Back in 1997 Daft Punk appealed very much to my indie self with a previous love of UK rave culture and house music this record very much in my mind cemented a number of genres together I loved via the record Homework (1997). This was released in the middle of my time at University and at the height of amazing short music videos, such as that directed By Spike Jonze for Da Funk and Michel Gondry directing Around the World.
In 2001 I recall excitedly telling my house mate as I listened to Discovery (2001) that the record was ground breaking and I had never heard anything like it, he was less impressed and preceded to tell me to go listen to some avant garde electronic music, he had missed the point, it really was ground breaking. The Album also was released as a series of music videos inspired by Anime animation under the title Interstella 5555 (2003)
By the release of this record Daft Punk had become their full robot personas.
Human After All (2005) didn’t have as much impact on me personally but I do recall being blown away by Robot Rock at the time. 2006 saw the release of the film by Daft Punk, Electroma, amazing visuals and pace.
2010 saw the release of the music for Tron: Legacy(2010) which was impeccable and so moving. It was probably the most accessible Daft Punk album too, I consider it one of there Albums and not just a sound track.
Of course what I hadn’t appreciated was this was all warming up to Random Access Memories (2013), I initially dismissed this record personally as all the air play of Get Lucky and it’s commercial success really put me off however once I finally sat down and listened to the record I realised the master piece it is.
The 2015 documentary Daft Punk Unchained paints a great picture of the history of this iconic French pair as a pioneer in electronic music.
I was really sad to hear of their retirement. As with much of their life outside of performing as Daft Punk I doubt we will know much more than the video released today (an extract from the 2006 film) as both Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter have been very private people and never wanted to be celebrities.
Thank you Daft Punk.
