Daft Punk and the Legacy Album: A Vision of Ambition

(Hardback)

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While much has been said about the nostalgia and historic references of Daft Punk's final album, Random Access Memories, this book reveals its ambition and future-focus, and claims these aspects do not necessarily contradict. Random Access Memories (Daft Life/Columbia, 2013) will remain the very last Daft Punk album. Often understood as an expression of nostalgia towards the music of the 1970s-1980s, this work should not be reduced to a simple tribute to the masters of disco. Beyond their "retro" airs, their interest in old studios and their preference for analog equipment, Daft Punk invent new creative approaches in the continuity of the history of electronic music, leaving more room for humanity and collective performance. The band claims audacity and ambition in a way that is reminiscent of the spirit (more than in the style) of the 1970s progressive rock, with characteristics such as the expansion of the instrumentarium, experimentation in the recording studio, and the development of structures. Concerned with opening up new ways without giving in to a technicist headlong rush, Random Access Memories appears to be a work of its era, much more than a pastiche of the past.

Author Bio

Sbastien Lebray is Doctor of Musicology and Teaching Fellow (Professeur Agrg) at the University of Strasbourg, France. He teaches Popular Music, Electronic Music, Musical Theory, Analog Synthesis and Organology. His research concentrates on popular music and "DJ culture," focusing on compositional processes, technologies of creation and musical analysis.