REPOST: D IS FOR DAFT PUNK (PT1)

From November 2008:

I almost omitted Daft Punk altogether on the grounds that they are so well-known, influential at the moment and I’m generally none too keen on them. But the completist in me prevailed.

Paris natives, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter, met at Lycee Carnot in Paris in 1987. Taking their name from a Melody Maker reviewer’s description of an earlier project fronted by the duo called Darlin’, Daft Punk was born in 1994 when they released their debut ‘Alive’ on Soma Quality Recordings. In 1996 they signed with Virgin and released ‘Homework’ the following year to critical acclaim and commercial success.

Playfully or pretentiously (depending on your point of view) shunning the limelight the pair were often interviewed but their faces concealed in photographs. In September 1999, Daft Punk reinvented themselves as robots, playing the game of the famous 1999 bug: “We did not choose to become robots. There was an accident in our studio. We were working on our sampler, and at exactly 9:09 AM. on September 9, 1999, it exploded. When we regained consciousness, we discovered that we had become robots.” This new incarnation was more or less inspired by the persona of Andre Lewis AKA Mandré, an American funk artist from the 1970′s who had his face covered with a robot mask.

I still find it strange that Daft Punk’s first recordings are on Scotland’s Soma, rather than France’s F.Comm but there you go. From 1994′s The New Wave 12″:

 Daft Punk – The New Wave (Full Length)

 Daft Punk – Alive 

 

Daft Punk website

Buy product

~ by acidted on April 7, 2012.