Daft Punk's Random Access Memories

Couple of observations from a longtime lurker:

(i) interesting that somebody referenced Gene Clark's 'No Other' - Sebastien Tellier mentioned in an interview c.2008 that Guy-Man had given him a copy of that album when they were recording 'Sexuality' ;

(ii) Bangalter's father, Daniel Vangarde, was a shit hot record producer - he's generally referenced in the context of Ottawan's 'D.I.S.C.O' but that does him a huge disservice. I did a mix of his productions (1971-1987) for Dazed & Confused magazine, link here, I think RAM fans are gonna like it

http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/16102/1/the-hits-of-daniel-bangalter

(iii) parts of RAM really remind me of Maxwell's 'Urban Hang Suite' i.e cream of 70s session musicians getting back together on a blow-the-budget production.

i've only listened 2 or 3 times but felt like 35% maybe?

parts of RAM really remind me of Maxwell's 'Urban Hang Suite' i.e cream of 70s session musicians getting back together on a blow-the-budget production.

prefer Maxwell's two post-Embryra albums so

no they were totally ground zero for that (or really 'stronger' combined w/ the tour), though i'd argue the real moment of high influence was a few years ago, at this point we're at the stage where it's settled in as a permanent part of the landscape but not as much the hegemonic defining feature imo.

xpost

weird I had no idea Bangaltar's dad was one of the Yamasuki guys

Love the Grantland review. Hyden keeps nailing every album he writes about imo. This is a great way of putting its aspirations.

From the beginning, RAM was presented as a lost artifact of the monoculture; Daft Punk was faking upward, pretending it was a generational touchstone during pop's post–generational touchstone period.

What risk does a record store incur if it sells a record before the official release date? I saw it sitting on a shelf behind the counter, i.e. not for sale. I just wonder what penalty is involved.

Thanks for that mix Sisophonic!!

that Grantland review is the work of somebody who hasn't got a fucking clue about dance music but that's the last i'm gonna dignify it by opining

Had no idea about the Yamasuki connection either xp

Re nostalgia: the most important way in which RAM looks backwards is in terms of "this is how you can make an album" imo, not so much in terms of what of what it sounds like.

store faces possible issues w/ distribution, esp if it's a major release.

I saw one behind the counter in the now listening display @ Fopp on Sat...but it def wasn't for sale then...

Re nostalgia: the most important way in which RAM looks backwards is in terms of "this is how you can make an album" imo, not so much in terms of what of what it sounds like.

― sword of (seandalai), Monday, May 20, 2013 5:13 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wtf have u heard the album

i thought i posted a yamasuki vid here? maybe that was facebook. but anyway yeah 1971 prog disco that still sounds great today.

i am a bigger fan of the dad but i do think the daft dudes are talented. no doubt. for the record.

Per the Grantland piece:

we simply don't get to hear music this well played on pop records anymore.

I can agree with this. I would listen to an entire album of drum duets between Hakim and Robinson with the occasional Moog fart squeezed somewhere in the middle.

how many people think this album is all samples though? probably a lot of people.

Think? Probably a lot. They'll be digging through crates a long time to ID the sources, though.

I would listen to an entire album of drum duets between Hakim and Robinson with the occasional Moog fart squeezed somewhere in the middle.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, May 20, 2013 10:36 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark

OTM

Love the Grantland review. Hyden keeps nailing every album he writes about imo. This is a great way of putting its aspirations.

/From the beginning, RAM was presented as a lost artifact of the monoculture; Daft Punk was faking upward, pretending it was a generational touchstone during pop's post–generational touchstone period./

Couldn't stand that Grantland review and I don't know what any of that means.

3rd listen and I am officially aboard

in case you were wondering

mad xxxposts but

it's only music that gets perennially praised so unreservedly for its PR wizardry! no one has said "oh but the great gatsby film was so well marketed, everyone's talking about it" and no one says it about idk innocent smoothies either.

Not sure about its significance (I'm sure it's not accidental) but was I hearing to the album today on headphones and noticed that on Giorgio by Moroder at around 0:23 - right after Moroder says 'school' - a woman (teacher?) says the name Gregor Samsa.

yeah wtf armchair appreciation of ad campaigns is annoyingly prevalent if anything xp

"most expensive pseudo-Ween record in history" is otm

Also my brother pointed out to me that the fred falke remix of whitest boy alive has the same chord progression than get lucky. It's not an unusual progression but hey if you want something similar to that one here you go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vak7nAu-Ck

Gregor Samsa!

Well I held off until I actually bought the thing. Not sure how much I can add after 4600 posts, but:

- it's a treasure chest. I agree that lots of bits bring things to mind, but it itself isn't really in the same circle as anything. The White Album, Tusk, 3 Feet High And Rising, those are what I'm left thinking of - and it certainly doesn't sound like them.

- I have no idea what's going to happen to it. I kind of want it to fail horribly, 'cos it'd be a joy to have as an ilm secret in a couple of decades. I suspect it won't though, it's too much fun. I certainly had a big stupid grin all over my face as Touch unfolded itself.

idg why yall dont like the grantland piece. i 'know' dance music and it seemed fine to me

"This record raises a radical question: Does good music need to be good?"

what this novel presupposes is....

whenever i read shit like that the image that pops into my head is

http://www.matadorrecords.com/matablog/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/harvey_head_big.jpg

"This record raises a radical question: Does good music need to be good?"

hadn't realized this was an sfj quote lmao

xxxxp Yeah, I haven't felt so pleasantly surprised by a new records twists and turns - the way Giorgio by Moroder unfolds, Touch, the acceleration of Contact,the utter pleasure of hearing Nile Rogers playing guitar - like that in a while. For real, my biggest giggle was the honky tonk bit in Touch. It sounds amazing!

That said, I'm not wowed by sad coke robot ballads.

wtf have u heard the album

― flopson, Monday, May 20, 2013 9:21 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Boom, fair point. "Sounds like" was the wrong thing to say. What I meant was, I don't think you could confuse any track on this for something from 30 years ago. The album could only have been made now. The philosophy behind making the album, on the other hand, feels like an intentional throwback.

i don't get that. it doesn't sound like any music made in the last 20 years, and it uses mostly if not all technology available in the 70's... what would have been so hard about making it in the early 80's or whenever

Maybe it's hindsight - what record cut in the early 80's would have Giorgio Moroder talking about his life? That's very much a statement of intent, imo. The only thing that I can think of is Vincent Price on Thriller as some kind of parallel, but an incredibly loose one.

what record cut in the early 80's would have Giorgio Moroder talking about his life?

ok well that's a pretty trivial definition!

also if anything the "intent" of that statement is: we're going to make a retro disco record

"This record raises a radical question: Does good music need to be good?"

https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/129730596/2630509441_944a6ee3e2_m.jpg

xp No retro disco record has that kind of nuttery on it, but I believe them when they say 'we don't like modern dance' because the sheer balls of making the third track of your big comeback Giorgio Moroder talking about sleeping in his car in 1969 just seems like a massive reaction. It may be trivial/without precedent, but it's what they've done and how they've talked about this record?

It's entirely possible I'm mixing up a few ideas about this record due to a few beers/having read so many fucking thinkpieces about how it's going to change modern dance before it's actually been officially released.

My initial reaction is that it's really great except for too much sobbing on your yacht surrounded by female androids at 5am, and that Panda Bear can fuck off tbh.

and that Nile Rogers is OTM

sad robot backlash in effect

me, i love a sad robot. can it be any sadder? i'm asking that.

The Game Of Love (Beach Boys connection there?) just utterly destroys the flow that Give Life Back To Music starts, but it's really great by itself. I just find them weaker? The fact they only have one verse each is a bit of a downer. Maybe I am not so far removed from people expecting Human After All Volume 2? #valuablenewposters

when the horns come in on touch, feels like pet shop boys

I wonder if they tried recording any of the robot vox songs with human vox first. or vice versa.

"fragments of time (feat. IBM's watson)"

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/s480x480/484693_10151658895513923_1617195533_n.jpg

so at the end of Moroder's DJ set at Output tonight after 'I Feel Love', dude stops and just starts talking to the crowd for about five minutes to "recreate" the talky part of the daft punk track and the crowd alternates between confused murmurs, occasional shouts of SHUT UP AND PLAY THE RECORDS and hissing "SHHHHHH"s. Eventually he finally says "So my name is Giorgio... I mean, my name is GIOVANNI Georgio..." and then they played the song. Kind of a weak ending to an otherwise utterly epic time.