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5 years ago, Daft Punk split up.

Image that made me want to cry so hard that I puke on my carpet

It wasn’t very surprising to me, with their inactivity and the non-happening of Alive 2017, but it did sting a good lot. Though at the time I was only a fan for 5 years, it still felt like, as corny as it sounds, that a loved one (or two) died. Daft Punk’s music ended up being a very important staple of my life and a giant piece of me as a person. My online alias even comes from the Daft Punk song “Aerodynamite” and by extension, “Aerodynamic”.

I feel like with today (as I wrote this section at least) being the 5th anniversary of the robots’ retirement, it’s a good time as ever for me to talk about my history with the muse-some twosome. I haven’t made a blog post like this before or any sort of essay since high school so this may be rambly. I apologize in advance but promise to make this at least a little fun to poke through.

Daft Who?

Daft Punk were a French electronic house duo active from 1993-2021. They were a pair of two musically-talented guys named Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (I’m going to affectionately refer to him as Guyman from now on). If you have never heard of them then you most likely have heard their work collaborating with Pharrel Williams, Kanye West, and the Weeknd. Or you may have been downed by them in Fortnite and immediately griddy’d on. That was probably me that did that. I’m not sorry.

Daft Punk were well-known for their public appearance as two French dudes in robot costumes; though they only started doing that bit in 2001 during the leadup to the release of their second album, which I’ll get a little bit into later.

DID YOU KNOW?

Daft Punk got their name from a previous project of the duo: Darlin’, being described as “daft punky trash.” by a music paper.

DID YOU ALSO KNOW?

What the rest of the world knows as “Super Mario’s Bros. 2” is actually a game called “Mindcraft” in Japan.

And who made that game; you may ask?

Yep.

Walt Didy.

DID Y ?

I’d go more into Daft Punk’s history but this post is already really wordy. I added this section later; for added context.

The Flipnote Connection

In 2016 I didn’t really listen to much music. I wasn’t some alien that disliked the uncivilized simpleton concept that is “songs and albums”, I just wasn’t really crazy for any particular artist yet.

I did listen to vgm, which is the reality of many a teenage poindexter that played their 3DS at school lunch time. I’m pretty sure the music I bumped the most were remixes from Smash Bros., which I believe is honestly the main thing that made me realize music was cool. I swear Nintendo in this discussion is relevant. It’s the first domino that fell that led to my taste in everything.

The first time I ever heard a Daft Punk song was sometime in 2011/2012 surfing Flipnote Hatena. I’m sure those familiar with Flipnote don’t need me to describe any further. If you aren’t familiar or want a refresher, here’s the Flipnote in question; It’s a classic and the style is still really charming. The song in the animation is a remix of “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” but it still counts!

(possible seizure warning)

Shoutouts to Sudomemo btw for this useful embed feature and archive.

Flipnote Hatena I didn’t quite use as often as some other people at the time did; I never even made Flipnotes; but from the times I did use it, it felt very special. Nintendo opened Pandora’s Box of what could have been an awful human social experiment that resulted in Newgrounds accessible to elementary schoolers on-the-go; but thankfully, in my memory, it was a decently-wholesome fun time. Thankfully children have never had access to shocking content in the palm of their hand since! ;D

I keep getting sidetracked but whateva, this is my blog and this is just how my brain works! RAAGH!!

The Nugget MP3 Player

In 2016, public school was absolute hell for me. I don’t know what evil, demonic insect bit me or what but my brain was absolutely in the dumps. Crazy depression. Waaoow! I had some accommodations for my situation (until I didn’t), which I am very grateful for looking back. One of the accommodations for me was I was allowed to listen to music in class to calm down all the rumination I had. It helped a bit for that but I was not able to pay attention in class at all. Whatever, better than the constant dread I felt otherwise.

I got a really cheap, most-definitely rebadged mp3 player from Walmart to listen to me sound slop. It is a JLab Eclipse 180 Pro. (What a cocky name btw). I believe the first mp3s I put on the player were the Jet Set Radio soundtrack; which was a game I recently picked up on Steam at the time and adored the music. I don’t quite remember what compelled me to download Daft Punk’s second album "Discovery" but one night I did, and from a shady website at that.

ol' unreliable

The first listen I was lying down on my living room couch late at night with headphones on just staring at the ceiling. I can’t recall if I immediately fell in love with the album but I must have liked it a good bit to keep listening to it after. My immediate favorites from the album were “Superheroes”, “High Life”, and “Face to Face”. The former two may be surprising to some as being my favorites due to their repetitive nature but to my brain, if something sounds good and is repetitive, it’s like crack. Also small tangent, the laugh sample in “High Life” sounds a little like the boo laugh in Mario 64.

Something that's a little funny: my mp3s were not formatted correctly for my player. The album order was all out of whack and I don’t think I noticed the first few listens. I was so used to that order for a while and it’s a bit bizarre thinking now that I completely forgot the order until looking back at the player for this blog post.

I'm surprised this thing hasn't bit-rot by now

like if this band saved your life

It is cliche, it is corny, but Daft Punk did help me get through some hard times. I had a debilitating crush on a girl in 2016 and I’d sit alone a lot on the school bus ride home; due to my friend having track after school most days. I’d replay “Digital Love” and “Something About Us” so much when I needed a good cry. Looking back that probably wasn’t the healthiest thing but there’s much worse ways to cope with that kind of feeling I’d say.

After a short bit I eventually purchased the mp3s of “Random Access Memories” on Amazon and I fucking LOVED (and still love) that album. It was a little bit controversial to some Daft Punk fans for straying very far from its house roots. Honestly with how hipster some fandomites get, it may have been also due to how big of a hit “Get Lucky” was. (Which was a song I also heard on the radio a lot and quite liked before I got into the duo).

Cute little story about Get Lucky; I never really participated in gym class in school or wanted to be perceived ever enjoying myself or showing positive emotion. I don’t really know why I was like that to be honest but every now and then something fun happened where I couldn’t stay miserable. One day in gym or health class in 2014/15 the teacher hooked up a Wii; a system that naturally spawns in every public school, to the whiteboard projector. She put on Just Dance 2014 and one of the songs available was Get Lucky. I came out of my shell that day and had to get a turn of playing. I had a blast and that was the only time I ever played Just Dance. Thank you Daft Punk (ft. Pharrel) for making me have minutes of fun!

me having fun

I for one welcome Daft Punk’s experimentation and striving to make their albums sound different. (“Human After All” may have been too much of an experiment but I still like it) “R.A.M.” is a beautifully-engineered album. I’m not too knowledgeable in music production but I have messed around in LMMS and Reaper before. Shit’s not easy!! The album has a very warm analog sound (because it was analog!) and is a real delight on a decent hi-fi setup.

Christmas 2016 I ended up receiving the vinyl record of R.A.M. along with a cheap but not too-cheap Sony turntable with one of those Audio Technica cartridges that come on the lp60. That same Christmas I also got Gorillaz’ “Plastic Beach” on vinyl along with the cds of “Homework”, Discovery, Human After All, the compilation albums “Musique Vol. 1” and “Daft Club”, and finally the 2000 single CD of “One More Time” that ended up being the opener of Discovery. In retrospect, that was a great Christmas. Made the mostly awful year that was 2016 a lot better. Thank you mama und papa.

the parents watch on

I remember setting up my new turntable and hand-down early 2000’s stereo system after we were all done opening presents that morning. I tested the cd player in the receiver with my newly-acquired Homework CD and was skimming through songs until I got to “Teachers”. My brother was in the room with me and claimed he recognized the song. A uniquely-awkward moment followed of us both standing up straight; silently listening to the song without saying a word. I think about that moment a lot because of how bizarre and uncomfortable it was.

My memory timeline might be a little jumbled...

The more I type my memories, the more instances of listening to Daft Punk I recall and the timeline of things gets a little muddy in my memory banks. I believe the first time I listened to R.A.M. was a YouTube upload of the album as one long video back in summer 2016. Before I gave Discovery my first full listen, I watched the different split music videos on YouTube from the animated Daft Punk movie “Interstella 5555”. I was a 14 year old NerdBob and it was an anime. Of course I liked it. God, I love that movie.

Here’s a funny little anecdotal moment that I recall happening while I was giving Daft Punk’s live album “Alive 1997” a listen. One night I was playing Super Smash Bros. for Wii U online while listening to Alive 1997. When the album got to “Rollin’ & Scratchin’”, the harsh sound of the song was aggravating me so bad I started nearly raging at the game, which isn’t really something I ever do with games. D’oh!

The last Daft Crumbs

September 21st, 2016, the Weeknd released the single “Starboy”; a collaboration with Daft Punk. Little did I know that Starboy and “I Feel it Coming” would be the last truly new Daft Punk songs as the ro-bits. I recall it taking a bit to warm up to Starboy. I think it mostly was due to my yearning for new Daft Punk music that was just them. I eventually ended up liking the song a good bit! And my dad liked it enough to buy himself a copy on iTunes. At the time I was still coping thinking Daft Punk would tour with Alive 2017, but 2017 came and went, and there was nothing.

Thankfully me drying up the well of the Daft Punk discography wasn’t the end of my daft musical adventure. There were projects associated with Thomas Bangalter and Guyman /related to artists they’ve collabed with before that have kept me pacified since. Of course I don’t only listen to housey electronic music but there is a lingering itch for it that exists for me while I need something to listen to while doing something like write this very blog!

Some highlights from my journey of discovering more stuff:

Shadermader - French House Classics Mix
This mix I must have listened to in full over a dozen times. Lots of good stuff in here. I believe Shadermader deleted his channel so all that remains are reuploads. Still worth a listen if you like Daft Punk, French House, Future Funk, or house music in general.

Daft Punk - The 4th Album (Daft Punk Fan Album)
Fan album I believe I also found from Shadermader’s channel. Not quite authentic to Daft Punk’s sound but I really enjoy it. Standout tracks for me include the opener: “Dizgo” by James Tyler Fitzgerald, “Bliss” by daks, and “Effervescence”; also by daks. If you like Future Funk in particular, I think you may get a lot out of this album!

Todd Edwards - Prima Edizione
This is an album by Todd Edwards; an artist that was an influence on Daft Punk and collaborated with them on Discovery for “Face to Face” and R.A.M. for “Fragments of Time”. Todd Edwards’ own music is a great example of how creative you can get with sampling. It may sound bizarre; but if you like YTPMVs, you may also inherently like Todd Edwards’s music for the type of vocal chops he does. His music has some religious theming but I don’t believe it gets in the way of his music if you’re not into that. Give this album a listen if you wanna dip your toes into more house stylings.
this album cover so silly

What now?

It's been five years.

Since then, Daft Punk as a duo has been retired but there has been some “new” Daft Punk content since. Some anniversary special editions of albums have been released, new merchandise that immediately sells out (and likely scalped) dropped, a lil’ disappointing theatrical rerelease of Interstella 5555 released (that was AI upscaled due to the movie apparently being mastered for VideoNow Color), and a Fortnite collab, I may have dropped scary money on, came out.

Interstella 5555 gallons of water

I was disappointed the Interstella 5555 remaster was AI-upscaled, as I highly dislike AI as a form of media restoration as it’s just computers guessing wtf is going on. It’s a pretty naive and lazy way to go about things I feel. Especially since I had the same idea when waifu2x was the go-to upscaler for making anime look like you spilt water all over marker on notebook paper. I don’t really like generative AI things in general, and Thomas Bangalter apparently doesn’t either.

I still did see it in theaters. I love the movie and I’d feel stupid not to experience it in a cinema while I could. It was a fun enough time. It didn’t look great and unfortunately the sound was only stereo so the theater was really quiet in the back where I was sitting; but it was nice to see it on a real big screen. A really good steak still tastes good on a paper plate, y’know? The other Daft Punk music videos they played after the movie ended were a much more fun time for a theater experience though.

le theater

le tickey

Hello, Daft Punk. Welcome to Fortnite.

The Daft Punk Fortnite Experience went live September 27 last year. It was really bizarre to see a big tribute to something I love in Fortnite: the (fun and funny as hell) capitalist hellscape. I spend too much money on that game. Anywho; it was a really fun time. I streamed it on my Discord server not expecting anyone else to really have any interest but my wonderful vulgar friend Marie joined in; using the most obnoxious bird skin imaginable. It consisted of a bunch of minigames and a virtual version of Alive 2007. Not quite a replacement for Alive 2017 but it did fill a bit of the gap left in my heart. Fun time!

That fucking bird that I hate

Funny little anecdote: my Fortnite user has been daftclub since 2018. This was a rather amusing screenshot to take.

Closing Thoughts

I love Daft Punk! Their work has become a permanent, important part of me and I am grateful for their art to be consumed by me and absorbed physically into my brain wrinkles. Part of me wishes I could have been there for all of their history but I’m glad to have lived at all during their time on this earth.

There’s so much more I could yap on about but I wanted to be able to finish this before I delay this blogpost again.

Thank you for reading this all the way through and have a great day. :]

BONUS FOR THOSE WHO STUCK WITH ME

cryptid photo of my cat I took with that mp3 player ten years ago.

burger