Daft Punk's Random Access Memories

Kanye works with Mike Dean who despite recording some of my fav hip hop ever (Geto boys, scarf ace, UGK) isn't the guy id go to for a nice sounding records these days. He's of the LOL stick an ultramaximizer on everything to make it pop school of production. Everything this record isn't.

lol at "scarf ace"

http://k.7w7.us/li/mpr/mpr/shrink_80_80/p/2/000/060/2d9/03c1a55.jpg

*drops mic*

damn

Interesting read:

http://www.sonicscoop.com/2013/05/27/icons-mick-guzauski-on-engineering-and-mixing-daft-punks-random-access-memories/

Read this yesterday -- great piece.
There's no question that DP's approach here was 100% sincere -- that it wasn't spending money for money's sake or doing something they were supposed to do, but just musicians exploring a different side of the craft. Honestly, they don't sound any different than a hundred other musicians in terms of how they approach tracking, mixing and editing. If anything, they sounded pretty trad.

Anyone still obsessed with that blog post should read this, bc here's this engineer who's done a million records over the years, who's an industry guy through and through, having worked on music both legendary and legendarily crap --
who seems to have found himself genuinely reinvigorated by this project. Give Life Back to Music, indeed.

Which itself brings another angle to this which is whether instead of crapping on musicians who do their thing on laptops, etc., are they making the case that EDM musicians are artists too, that they're part of an awesome heritage, and that they can (and should) raise their game?

That seems to be a lot more "Daft Punky" than "the rest of you suck."

^That's exactly what I took away from this album. It's shocking to me (perhaps it shouldn't be) that a sad number of people who write about dance music have no clue about it's roots, which led to many being baffled by this album. There so much more to the genre than bleep-bleep-boop-bop. To hear that swing section on "Touch" referred to as some kind of show-tune tribute is hilarious. There's a good amount of disco that references big band, so it's not as weird an inclusion as one might think.

last 3 posts otm. woke up still feeling trolled by that blog post

So rock bands covering "Get Lucky" are this year's rock bands covering "Hey Ya," right?

oh man, that's gonna yield some BAAAD covers

already anticipating the "Daft Punk Shreds" video, tbh

there's a good nile rogers video on youtube where he explains why pretty much everyone plays le freak wrong

giving this more time, Give Life Back to Music and Instant Crush are becoming the standout tunes for me

i can't really ride with most of the robot vocals here. especially when they barge into "lose yourself to dance", total buzzkill.

madness, they enhance it

I can't really ride with the Pharrell vocals tbh. He can't sing at all, not in a singerly way and not in a non-singerly, stylized way. He has a really amateurish "I'm singing falsetto in the shower" quality and he hasn't gotten any better.

Beyond kind of sounds like I Keep Forgettin

the robot vocal doing the COME ON ascension is one of my favorite parts of the whole album

Eeeuggh needs some heavier troutman-style action imo

i think the robot vox sound better on the slow jams

'within' might be my favorite song on the record actually

xp That blog is crap.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/05/24/blog_post_vs_blog_this_blog_post_is_not_a_blog.html

― caek, Thursday, May 30, 2013 11:23 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I stand corrected. That blog post is crap.

― Deafening silence (DL), Thursday, May 30, 2013 11:25 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ok new blogs up!

Without question, I'd like this album better if it included singers I actually like, and not singers I actively dislike. Really, weird, divisive selection all around, like they actively avoided ringers in favor of a b-list hodgepodge.

I've never really had a problem with Pharrell vocals except for when he raps.

same here, never bothered me on the neptunes stuff and i genunely love "bobby james"

I get the impression that a few of the songs here - e.g. 'Fragments of Time', 'Lose Yourself to Dance' - are a few bpm slower than you'd expect them to be. Am I just dumb?

Fragments is 130bpm according to this (and I don't think it's slow for what it is), but to your point Lose Yourself to Dance is 100bpm. I think that mid-tempo groove gives it more tension, kind of a stomper that also gives Nile more space for his guitar work.

1 Give Life Back To Music - 119 BPM
2 The Game Of Love - 90 BPM
3 Giorgio By Moroder - 113 BPM
4 Within - 110 BPM
5 Instant Crush - 110 BPM
6 Lose Yourself To Dance - 100 BPM
7 Touch - 91 BPM
8 Get Lucky - 116 BPM
9 Beyond - 104 BPM
10 Motherboard - 137 BPM
11 Fragments Of Time - 130 BPM
12 Doin' It Right - 89 BPM
13 Contact - 124 BPM

thanks. Yeah, Lose Yourself to Dance feels slightly (not entirely) resistant to being a dancefloor song.

Can't be sure what I'm expecting from Fragments of Time to be expecting it to be faster.

Motherboard surely more like 107 bpm

Hmm... I think you may want to re-listen to the song focusing on the drums, keyboard arpeggios, and woodwind melodies (err, that's 70% of the track ya?), it's pretty vivace.

Motherboard is 103bpm.

I just realized this record reminds me a lot of the first Lionel Richie record, and I don't think it compares favorably.

thanks hurting for doing good work itt

yw yw

i tried to give this another listen two days ago and made it only about two minutes in

It's worth listening to for the guitar work and production, and a few of the songs hold my attention. I think Get Lucky is one of the lamest would-be summer hit songs ever. I can barely remember the hook.

see a doctor, u may have memory problems

'now why was he up all night again?...to ride his stucky?...to rubber ducky?...to watch Nucky (good show)? I give up on this would-be summer hit!'

hahaha

lol i'm up all night to watch nucky

I read "(good show)" in a posh brit accent

I pretty much love this album now. Every single time I listen to "fragments of time", I have a moment about halfway through the song where I have to tell myself "that guy, yknow the one singing, THAT'S TODD EDWARDS". I don't think this will ever change

I've listened to this at least once a day for the past two weeks, and I've barely wanted to listen to anything else. This hasn't happened in years.

i tried to give this another listen two days ago and made it only about two minutes in

I pretty much love this album now. Every single time I listen to "fragments of time", I have a moment about halfway through the song where I have to tell myself "that guy, yknow the one singing, THAT'S TODD EDWARDS". I don't think this will ever change

― too busy s1ockin' on my 乒乓 (wins), Sunday, June 2, 2013 2:55 PM Bookmark

yes! I love that already having perfected "what you would expect a collab between daft punk and todd edwards to sound like", this time they went for "not what you would expect at all" and it's still totally dope

It's kinda cute that the lyrics of Fragments of Time are actually about the making of the song

the summer song is "#Beautiful," guys.

It's kinda cute that the lyrics of Fragments of Time are actually about the making of the song

Familiar faces I've never seen
Living the gold and the silver dream
Making me feel like I'm seventeen

the rolling stone profile is worth reading