Real Daft Punk (eBook)

Introduction

The origin of Daft Punk dates back to 1992, and four songs of Beach Boys-inspired indie rock meets punk fabricated by Thomas Bangalter, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Laurent Brancowitz as Darlin’. “Cindy, So Loud” and “Darlin’” appearing in April 1993 on the white vinyl B-side of the eight-track UK double 7” compilation Shimmies in Super 8 on the Duophonic label. Named after the audio signal processing of mono recordings to stereo by Capitol Records. Approximately 400 of its 800 copies carrying a Darlin’ sticker and paper insert designed by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. British weekly music newspaper, Melody Maker, tagged the music “a daft punky thrash,” and the group disbanding the same year due to musical differences. The other two recordings ”Untitled 18" and "Untitled 33” released in 1995 by Banana Split on the De La Viande Pour Le Disco? cassette.

Laurent Brancowitz picked up his guitar and joined his older brother, guitarist Christian Mazola, in synth-pop darlings Phoenix. Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo bought drum machines and synthesisers and went to work as Daft Punk learning how to utilise them best.

Dance Music had always been around in various forms. “The Father of Disco,” Giorgio Moroder playing with the Moog synthesiser as far back as the late 60s. His song “Son of My Father,” recorded by Chicory Tip on Christmas eve 1971, in the studio of “Fifth Beatle” George Martin, is the first UK number one song to feature a synthesiser plainly. Moroder’s taboo-breaking “I Feel Love,” co-produced by Pete Bellotte for Donna Summer in 1977, widely recognised as one of the most influential songs of all-time originating electronic dance music (EDM) and the home studio revolution. Certainly one of the primary songs triggering the idea of people recording electronic music.

“I Feel Love” broke a lot of taboos,” said Moroder in a 1997 interview with documentarian Iara Lee, director of feature-length Modulations: Cinema for the Ear. The film capturing a moment in history where humans and machines fused to create exciting sounds, and the history of electronic music. “One is that people started to like that kind of music and then doing it, not in big studios, but starting to do it at home in small recording studios because it didn’t need to have great musicians to write it. In fact, some of the major hits were done by numbers. So instead of people actually playing the song, they would dial in numbers. This whole electronic field of recording got a lot of incentives for people to record even in little demo studios because it opened a lot of people’s new ideas. They didn’t need all the money to record in a big expensive studio. That was one of the main reasons for the synthesiser to grow that rapidly.”

Chicory Tip “Son Of My Father”

(CBS) 1971

https://youtu.be/QXbrS3Msgww

Donna summer “I Feel Love”

(Casablanca) 1977

https://youtu.be/Nm-ISatLDG0

The innovative sounds of Germany’s Kraftwerk credited with popularising electronic instrumentation in the mid-70’s, using synthesisers, vocoders, drum machines and self-made instruments. The surprise international chart success of the Autobahn album in 1974, laying the groundwork for electro-funk, ambient, and synth pop. Kraftwerk was branded “robot-pop” for the combination of pop melodies, sparse, repetitive rhythmic arrangements, and matching suits.

Kraftwerk“Autobahn”

(Philips) 1974

https://youtu.be/x-G28iyPtz0

The 32-track Korg MS-10, known for its large electro bass, is arriving in 1978, the Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer drum machine coming in 1980, permitting artists to create rhythms. Futurists Richard Davis and Juan Atkins forming Cybotron, the base of Detroit Techno, the same year. Drawing inspiration from Kraftwerk, George Clinton, Yellow Magic Orchestra, electro-pop, Italo-Disco, and the writings of Alvin Toffler focusing on the effects of modern technologies on global cultures. Atkins was also collaborating with teenage High-School friends Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson as Deep Space Soundworks. The trio became known as the Belleville Three, credited with developing the blueprint of Detroit Techno.

yellow magic orchestra “RAP PHENOMENA”

(horizon) 1981

https://youtu.be/MHZ1GWEoiP0

Juan Atkins, “The Godfather of Techno,” going on to record Electro and Techno as Model 500 and Infiniti, starting the Metroplex label in 1985. Derrick May was releasing “Strings of Life,” as Rhythim Is Rhythim on his Transmat label, in 1987. A song with no baseline that served to explode House and Techno in Europe. Acid House and Techno fueling what became the Rave scene. Symbiotically, the music spreading its wings leading to an infusion of new subgenera and sounds. Kevin Saunderson and Chicago vocalist, Paris Gray, topping the US Billboard Dance Chart twice in 1988 as Inner City with “Big Fun,” and “Good Life.” Twice in 1989 with “Ain’t Nobody Better,” and “Do You Love What You Feel,” and once in 1992 with “Pennies From Heaven.”

Godfather of Techno Juan Atkins and Eddie “Flashin” Fowlkes @ WMC 1997.

cybotron “Clear” (Fantasy) 1983

https://youtu.be/fGqiBFqWCTU

Derrick May / Rhythim Is Rhythim “strings of life” (Transmat) 1983

https://youtu.be/DM8j4AF06II

The revolutionary “Planet Rock” by Arthur Baker, John Robie, Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force coming in April 1982. The melody is an interpolation of Kraftwerk's "Trans Europe Express,” Yellow Magic Orchestra’s "Rap Phenomena,” Kraftwerk's “Numbers," and Ennio Morricone's For a Few Dollars More soundtrack. Along with its follow-up “Looking For The Perfect Beat” arguably the most influential songs, ever, credited as key to the development of Electro, Hip-Hop, Breakbeat, and the subgenera that followed. Baker and Robie as Planet Patrol creating “Play At Your Own Risk” on the remnants of “Planet Rock” the same year. Baker was moving on to co-produce “Confusion” with New Order in 1983, and “I.O.U.” featuring Nikeeta in 1992, his other big hit.

“Everything comes around,” said Arthur Baker in our spring 1997 interview. “What comes around goes around. What goes around comes around. Electro and that sound have come around three or four times since ’82. Every few years someone discovers it again, and now it’s sort of called Electronic. There’s all this thing about the Chemical Brothers and all that kind of thing, but it’s all - It’s old electro Hip-Hop. It hasn’t changed all that much. Maybe new drum sounds or something, but the basis is what we did in ’82 and ’81. When I’m in Miami, and I turn on Power(96), it’s every three songs it’s either a sample of one of my old records or one of my old records. It’s cool. I’m glad the music’s lasted. It stuck around probably because it was modern when we did it, and it hasn’t dated all that much.”

Arthur Baker and Nadine Renee @ WMC 1997.

AFRIKA BAMBAATAA & THE SOULSONIC FORCE (music by planet patrol) “PLANET ROCK”

(TOMMY BOY) 1982

https://youtu.be/9h6pcqC6wrI

PLANET PATROL “play at your own risk”

(TOMMY BOY) 1982

https://youtu.be/szIk4h8RfTo

AFRIKA BAMBAATAA & SOULSONIC FORCE “LOOKING FOR THE PERFECT BEAT”

(TOMMY BOY) 1983

https://youtu.be/2RJlYzBhLg4

NEW ORDER “CONFUSION”

(FACTORY) 1983

https://youtu.be/c_L_-CKg6pw

arthur baker featuring nikeeta “I.o.u.”

(RCA) 1991

https://youtu.be/k12LD9HDiD0

The programmable Korg Ploysix analogue synthesiser capable of producing multiple tones at the same time coming in 1982, and the 61-key, six voice polyphonic Roland Juno-60 later the same year. Its hybrid digital/analogue electronic oscillator used in synthesisers, micro-controllers, and software-defined radios. The standardised protocol for electronic instruments and computers to connect and communicate, MIDI, Musical Instrument Digital Interface, in 1983.

“If it wasn’t for the technology, then nobody could be doing this style of music,” said Kevin Saunderson in our summer 1992 interview, to promote his upcoming Inner City album, Praise. “I was one of the first people to be at the forefront of technology. The 808, the 909, the synthesisers. Even people like New Order, and Kraftwerk, and Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys. All those kinds of groups were dealing with electronic equipment as a different style. Our style was more for...