As my record collection grows at a decent rate, I try to get the albums that influenced me at a young age. From Led Zeppelin IV to Rush’s 2112, I’ve listened to these albums, and expanded on other genres of music. However, Daft Punk’s “Discovery” album was the album that got me into electronic/house music.
Daft Punk is composed of two French musicians: Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter. Influenced by some big names in the music business (The Beach Boys and the Rolling Stones), they put out quite a number of albums; three studio, two live, three OST, and some remixed material. WIth that in mind, there’s a reason why people know about these guys.
Diving into extra content about this album, a lot of the music videos for this album are animated. That’s because all of the music was used to create an animated movie, Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem.The movie has the length of the album, and portrays the album very well. Overall, the movie is well-done, and many people that are into anime will recognize the artistic style similar to that of “The Record of Lodoss War” and “Captain Harlock”. Well, Leiji Matsumoto supervised during the production of this animated music movie, so overall, you’re going to be watching something well-made and entertaining!
Now, moving onto the actual album: when you look at the vinyl in general, you’ll see that the tracks lead to a spiral shape, creating some assumptions of what you’re going to hear. But of course, if you listened to the album already, it’s just a really neat observation that can be made. Although I point that out, I have tendency of saying that all the albums I review are superb/phenomenal/amazing/masterpieces, but this album is a definitive one for electronic music in general. We have a nice mix of mixing and sampling, as well as some instruments played by both Bangalter and Homem-Christo. The artist Romanthony and the other artists make contributions to the album, and they are great for doing so. A lot of the tracks that feature vocals are Romanthony’s ,and for how much “funk” this album brings, his vocals complement the songs nicely.
Besides the vocals, the most dominant sounds you’ll be hearing will be the bass and the many unique sounds used for each track. With that in mind, each track sounds unique and interesting, keeping the flow of the album going strong. Even though this album can technically count as a concept album (following along with animation), each song can be broken up individually, and still would make sense on a mixed CD or flash drive. Each sample is mixed right, and they come from a song you may have heard of (Superheroes- Barry Manilow’s Who’s Been Sleeping in My Bed) and another you may never heard of (Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger- Edwin Birdsong’s Cola Bottle Baby). Overall, with all the sampled songs, it’s done right and well. I’ll even provide a link to a Youtube video identifying all the samples used.
Including the tracks mentioned above, here are the track listings:
One More Time
Aerodynamic
Digital Love
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Crescendolls
Nightvision
Superheroes
High Life
There’s Something About Us
Voyager
Veridis Quo
Short Circuit
Face to Face
Too Long
Ranging from techno thumpers to unusually steamy segues, there are two techno ballads (Digital Love and There’s Something About Us) that bring on the love vibe, some good workout tracks (Harder, Bettter, Faster, Stronger; Aerodynamic, and Superheroes), and two of the best party tracks on the album (One More Time and Crescendolls). The other tracks fall under “unusually steamy segues” (Night Vision and Veridis Quo) to fill the album, or they’re quite unusual tracks to show off your breakdancing moves to (Short Circuit). Overall, each track on the album will give you quite a few moments of nostalgia, as on the Sour Grapes Winery blog stated that Daft Punk “wanted to capture the innocence of enjoying music as a child” (sourgrapeswinery.com). I couldn’t have said it better myself, as many of these tracks are great in their own right.
To some of the listeners, this may not be the better Daft Punk albums, but it’s surely a grower. I really loved the album because I remember Toonami playing the “One More Time” music video on a regular basis. Personally, the best way to listen to this album is to watch Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, but if you don’t like animation at all, I’d recommend picking up the double LP. The high gloss sleeves are very heavy duty, the gatefold is pretty cool, and you feel the quality materials put into this album. If listeners purchase the early edition of the album, you’ll get a Daft Club card in the sleeve (unfortunately, I didn’t get one 🙁 ). Listening to this album makes me wish that the newest album will come out soon, but it might not come out until sometime near the end of the year, or worse, next year!
The next album is one that I really have a gripe about the sound mixing and neglect. Believe me, it’s going to piss people off when I rate the album negatively. Yep, I’m gonna be negative in the next review! So remember folks, don’t go digital…go analogue!
