The Death of French Electro

Daft Punk - Random Access Memories - It sounded like a really good idea, the famous french duo would team up with stellar cast of musicians and engineers with access to the worlds highest quality vintage and modern recording equipment, studios and expertise and record an epoch defining homage to disco and bring modern dance music full circle. I most certainly applaud the french robots for their concept, it's a tip of the hat to all those bands which the duo have sampled / ripped-off over the years, where they essentially just repackaged some great hooks and sold them on with arguably most of the substance stripped out. Fair play I though, you're trying to give something back, good on you.Now I am a fan of disco. At the age of about 17 my pal John Somerville bought a 2CD Jazz-Funk compilation, it had everything from Lalo Schifrin to Gill Scott Heron plus stuff like: Atmosphere - dancing in outer space and the Brothers Johnson - Strawberry Letter 22. This compilation totally revolutionised the way I heard and approached the Bass and music in general. This is when my attention focussed in on the groove the simple repetition of something funky, on the one, with space around the beat, all wrapped up in a skanky androgynous horn. Get into it! you know? like groovin', like really groovin' it. Disco and moreover Funk became my main source of musical inspiration and through the medium of German satellite tv I revelled in the delights of filmed concerts from James Brown to Miles Electric. Quite simply I was hooked on the stuff, the musicians, the venues, the studios, the equipment and the stories. I sought out inspiration buying 7"s, tapes, cd's and books by the bucket load. Everyone was chucking the disco out at this point, peoples parents were into to Sting, Kenny G, Celine Dion and other non-descript middle of the road yuppee wank. It seemed to me as young lad that the world was all wrong and I found great solace in the excess, positivity and over sexualised world of hard Funk, Disco and my other great musical love of Heavy - Fucking - Rock.Disco music is essentially watered down and simplified funk ( with funk being commonly described as a fusion of jazz and rock). Fragments of the disco sound were prevalent in soul music from the late sixties in off beat high hats, dropping on the one, highly syncopated bass lines and soaring, good time melodies. The progressive jazz funk of the early seventies marked a point where the disco sound really took over and along with improved recording and playback technology, the ability to have really fucking loud music playing in a club became a reality.Disco is a strange beast, not so much a musical genre as more a socioeconomic reflection on modern life. The folk root of disco just like soul and funk lie in rhythm and blues. Essentially black music designed for dancing and having a good time. Just as with hip hop in the the late 80's it took the white middle class to popularise it and soaked in the excess of cocaine, amphetamines and the grotesque riches and morals of a young capitalist elite, Disco grew ugly, repetitive and sold it's soul to chart success. The club scene changed dramatically over the 70's into what we would describe as 'clubbing' now. A culture that is not so much based around, music, fashion, and high times but more a culture of hollow deviancy, excessive inebriation and sinister states of trance. Drugs were are big part of disco and it's through this drug use along with computer and audio synthesis technology that gave rise to sound of Techno. Simply put Disco is the folk root of Techno / Electronic Dance Music (EDM). So all this 'doof, doof' music that you hear in clubs these days, in a lot of cases, anthropologically speaking, is simply watered down and simplified disco. A bold statement perhaps, a broad generalised statement for sure. None the less this is where an act like Daft Punk fit into the story.The videos presented here do more than showcase Thor's prop making abilities. They represent the strange and twisted nature of todays musical climate and moreover todays musical consumer. Most people when they watch this will recognise the accompanying music as Daft Punks 'Robot Rock'. The music is in fact 'Release the Beast' by Breakwater, a failed slow jam band from Philadelphia. They made two albums before they were dropped by label Arista, it would seem listening to their back catalogue that this track was a bit of an experiment for the band as it deviates pretty radically from their other material. It is an exceptional piece of music, especially when you consider this was recorded to tape in 1980. It is tight as a fleas shit pipe and super fat sounding. Truth is when you turn this track up on a hi-fi system that is capable of good dynamic reproduction it is louder, punchier and far more engaging than the daft punk version. The single for 'Robot Rock' peaked at No 15 in the american charts whilst 'Release the Beast' failed to even chart on it's original release.So Random Access Memories was a good idea. Pay homage to some of these bands that in their day never got to see much success but still came up with excellent, ground breaking music. Breakwater were not an underground band, they were in the system trying to make commercially successful records. Daft Punk when they started were the exact polar opposite as an integral part of the underground french electro scene. The music they have presented in Random Access Memories is a massive disappointment for me on two fronts. Firstly it seems to only portray the most cliched and mediocre elements of Disco. Secondly it also holds none of what made me like Daft Punk in the first instance, the underground swagger, the simplified repetitiveness of Techno, that european club sensibility that made french and german electronic music such a massive influence throughout the late 80's, 90's and now. Not only have Daft Punk failed to pay homage to Disco they have also failed at keeping French electro alive. Listen to Justice's latest album it is also full of this flaccid, luke warm, noncommittal, approximated disco. It's ironic that a band like Breakwater in the system, attempting to make commercial recordings can come up with a track like 'Release The Beast' and bands that came from the underground with music based on innovation and attitude can turn out such weak and pathetic attempts at chart hits. I guess they are trying maintain their success? Whatever, they are doing it with a distinct lack of balls, flair or attitude. Truth is that daft punks previous albums were probably better representations of disco or at least how I percieve it. However 'Random Access Memories' does have some redeeming features. Sonically it sounds excellent, well balanced and smooth. It exhibits an excellent technical use of the best analogue equipment in harmony with the very best of digital. The story of the production itself is most interesting and the main mix engineer Mike Guzauski explains the whole process very eloquently here...http://www.pensadosplace.tv/2013/05/16/episode-115-mick-guzauski/and this article from Sound on Sound also highlights how ground breaking the record is from a production point of view.http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul13/articles/daft-punk.htmWhat the over riding positive outcome of this record is how it's changed peoples perception of popular music, how it is presented and how it is consumed. This record alone has added significant gains in sales of vinyl. This in itself is a massive boon, I have no choice but to thoroughly endorse artists and labels that promote and insist on quality reproduction and help to keep the music industry afloat with sales of meaningful, valuable and tangible media. So fair play to them. I may not like the music but in the end Daft Punk are still innovative and ground breaking, although in this case it is more from a business and production aspect than an artistic one.Disco is still dead!Check out and Like Thors prop work here...Sorenzo Props on facebookAnd some photo's I took here...Sorenzo Props on flickr