If you were ever going to be completely wrapped up in the hype surrounding an album, this is that album.
Thanks to the meticulous and over-the-top publicity surrounding the release of Random Access Memories, with a trailer at Coachella, a corporate sponsored video series on the collaborators and the launching of the record in NSW rural town of Wee Waa, mystery has surrounded its content for months.
With its leak online almost breaking the Internet, the ‘authentic’ sound that Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter had been promising arrived, and boy have they delivered.
Considering the list of ridiculous collaborators that includes disco kings Nile Rodgers and Giorgio Moroder, it’s clear which direction the robots were heading.
Just how much of this record is steeped in the traditions of disco probably won’t have been anticipated.
There’s no clear hit that will satisfy the EDM lovers; the French duo have focused almost entirely on the music’s feel and the elements that make people move the way they do when listening to disco.
Nile Rodgers’ influence is right at the forefront of the tracks he’s featured in especially ‘Lose Yourself To Dance’ and ‘Get Lucky’, his iconic disco guitar is a key driver and it oozes groove.
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The departure away from electronic instrumentation has allowed Daft Punk to visit an era that got them into music in the first place. This record is an homage to the very foundations of electronic music the robots inhibit whilst conveying an utterly human feeling.
The surprise of the LP is how well Panda Bear’s vocals fit on top of this simple instrumentation. It’s a perfect amalgamation of the iconic vocal sound of Animal Collective and the warped vocoders of Daft Punk.
This album makes you feel every single note in every part of your body and the much-hyped live instrumentation delivers in spades coupled with a flawlessly tight rhythm section that underpins it all.
As Nile Rodger’s puts it in The Collaborators video series, Daft Punk have gone “back to go forward.”
Read our feature column on Random Access Memories here.
