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Daft Punk released a Greatest Hits this year, why?
They only have three studio albums, the third of which was only made public a year before they dumped out the premature hits collection. I can only guess, but, the nature of the third album (2005's Human After All) suggests that perhaps they were desperate to get out of their record deal with Virgin.
Evidence for this would be the slew of dodgy releases in the last few years: The live Alive CD from a 1997 concert, The Daft Club Album, This stupid Hits collection and arguably 'Human After All'. Human After All, made in six weeks was the most disappointing album I have ever heard, you can tell it was rushed. Discovery (which was better than Homework) took two years and is almost a perfect album.
The title, Human After All, is perhaps the key. Did they make a shoddy album on purpose? Were they trying to shake the record label, industry and fans off their backs? Are they now free agents with the Virgin deal expired? Who knows? Were they that keen to get rid of the 'man' that they spiked their own recording legacy? Or did they just lose the musical plot? Releasing a Greatest Hits is often the signal of the end of a record contract but Daft Punk are meant to have one of the most respected record deals in music. My understanding is that its pretty much a distribution deal where they retain control of the output/marketing/design and get an healthy number of the points on their records. In essence they get freedom, don't have to do interviews and get serious cash from Virgin. So what to make of it?
The strange thing is that the weaker third album has almost become a cult album because of its ambiguity and a couple of compelling tracks that would have fitted onto the debut 'Homework'. Apple's iTunes Ad and Busta Rhymes' re-working have exposed the joy of 'Technologic'. A song, which at first sounded like a rip off of Mylo's 'Destroy Rock and Roll' (very worrying to start with). A Handful of other tracks on the album have sort of become 'acceptable' Punkster tracks in the past year; tracks that were initially spurned in disgust at the come-down of 'Human After All'.
Why am I talking about Daft Punk in reference to 2006? Well, they isn't much to get excited about in dance music today; sadly. People name drop Justice and Erol Alkan but when the dust settles it will become apparent (if it isnt already to those not on drugs) that they are shit. Justice Vs Simian is the best dance record of the last two years. A radio friendly ode to Daft Punk that was as catchy and well produced as you could hope. But, and its a big BUT, they offer nothing else. All their other records are dreadful and are filled with the grating sound of electronically distorted guitars played at the wrong pitch; pretty much un-listenable. Their remixes of Britney and Daft Punk are painful. Erol has a cool name and appears to a nice chap but he has done nothing to cheer about, the Franz Ferdinand Remix never goes anywhere and has absolutely no imagination. I hope they prove me wrong but I doubt it. We all flirted with Uffie and Cansei De Ser Sexy but they never lasted in my heart
In 2007 we can have hope. Madonna's criminal world tour is over and hopefully this will release her 'musical director/alleged Whammy partner' Stuart Price to make some music. All I have registered from Lu Cont this year is his remix of The Killers which is enjoyable but uninspired. He said a year ago he didnt want to be a remixer or even a producer for others, lets have another Les Rythmes Digitales album please Squire. The Chemical Brothers are coming back in the Spring and I hope Basement Jaxx will too.
In 2007 I pray the electro/minimal scene finally dies; its not as if it had any life in it anyway....
Here is a link to an mp4 of Daft Punk 'Around the World' Live; cant remember where I got it from but its cool and rare.
4 comments:
Haha.
Ok, so I reckon you got the first part right; Daft Punk pushed that album out to fulfill their contract - but you lose me after there.
2006 has been an great year for music. From the people directly inspired by Daft Punk, like SebastiAn at Ed Banger, better still ParaOne at Institubes, and out to Digitalism and Justice there was a lot of fun with a French flavour.
I agree that Simian don't do it live. But still Hustler was a great tune. The video was hot too.
What about Baltimore? I've sung 'Ass and Tities' more than once this year. Good times. Spank Rock's YoYoYo was a great debut, and Switch's touch up on Bump is a huge dancefloor destroyer.
Synth pop yielded mature albums from Hot Chip (like a monkey with a miniature cymbal) and darker arts from The Knife. While mainstream pop gave you Maneaters and brought SexyBack. There is a rich aesthetic that plays to your eyes and ears. It doesn't get much better than that.
Finally, it was an amazing year for minimal. The tag became a loose term to herald anything from detroitish techno to microhouse, and even the second coming of trance. Some epic mind expanding / head cave in material from Minus/Ghostly/Planet E, as well as a renaissance for deeper more organic and soul inspired sounds from labels like Innervisions and Versatile.
Hoorah for '006! Roll-on '007.
Richie I dont like ParaOne although one of their remixes of Daft Punk was ok. Dont rate Hot Chip at all and The Knife aren't bad but I always flick before the song is over.
I like your passionate response; I wish I came across more dance music I liked.
2006 was a great year for music, I am only talking about dance music here. Watch this space
THIS WHAT CHRIS FENN WROTE (A GREAT REPLY):
My feelings on dance in ’06 is that any year in which Minimal raises its ugly head is a poor year. It’s definitely a case of style over substance due to the fact it has no substance what so ever. It just soundtracks the main event, namely, who can consume the most ketamine. Dance music though after a massive growth period of finding different avenues to move down was always going to iht saturation point just as rock, punk etc had. I am drum and bass fan, whose music is much akin to country and western (and not just the fact it is joined by ‘and’) in as much it’s a specific genre which can’t really develop elsewhere. For proof see the non existent leaps and bounds Mercury Award Winner Roni Size has made in the past 8 years.
A couple of points to back up your argument about dance music in 2006:
Benchmark clubs further descended up their own arse – there are not many people who would seriously go near the likes of Fabric and Ministry if they had to pay to get in and didn’t spend there time in a VIP room
Festivals disappointed – the rebranded Homelands (now Hi Fi) created a rock stage and was seriously under populated, Creamfields moved site and exists purely to rip off scousers. The only thing that appeared was smaller, more focused festivals which by all accounts were a success (if not financially)
Saviours of dance Hot Chip / Justice vs Simian released a great single each however the Hot Chip album was pretty lightweight and prob won’t get played much after the end of the year and I fully agree with you on the other lot. The biggest selling dance single was taken off a car advert!
The only music to develop was grime and 2 step offshoots which got a lot of plaudits but again show me how many white, middle class critics who write gushing reviews of dub heavy garage actually would consider going out to it or playing it of a Saturday night???
In my personal opinion, as long as there are clubs playing breakbeat (which in itself is a pretty generic term for a multitude of genres, including electro) I will be happy, fingers crossed for the new Pendulum album which may yet mean that in 2007 clubs may actually play music that you can dance to. The Knife, Nathan Fake and M83 all released interesting albums which I consider good but there is not much to uplift and get feet moving to on them and certainly they are only available to the more experienced ear as it were.
A vintage year? Hell no, I have spent most of the past 6 months listening to Malian Blues anyway.
HERE IS FIRAS' 9www.myspace.com/muiscbyfiras) VERY IMPRESSIVE REPLY:
First and foremost Daft Punk live was an amazing event to be able to witness.
Notoriously publicity shy (thank god for some people) - the hype surrounding these guys is truly phenomenal.
"Homework" has never really been touched other than the also excellent "Discovery". I like the line of thinking with regards "Human After All" and the Greatest Hits.
It's a shame that record label politics come between artists attempting to create quality music; but I think the inevitable commercial demands are always going to cause problems for people who just want to get on with creation - plain and simple.
Now on to the body of the argument.
To label a whole genre as 'shit' is too broad a stereotype. It's just like saying that ever scouser is a thief - something far from the truth. Or saying that all rap music is dominated by ho's and pimp's. There's always the exception to the rule.
Indeed - minimal house has come from nowhere, worked itself into buzz worthy material and convinced many a credible music journalist / DJ / Scene-ster that it's worth writing home about. But who dictated the rise of minimal? Is it the so called 'high-cabal' of dance music? Usually the market dictates the way the industry moves - however in music I think this is far from the truth. The market place is given what it 'apparently' wants...and so we had the dawn of minimal. Remember progressive anyone??
Audiences are notoriously fickle. If it's seen as 'cool' then people tend to lap it up. A journalist or scene-ster can be seen as something of a culinary creator. They serve up the sumptuous main course for the public to devour - whether they like it or not is up to them.
I guarantee that a large proportion - and that isn't to say everyone - who dances their arse off on a friday or saturday night won't have any idea what they're listening to, nor have any real inclination to find out. They're just there for a good time. All they're bothered about is who's after party they're going to afterwards or which girl they're going to try and pull.
But that's not to say everyone is like that. Sweeping generalisations are hideous things. Yet from that assumption you could suggest that the so called high cabal are the ones that really move the scene. You need to have passion and love for the music - and if you love it enough then you'll be able to steer it in the direction you want to. Sometimes though, those in the power positions i.e. promoters, don't even know themselves what direction they want to take - they'll look at what's attracting a lot of buzz and attention and again, jump on the band wagon.
Tunes like Justice v Simian were excellent - bridging the gap between specialist and mainstream. But this single was first released in 2002. It was a great song then, it's still a great song now. Why did it take so long to gain the mass appeal and applause it eventually did?? Who didn't tell us about it? Why weren't we exposed to it then I ask?
By debating whether 2006 has been a shit year for dance I think we're missing the point massively. The point of 2006 is that the unthinkable has happened. Rockers and Ravers have come together again to create something perhaps unseen since the days of the Hacienda.
Step back a moment - and think - during the height of funky house, would you ever imagined that you might have seen a band in Fabric alongside your favourite DJ? Could Eric Morillo partly be responsible for making the idea comprehendible when he invited drummer and rocker Tommy Lee Jones to play with him at Pacha in Ibiza the other summer?
The point is - that dance music seems to have turned into some sort of hybrid - it's moulded and adapted into other forms of music. It's experimented and found itself new life. It certainly needed to.
For the record Simian were originally a band containing two members - the latter went off to form Simian Mobile Disco. French DJ Justice remixed the track for a competition and hey voila, an instant pop hit. Neither artist could do it alone.
Now we see storming electronic remixes by the likes of Phones, who's re-jigged and re-hashed everything from Bloc Party to Muse. He goes by the name of Paul Epworth during daytime hours and you may know him from producing the likes of Bloc Party and Futureheads.
We're also missing big breakthroughs in 2006 for bands like Metronomy, Late of the Pier and Klaxons who incorporate tougher synth sounds with guitar driven electronic inspired music. (have you heard their cover of Grace 'it's not over yet?!') Surely these guys could be labelled as dance??
Late of the Pier are one of the most well listened bands I've had the pleasure of meeting - and this reflects in their music. Their basist is an avid fan of Slayer but he also likes Justice.
Again - looking back in time, when could you ever have imagined a Radio 1 specialist DJ playing hard rock followed by drum 'n' bass and finished off with a big of tough electronic? It never happened other than John Peel. Now they're all doing it. Similarly, when would NME have ever given out a Simian Mobile Disco CD or Mixmag covered a band with a predominant guitar sound??
Opinions have changed, minds have opened and music is - whether it pains you to admit it - coming closer together. My general feeling is that pigeonholes should be thrown into Room 101 for the rest of eternity.
And back on to the subject of minimal - interesting music as it may be - with one or two tracks worth getting into a hoopla over such as ame - rej - but when did anyone ever want to dance to the sound of a dripping tap with the occasional splutter?? My experience of minimal has been, on most occasions, very bad. It creates no excitement, nor does it make me want to dance.
More people are developing an appreciation of dance music - although it may not be in it's purest form - the beauty is that as people's influences develop, so too do the productions coming out of the dark dingy basements.
If dance is to be good - it has to have a certain substance and direction to it. What can be vaguely interesting about hearing the same drip of water splash for 7 whole minutes? The structure and body of music like indie gives it the ability to resemble a true 'song'.
I'm looking forward to 2007 and what the future holds - hopefully we'll see more combining of forces between dance and indie.
And while we're on the subject - please can we bin the term 'dance' - it wreaks of hard house, progressive and trance. It's all about the term electronic for anything that requires any sort of electronic production whether it be a synth or a laptop......
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