Wednesday, February 24, 2021

DAFT PUNK (1993 - 2021)


Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homen-Christo, who together are known to the world as the disguised EDM duo, Daft Punk, have officially announced the end of their musical partnership on February 22nd. This innovative band lead the movement that successfully brought dance music to the pop charts. Although it had been since 2013 that the French musicians had released their worldwide breakthrough fourth album, "Random Access Memories" which went on to receive five Grammy Awards including Album of the Year, the news is still unexpected and quite surprising.

The two became friends while attending the Lycée Carnot school in Paris. They recorded demos and later formed a rock band with Bangalter playing bass and de Homen-Christo on guitar. After abandoning the band, the duo moved towards experimenting with synthesisers and drum machines. This lead them to create an instrumental, acid house track called, "Da Funk" in 1995, receiving attention from Virgin Records who signed them to the label with Daft Punk being born.

At first, the duo made live appearances without costumes while touring for their debut album, "Homework". But the men were not interested in fame or being photographed. They started to wear face masks while performing and doing publicity. With their success, Daft Punk eventually moved to more elaborate costumes, with them wearing robotic suits and helmets.

With their follow-up album, "Discovery" in 2001, Daft Punk's music moved towards a slicker electro-pop sound, utilizing autotune and vocoded vocals on their songs. And the album was an incredible success on the dance charts across the globe with the singles, "One More Time", "Digital Love", "Face to Face" and "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" (which would later be sampled by Kanye West for his 2007 hit song "Stronger").

The announcement of their end came inventively with an eight minute video clip. In the film directed by Warren Fu, the pair appear wearing their robot personas walking in the desert. One stops moving suddenly, then the other returns to flip a timer-switch on him that causes his destruction.



And to pay tribute to Daft Punk and their influential sound, here is a highlight of some of my favorite tracks from the band:









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