Daft Punk's Random Access Memories

Kind of enjoying the Daftside remixes, some good moments on it. The Da Funk/Musique remix of Instant Crush.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6leKFatGcdM

"Instant crush" is good but somehow it might be the track I listen to the least on the album (with "contact").
maybe because it really feels much more like a strokes track (and I like the strokes) than a daft punk track and it doesn't really fit on the album.

it's amazing how "lose yourself to dance" manages to take all the energy out of even a soul train video

"lose yourself to dance" is quite bizarre because the funky riff and groove are great yet, it's true that the song is not really made to dance to.
but the thing I love about it is the robots choir that goes up and down and goes crazy.
very baroque.

or maybe some dirty robot dancing.

The Daftside take on "Lose Yourself to Dance" is jawdroppingly great.

https://soundcloud.com/daftside-2/11-daftside-lose-yourself-to

after sitting with this album for awhile I don't think it's really all that good. the parts that aren't insanely repetitious are wandering and sort of ill-conceived

it *sounds* really great, but everything else about it is undercooked.

Armond is getting down getting funky to this somewhere:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6PEboTpcfI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6PEboTpcfI

xp argh :)

it annoyed me a little bit at first but I think the thing about the repetitive/longish aspect of many of these songs is that they are pop/disco/prog songs composed by electro/techno guys.
the idea of repetitiveness is at the core of their songwriting process.
"Da funk" or "around the world" were very repetitive too !

so for instance "lose yourself" could have been shorter in a pure "pop" conception.
but if you consider it as an electro track in structure, it's not really an issue anymore.

after sitting with this album for awhile I don't think it's really all that good. the parts that aren't insanely repetitious are wandering and sort of ill-conceived

― the Spanish Porky's (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, June 24, 2013 11:46 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it *sounds* really great, but everything else about it is undercooked.

― the Spanish Porky's (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, June 24, 2013 11:46 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I feel exactly this way, but there's no purpose to me repeating it except to troll the thread. Which I am doing.

I don't have a problem with repetition per se - I like a lot of repetitive music - but this is the lazy, boring kind of repetitive

yeah it's like they just didn't know how to make the songs go somewhere

whereas in past daft punk the repetition and minimailist variation is the strength

The Moroder track is dumb, nothing he says is interesting. "FREE YOUR MIND FROM MUSICAL THEORY PRECONCEPTIONS" and then the same simple, boring chord progression keeps going.

Game of Love is the standout truly awful track imo, and Within is awful in a more forgettable way. But Touch is also terrible in a particular, bathetic way, like an outtake from a little-performed Sondheim musical.

I still love Give Life Back to Music, and there are a few other pretty good tracks.

Beginning of Beyond is like "WELCOME TO UNIVERSAL STUDIOS THEME PARK!"

new Soundcloud doesn't let you spoof download links from page source anymore, let me know if Daftside gets rar'd

yeah Moroder track is just inexplicably poorly constructed...? Touch too, in its way, altho I get what they were going for there at least (and I'm a huge PW fan). but the moroder thing is like the definition of filler.

Yeah only Omar Hakim's drumming saves that one

(Moroder I mean)

Guys, this is quite obviously the the LEAST repetitive, most musically diverse album to date from a band where repetition is one of their main features. "Omar Hakim's drumming saves that one". Exactly - maybe the drumming and the guitars etc in the last three mins are the whole point, no? I get that you dislike or are disappointed or something but your complaints come across are pretty LOL.

these guys might have a grasp of how repetition works in electro/techno/whatever you want to call it, but I don't think they know how to effectively employ it in other contexts. like, say disco-prog.

what makes something that is repetitious boring or not? is it the length of the repeated part? is it the repeated part's quality? how similar does a part need to be to the previous part for it to be labeled 'a repeat'? can you please isolate a section of a song that you think is boring because it's repetitious? do daft punk really want to employ repetition? because fact remains that the taxes they would levy on disco-prog would ultimately hurt repetition, no?

okay, take Give Life Back to Music, which has essentially two parts: a turnaround/breakdown and a simple four-chord verse. The only melody to speak of is the vocoder line, which pops up and gets repeated ad nauseum with no variation when it does. This is all there is to the song, yet it goes on for 4 1/2 minutes, waiting for something else to happen. It's structured like a pop song, but contains none of pop's dynamics, no narrative, no building of tension followed by release, the instrumental elements don't build on each other. After the fourth or fifth time I've heard the vocoder refrain, I'm sick of it.

and like all the individual elements are pleasant enough, the guitars sound great, the drums sound great, the bass is rubbery, the vocoder melody is serviceable, but all of the parts just kind of lay there.

AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD AROUND THE WORLD A-ROUND THE WOOOOORLD

this is the first daft punk album I've ever listened to btw, so appealing to "older, better" stuff basically means nothing to me thx for playing

Then maybe Daft Punk generally aren't for you. I mean, if this is how you feel about 'Give Life Back To Music', then listening to the full version of 'Around The World' is severely going to test your patience.

I like prog disco and moroder and paul williams and whatnot so I thought hey maybe this one WAS for me but what do I know

these guys might have a grasp of how repetition works in electro/techno/whatever you want to call it, but I don't think they know how to effectively employ it in other contexts. like, say disco-prog.

― the Spanish Porky's (Shakey Mo Collier)

Once you free your mind about a concept of harmony and music being correct, you can do whatever you want.

otm

lol

as someone who has played the album a little too much, the weakpoints are: pharrell, that lose yourself to dance is more 80s than 70s nile (not that i dont like lets dance, etc, i just think 70s nile would fit the rest of the album better), the limp EQing of too many of the drums, that string sample on beyond, the slightly dated 90s and compressed dj shadow-sounding drum breaks on contact (the original version from a decade back is so much better), the bombastic conclusion to the moroder song (l absolutely love the rest of it though). dont get the complaints that give life back to music is repetitive - it is, but in a good way, plus i just see it as replicating chic songwriting structure, plus its such a good riff/hookline, i really dont mind. i could also do without some of the cluttering/pro-tool excess on touch, even though the song has ended up being one of my favourites. i notice that more when you place it next to a song like fragments of time or the casablancas song, though i understand that not every song can have that kind of production clarity.

may I posit, just a little theory I'd like to throw out into the wind, that people who think "Lose Yourself to Dance" is undanceable are total dumbfucks?

lose yourself to dance is more 80s than 70s nile

this is otm tho

xpost - yeah, that riff is one of the funkiest guitar parts ive heard in years.

Yeah I definitely get a more late 80s vibe from Lose Yourself to Dance than a 70's vibe. Like I keep get reminded of late 80's funk-rock bands when it first starts up and half expect Mike Patton or Anthony Kedis to start rapping.

Lose Yourself to Dance remains my favourite song on here. It's strange because it is essentially the same all the way through and does last six minutes but in the last ten seconds when you hear Pharrell start to sing "I know you don't get a chance to break this often" (for the fourth time!) I'm always sad it fades out at that moment and most times I have to put it on repeat. There is something about that song that is just so addictive and it's not just Pharrell's wimpy little "Guitar" moments which are still my favourite thing about the whole album. That and Giorgio's "I know the synthesizer, why don't I use the synthesizer"

i love giorgio's monologue but my brother hates it. quote: "how is this pleasant, catchy music abandoning any idea of 'harmony' or how music is supposed to be???"

your bro is geir hongro?

lol.

What would Geir make of an album such as this, pop in theory but oddly rockist in execution?

How does this work? Say his name three times in front of the mirror. Hold on...

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS2DFD69hQhHADZeehnSf8QK2loLtYeYR43ba6jL9qJpr5BbhNKQw

Shit, that wasn't it.

I've been away for a year and a half, where did Geir go anyway?

Random Geir Memories