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Post by Helmut83 on Jan 7, 2015 5:06:37 GMT
After having abandoned the section for a while due to an end of the year where it wasn’t easy to sit back a couple of times a week to listen attentively to CD’s, I decided to come back today. This one was particularly challenging for me, as it meant going way beyond my comfort zone.
On one hand, it was good opening my mind to this kind of music I never give an opportunity to. And I tried to approach it leaving any preconceptions aside, resetting my mind to zero. Well, if the measure of worthiness is liking anything of it, at least a few little pieces, I did. On the other hand, to tell the truth, the album didn’t do much to change my opinion, not only about Daft Punk but about the other 500000 bands of electronic music that have come out during the last 2 decades. I seem to be a lost case of a square-minded old school boy: for me, music is with instruments (I mean, tangible instruments). The furthest I have gone into synth genres are ELO’s last albums, and then again, they use plenty more of conventional instruments than this one.
I honestly couldn’t find pleasure in most things I’ve listened to from this album. For example, that oscillating, penetrating sound from “Aerodynamic” at 6:30… how can some people get pleasure from listening to that is something I’ll never understand. The same goes for the “percussion” along the whole album: it sounds terrible to me.
Then, the repetitiveness, probably the worst feature electronic music has: in “Crescendolls”, to give an example, how can’t people get sick of listening to the same sequence over and over with very little variations?. The whole song is like that! “Superheroes” is the same. Really, I don’t get how someone in his right mind could like that track (to avoid calling it “song”). In “Veridis Quo”, did someone count how many times that little silly riff is repeated?
Another feature which I dislike: parts of songs that seem to be empty. “One more time” is one of the songs I already knew. Listen to 1:35… it’s as if there was a base and there were soloist instruments missing. Nothing is happening there, just repeating a base. When I hear good classic rock or other kinds of music I feel that their authors put care in every bit of the songs, in every detail, they fill the songs with different things… here it’s as if Daft Punk had said, “OK, play that over an over for one or two minutes”.
However, not all were bads: “Digital Love” (another one of the songs I was familiar with) has some quite pleasant parts to it. It has a pretty good melody and there’s a nice bassline there. I don’t know if they played it with a bass or a synthetizer, but at least that sounds much more like music.
“Something about us” provides a small oasis from the repetition inferno that precedes it and follows it. Again, a nice bassline (a bit disco style), a good sung melody instead of a voice repeating things over and over and a pleasant synthetizer solo. Makes me wonder if it was so difficult to make more of these things; I’m sure I would have liked the album much more.
Other than those two, I don’t think I can rescue much more. “Face to face” has some features, but after singing those verses they fall again in the endless loop of synth repetitions.
In conclussion, I didn’t like the album, and other that confirming I can still find some small pleasant pieces here and there in electronic music, I don’t think it has driven me any closer to the genre.
It’s hard to be so honest when you know the album you’ll be criticizing probably means a lot to someone, in this case PowWow, so it’s easy to be taken personal (I hope you don’t, PowWow), but I tried to do it respectfully and with the same honesty with which I reviewed the other albums, which I think is, at the end of the day, the idea of this whole section.
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Post by Chippa on Jan 7, 2015 8:26:27 GMT
One More Time – One of the first DP songs I ever got into. Brings back fond memories of 2001. Quite the nostalgia kick, for me.
Aerodynamic – The robots always bring the funky-ass bass, and this is no exception. Kinda dig the cheesy metal guitar solo, too.
Digital Love – This beginning of this song always reminded me of the theme song to some bad 80’s sitcom. Good song, though. So much ear candy!
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger – I still crank this one up in the car, and let the bass kick me in the teeth. Relentlessly funky.
Crescendolls – Such a fun track. Automatically puts me a in a good mood.
Nightvision – The opening puts me in mind of 10cc’s “I’m Not In Love”. Great, mellow vibe here. I’ll bet a certain Mr. Lynne would enjoy something like this.
Superheroes – As repetitive as this is, it still sticks in my head, and is hard to shake. The synth break in the middle could have come from early 80’s ELO.
High Life – A bit of filler. It is what it is.
Something About Us – Has a late 70’s/early 80’s “yacht rock” feel. I mean that in the most positive way possible.
Voyager – Unique keyboard sounds, but the song never grabs me.
Veridis Quo – This one always reminded me of the theme song to the film “Midnight Express” (aka the opening theme for “Coast To Coast AM”). Short Circuit – More funk badasserry! Kinda like The Zapp Band meets Herbie Hancock in a funk-off. Love it!
Face to Face –Not sure what all is sampled here, but it’s kinda fun trying to figure it out. Daft Punk prove, that when done right, dance music can be brilliant.
Too Long- One of the rare DP songs with effects-free vocals. Very well done. For two French guys, they have an amazing grasp on American funk music.
Overall, on the buy it/trash it/ try it scale…I say try it! If you like some of the futuristic sounding stuff on “Time” and “Secret Messages”, you’ll most likely enjoy this.
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Post by jrmugz on Jan 7, 2015 12:55:10 GMT
After having abandoned the section for a while due to an end of the year where it wasn’t easy to sit back a couple of times a week to listen attentively to CD’s, I decided to come back today. This one was particularly challenging for me, as it meant going way beyond my comfort zone. On one hand, it was good opening my mind to this kind of music I never give an opportunity to. And I tried to approach it leaving any preconceptions aside, resetting my mind to zero. Well, if the measure of worthiness is liking anything of it, at least a few little pieces, I did. On the other hand, to tell the truth, the album didn’t do much to change my opinion, not only about Daft Punk but about the other 500000 bands of electronic music that have come out during the last 2 decades. I seem to be a lost case of a square-minded old school boy: for me, music is with instruments (I mean, tangible instruments). The furthest I have gone into synth genres are ELO’s last albums, and then again, they use plenty more of conventional instruments than this one. I honestly couldn’t find pleasure in most things I’ve listened to from this album. For example, that oscillating, penetrating sound from “Aerodynamic” at 6:30… how can some people get pleasure from listening to that is something I’ll never understand. The same goes for the “percussion” along the whole album: it sounds terrible to me. Then, the repetitiveness, probably the worst feature electronic music has: in “Crescendolls”, to give an example, how can’t people get sick of listening to the same sequence over and over with very little variations?. The whole song is like that! “Superheroes” is the same. Really, I don’t get how someone in his right mind could like that track (to avoid calling it “song”). In “Veridis Quo”, did someone count how many times that little silly riff is repeated? Another feature which I dislike: parts of songs that seem to be empty. “One more time” is one of the songs I already knew. Listen to 1:35… it’s as if there was a base and there were soloist instruments missing. Nothing is happening there, just repeating a base. When I hear good classic rock or other kinds of music I feel that their authors put care in every bit of the songs, in every detail, they fill the songs with different things… here it’s as if Daft Punk had said, “OK, play that over an over for one or two minutes”. However, not all were bads: “Digital Love” (another one of the songs I was familiar with) has some quite pleasant parts to it. It has a pretty good melody and there’s a nice bassline there. I don’t know if they played it with a bass or a synthetizer, but at least that sounds much more like music. “Something about us” provides a small oasis from the repetition inferno that precedes it and follows it. Again, a nice bassline (a bit disco style), a good sung melody instead of a voice repeating things over and over and a pleasant synthetizer solo. Makes me wonder if it was so difficult to make more of these things; I’m sure I would have liked the album much more. Other than those two, I don’t think I can rescue much more. “Face to face” has some features, but after singing those verses they fall again in the endless loop of synth repetitions. In conclussion, I didn’t like the album, and other that confirming I can still find some small pleasant pieces here and there in electronic music, I don’t think it has driven me any closer to the genre. It’s hard to be so honest when you know the album you’ll be criticizing probably means a lot to someone, in this case PowWow, so it’s easy to be taken personal (I hope you don’t, PowWow), but I tried to do it respectfully and with the same honesty with which I reviewed the other albums, which I think is, at the end of the day, the idea of this whole section. Helmut should probably start most of his CD reviews with "With all due respect..." Like I was saying, when you have it on just for the background of whatever you're doing, its pretty good, keeps the pace going, etc. Jim
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Post by Helmut83 on Jan 7, 2015 15:30:30 GMT
Jim, I particularly hate it when people start sentences like that, because what usually follows is "with all due respect, you are an imbecile, all of your family are as well and you all should die with a stick in your butts". They say that when they are actually going to be disrespectful and want to tone down the effect of it.
Same goes for "not to be a dick, but...". When someone starts like that, you know he's going to be a hell of a dick.
Not my case. I don't think I need watering down the tone of my review because I think I did it in a respectful enough way.
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Post by PowWow on Jan 7, 2015 15:34:55 GMT
After having abandoned the section for a while due to an end of the year where it wasn’t easy to sit back a couple of times a week to listen attentively to CD’s, I decided to come back today. This one was particularly challenging for me, as it meant going way beyond my comfort zone. On one hand, it was good opening my mind to this kind of music I never give an opportunity to. And I tried to approach it leaving any preconceptions aside, resetting my mind to zero. Well, if the measure of worthiness is liking anything of it, at least a few little pieces, I did. On the other hand, to tell the truth, the album didn’t do much to change my opinion, not only about Daft Punk but about the other 500000 bands of electronic music that have come out during the last 2 decades. I seem to be a lost case of a square-minded old school boy: for me, music is with instruments (I mean, tangible instruments). The furthest I have gone into synth genres are ELO’s last albums, and then again, they use plenty more of conventional instruments than this one. I honestly couldn’t find pleasure in most things I’ve listened to from this album. For example, that oscillating, penetrating sound from “Aerodynamic” at 6:30… how can some people get pleasure from listening to that is something I’ll never understand. The same goes for the “percussion” along the whole album: it sounds terrible to me. Then, the repetitiveness, probably the worst feature electronic music has: in “Crescendolls”, to give an example, how can’t people get sick of listening to the same sequence over and over with very little variations?. The whole song is like that! “Superheroes” is the same. Really, I don’t get how someone in his right mind could like that track (to avoid calling it “song”). In “Veridis Quo”, did someone count how many times that little silly riff is repeated? Another feature which I dislike: parts of songs that seem to be empty. “One more time” is one of the songs I already knew. Listen to 1:35… it’s as if there was a base and there were soloist instruments missing. Nothing is happening there, just repeating a base. When I hear good classic rock or other kinds of music I feel that their authors put care in every bit of the songs, in every detail, they fill the songs with different things… here it’s as if Daft Punk had said, “OK, play that over an over for one or two minutes”. However, not all were bads: “Digital Love” (another one of the songs I was familiar with) has some quite pleasant parts to it. It has a pretty good melody and there’s a nice bassline there. I don’t know if they played it with a bass or a synthetizer, but at least that sounds much more like music. “Something about us” provides a small oasis from the repetition inferno that precedes it and follows it. Again, a nice bassline (a bit disco style), a good sung melody instead of a voice repeating things over and over and a pleasant synthetizer solo. Makes me wonder if it was so difficult to make more of these things; I’m sure I would have liked the album much more. Other than those two, I don’t think I can rescue much more. “Face to face” has some features, but after singing those verses they fall again in the endless loop of synth repetitions. In conclussion, I didn’t like the album, and other that confirming I can still find some small pleasant pieces here and there in electronic music, I don’t think it has driven me any closer to the genre. It’s hard to be so honest when you know the album you’ll be criticizing probably means a lot to someone, in this case PowWow, so it’s easy to be taken personal (I hope you don’t, PowWow), but I tried to do it respectfully and with the same honesty with which I reviewed the other albums, which I think is, at the end of the day, the idea of this whole section. So musically speaking you're a technophobe...
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Post by Helmut83 on Jan 7, 2015 15:40:44 GMT
So musically speaking you're a technophobe... Yes, to tell the truth, yes. I mean, I can take some small doses of "technology" in cases like "Time", where it is very much mixed up with conventional instruments, where the songs don't repeat theirselves so much and where the songs could be easily covered without the tech parts. But if it goes much further from there, yes, definitely not my type of music (and, like I said before, I've made my best honest effort, but there's no case).
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Post by jrmugz on Jan 7, 2015 18:38:00 GMT
... Not my case. I don't think I need watering down the tone of my review because I think I did it in a respectful enough way. This is true, Helmut! I was just messin'. Jim
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Post by Helmut83 on Jan 7, 2015 18:58:08 GMT
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Post by unomusette on Jan 7, 2015 19:41:40 GMT
1. One More Time - Well I wasn't expecting an opening like that, it reminds me of Saturday Night at the Palladium in the '70's until the vocal comes in. Then it sounds familiar, was it a single? Very Europop, I bet it was huge on the continent. Bit too repetitive for me and could have been quite a bit shorter. Interesting ending though.
2. Aerodynamic - Great intro and the twiddly guitar. Good track all round, something a bit different, I like it a lot.
3. Digital Love - Pleasant enough dancy track, the vocoder-esque vocals are starting to wear thin already for me though. Is it over yet? 4. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger - Interesting collection of sounds in the intro, pretty funky. Reminds me of something Thomas Dolby might have done. The morphed vocals on this are much better too, I was quite surprised when it ended before I'd had enough.
5. Crescendolls - Very upbeat and party-esque. Puts me in mind of Red Alert by Basement Jaxx - this is a good thing. I can imagine throwing some shapes to this whilst doing the dusting. Nice one.
6. Nightvision - Ahhh, time to chill out a bit. Keep expecting 10cc to come in with "I'm Not In Love" Nice to get a bit of an interlude from all the dancey beats.
7. Superheroes - Didn't get much past the intro with this, it was too annoyingly repetitive for me sorry. Next please!
8. High Life - Another repetitive intro which makes me want to fast forward, I'll go a minute ahead...nope, still the same, moving on.... 9. Something About Us - This is a bit better, be good for a smoochy dance at the end of the disco. Vocals not too messed with, not one of my favourites but it's good to see they are prepared to branch out a bit. Some more interesting sounds on this too.
10. Voyager - Bit of a filler for me, it's not offensive but it doesn't stand out particularly.
11. Veridis Quo - Is that a harmonium? I really wasn't expecting that, so it's already interesting. Another chance for a breather, it's not really a beat you could dance to. I can imagine it as background music to some kind of travel or art slideshow. A very long one. Next!
12. Short Circuit - Good snappy synth sound on this, some head nodding going on, liking this one but it does wander off a bit and last too long for me.
13. Face to Face - Nice to have pretty much straight vocals here with no distortion. Proper Radio 1 stuff (I don't listen to Radio 1, hargh!) bet this was a successful single.
14. Too Long - Title says it all for me, switching off now....
This isn't really my kind of stuff to be honest, but I'm glad I gave it a listen because some of the people whose music I do like have praised them up. Some of the tracks were good, I surprised myself by liking them. And I can see that for the genre of music they're pretty accomplished, although they do sometimes indulge in a bit too much repetition for my liking, the sort of thing that used to get churned out endlessly in the '80's.
But as long as there's a market for this sort of music at least they seem to put some thought into it, good effort, Daft Punk!
Thanks for sharing, PowWow, sorry for the lukewarm review but I'd never have listened to it at all if you'd not put it up and there were definitely some good 'uns in there, cheers!
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Post by jefflynnenut on Jan 9, 2015 0:01:13 GMT
Can everyone pleaaassssee get onto youtube and listen to "Georgio by Moroder" and hear what these gents are actually capable of? Trust me please, its incredible. Get through the talking at the start and then listen to the musicianship of the track. It moves from 70's funk/disco....into....just listen to it! Go do it now damn it!
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Post by queenofthehours on Jan 11, 2015 18:08:47 GMT
One More Time – This one takes me back. Is it really as old as that? I remember when there was a lot of music like this in the charts. It’s a bit of a classic. I remember it being *everywhere* at the time. Aerodynamic – One of my favourites. And as with all favourite tracks it’s hard to describe. This one always makes my brain feel funny.
Digital Love – Another one of those tracks you don’t think you know until you hear it.
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger – Another favourite. It’s like music but better.
Crescendolls - I love this, wasn’t it a single? It should have been.
Nightvision – Sounds a bit 10cc. No bad thing. Is this proof that Daft Punk are a little proggy?
Superheroes – It’s like Prog music written for nightclubs.
High Life – Not the best but tracks in the middle are like the interval at a movie.
Something About Us – A nice gentle track.
Voyager – I like it but it’s not as good as the tracks on the first half.
Veridis Quo – Reminds me of something else here, with the opening. Very prog. I like it a lot. It’s like the soundtrack to a great movie that hasn’t been made yet. I was put in mind of 'The Whale' for some reason while listening to this.
Short Circuit – Another favourite. Why don’t you hear muisc like this these days? Whatever happened to good music without slapping mindless lyrics you can’t even hear over the top?
Face to Face – I like it, didn’t this come out as a single?
Too Long - Not my favourite but good all the same. Reminds me of that Stardust track, 'Music Sounds Better With You' or something.
I was surprised at how old it sounded. Not the music – but the memories it conjured up, those long lost days of the late 90s / early 00s when I left school. Also of a style of music you don’t hear very often – intelligent electonic music.
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Post by jrmugz on Jan 11, 2015 18:36:51 GMT
Can everyone pleaaassssee get onto youtube and listen to "Georgio by Moroder" and hear what these gents are actually capable of? Trust me please, its incredible. Get through the talking at the start and then listen to the musicianship of the track. It moves from 70's funk/disco....into....just listen to it! Go do it now damn it! That is a very cool sounding tune, for sure! Thanks for directing us to it. I really like how it breaks into the somewhat proggy funk/disco part like you mentioned. So for those of us who were unfamiliar with Daft Punk up to this point, what would be the one quintessential CD of their very best CD be, if someone was going to pick one up? A best of with "Georgio by Moroder" on it, or is the studio album with that song on it in an of itself their best quintessential work? Jim
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Post by jefflynnenut on Jan 11, 2015 21:45:16 GMT
Only in my opinion.....I think this album "Random access memories" is their swansong. Listen up Helmut! As a bit of a Technophobe myself this album is different. Trust me!
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Post by jrmugz on Jan 11, 2015 21:59:08 GMT
Only in my opinion.....I think this album "Random access memories" is their swansong. Listen up Helmut! As a bit of a Technophobe myself this album is different. Trust me! Thanks for the scoop, JLN. So PowWow, what do you think of JLN's assertion that "Random Access Memories" is their best album? How do you rank it compared to your CD of the Week, "Discovery"? Jim
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Post by jefflynnenut on Jan 12, 2015 8:57:29 GMT
Sorry if I took away from your great post Pow. This was never my intention bro! I simply wanted to point out the french guys sheer talent that could have been easily missed under a thick blanket of electronic bippidy boppidy noises. I really do like Discovery. But sometimes people don't get it. The first time I listened to it my staunch music nazi attitude overshadowed my ability to actually hear their ability. So I suppose I was just trying to help people to put aside their issues with some electronic music and hear the real heart of what these gents can do! Anyway no hard feelings? Peace!
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