said by the in-tune announcer. It was such a magical, idiosyncratic slice of weird, mid-'90s techno-house hybrid. I could see how it may not date as well to a lot of ears but it's perfect to me.

  • white_teawhite_tea 3,262 Posts
    And who could forget. There was a moment in time where every DJ in Chicago played this in every set. A party I saw Bangalter play at the Dolton Expo Center I think I heard the song like seven times -- almost on some "N*****z in Paris" shit.


  • coquicoqui 42 Posts
    white_tea said:
    There was a moment in time where every DJ in Chicago played this in every set.

    It certainly was everywhere that summer. Good call.
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