Daft Punk Discovery Appreciation
yuichi
Urban sprawl 11,332 Posts
Great LP front to back. That is all.
yuichi
Urban sprawl 11,332 Posts
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'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.
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
: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.
my shit:
but there are so many other pieces to the album, ranges of emotion that even "One More Time" begins to (finally) fit.
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.
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.
If you haven't seen it before, watch the film!
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?
butter.
I also forget which song, but there's definitely one track that sounds like Kool and the Gang.
Early Phoenix Albums
("United" and "Alphabetical")
JUSTICE?
"Veridis Quo" has some serious Moroder vibes
That whole album has some great cuts on it that will probably continue to stand the test of time.
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.
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!
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.
"Discovery" album holmes. I'm pretty sure you'll find a few tracks you'll like.
From "Homework"
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
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).
It certainly was everywhere that summer. Good call.