Discovery

by

Daft Punk

Edit

Even if you bought this record just for it's liquefied metal cover, you would not be disappointed. This is truly a fantastic album in every sense of the word. And the techniques used in the creation were just fabulous. One of the things my friend said when he first heard me playing it was "the samples sound so CLEAN!" And they do. Every sample has been processed at incredibly high quality, there is no "Lo-Fi" on this record. The entire record is permeated with funky-style samples that you swear you know but just can't seem to place. Every song has some fantastic SOMETHING about it:

1.One More Time - the perfect party track! a thick thumping bassline and everybody-that's-not-a-raver's-view of the raver world lyrics -:)-, catches your attention immediately.

2.Aerodynamic - by far, the most significant bit on this track is the squealing pseudo-guitar solo. It may be simple, but it sounds REALLY COOL!

3.Digital Love - early 80's motivational tapes samples with cheesy vocoded lyrics = something still meaningful? To be honest, it's still fun to listen to, despite it's cheesiness.

4.Harder, Better Faster, Stronger - one of my favorite songs on the record. Easy to dance to, but it features one of the most incredible things I've ever heard. To understand you have to know what a vocoder is. A vocoder is a device that takes your voice, specifically the vibrations in your voice, and converts it to the tone of the instrument it is attached to, which is almost ALWAYS a keyboard for simplicity. What's really neat about Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, is that at 2:25, the vocoder is switched over to an odd device that triggers it by a guitar. It's especially obvious at certain points, where the player is playing a really neat solo. Truly interesting to hear.

5. Crescendolls - A little odd at first, but it's got the throw-your-arms-in-the-air "HEY!" sample going on. A lot of fun, eh?

6. Nightvision - a slow, short instrumental track, but still extremely well put together. I wish it were longer with some vocals.

7. Superheroes - When I looked at the sample list for the record, and saw "Barry Manilow - Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed?" I wondered "what the heck?!" But when you hear the track, and the thumping bassline and beat and "love is in the air" echoing over and over it really makes sense and the song is a lot of fun.

8. Night Life - Brings back memories of disco! And that's always a good thing, right?

9. Something About Us - Listening to the beginning of the track I was expecting Barry White to start singing. A nice slow mellow groove.

10. Voyager - A little distortion on the bassline kept it interesting.

11. Verdis Quo - After you get by the somewhat slow intro, it starts getting kind of neat, and you want to keep listening. The layers get thicker each minute, and by the end it's a real sonic jubilee.

12. Short Circuit - I can't really say anything in favour of this song, neither could amazon.

13. Face To Face - This will HAVE to be the next one on the radio! I've already remixed this into an extended version and played it at some parties where we play a lot more old-school funk and stuff. The version on the record is about 3 and a half minutes, my version was nearly 9 minutes, and still when it ended people acted dissapointed because they were getting so into the groove. I love this song!

14. Too Long - when I first saw the length of the song, I thought the title was a joke! Ten minutes? An epic pop-techno song? But yes, it's an incredibly well done track, and as Romanthony says in the lyrics, it's really been "too long" since we've heard from the Daft Punk.

In all, this is truly a fantastic record with a lot of vision. A combination of funk, pop, disco, and techno, this isn't techno up front, and it doesn't claim to be. In fact, it doesn't CLAIM to be anything. Whatever it is, it's REALLY good at being it.

Daft Punk are clearly talented, ever since the irristbly infectious 'Homework' album they have quite rightfully taken their place among the dancehall/electronica elite. Suffice to say, their latest offering 'Discovery' does not disappoint. The album kicks off with the now classic 'one more time' incorporating a flowing beat with great computed generated vocals (like that's a suprise!) this is followed up by the sublime 'aerodynamics' with its powerfull electro-guitar solo. The sound quality does not decrease as we are then presented with the already well known 'Digital Love'- this is a fanatstic track with a very clever vocal floating accross a tinny, yet head nodding beat. The proceeding track 'Harder, Better, Stronger, Faster' is by far and away the best song on the album, the song consists of three main parts - each more funkier than the last - the beats are excellent and our computerised protaganist is, well...damn funky!

Unfortunately after this point the quality detriorates...rapidly, the few highlights remaining include 'Too Long'and 'Cescendolls' although if you are not an avid fan these are certainly nothing to get excited about - especially when they are found alongside abominations such as the pathetic 'night vision'or the charmless 'face to face'- overall accomplished, enjoyable but ultimately flawed.