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 Daft Punk can make some music Mar 15, 2010
Daft Punk's album, "Discovery," explores many concepts in electronic music. Some general electronic music techniques that are very apparent in the album include: sampling, generation electronic sounds, use of filters (low pass/high pass/band pass), vocoding, and altering the pitch and speed of sounds. Looking at the album from a historical perspective, it is easy to see the influences of both Musique concrete and Elektronische Musik.
Through the perspective of Musique Concrete, one of the works that most clearly parallels this album is Pierre Henry's "Psyché Rock." For both, sampling is used heavily in order to create a very prominent chord progression resulting in a very catchy tune. Sampling is a big part of Musique Concrete, and Daft Punk samples many of their sounds in this album. This allows for elements of sound not traditionally thought of as "musical" in their works. This idea was originally pioneered by Pierre Schaeffer. The samples which Daft Punk uses are modified in many ways, some of which include: reversing, distorting, and changing the pitch/speed.
When looking at the album from the perspective of Elektronische Musik, the best example to compare it to is Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Gesang der Jünglinge." In Stockhausen's composition he uses a mix of both sampled sounds, in this case young boys' voices, and computer generated sounds such as sine waves and click tracks. This album can best be described as a combination of sampled sounds and electronically generated sounds, as Stockhausen had done. "Discovery" can best be described as a mix of the ideologies of Musique Conrete and Elektronische Musik.
Looking at specific songs allows for a better look into the specific techniques Daft Punk uses:
In the song "One More Time," Daft Punk makes heavy use of vocoding, also known as Auto-Tune. Many other songs on the album also make use of vocoding, including "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger." In both of these songs, the words themselves become the rhythm through the use of various filters and changing duration of the sounds. This allows the songs to sound very syncopated at certain points, contributing to the musicality of the song.
In "Aerodynamic," a heavily processed guitar solo takes prominence. This is building off of Musique Concrete's idea of modifying samples in order to give a new sound: in this case a blazing fast guitar solo. The solo would be difficult to play on a regular electric guitar; part of the appeal of electronic music is to be able to hear sounds that would be difficult, if not impossible, to play on a real instrument.
It is very apparent in the live versions of songs from "Discovery" is that the concerts are part of the musical experience. From the robotic outfits they wear on stage to the aurora of the concert, all the components are meant to add to the musical nature of the performance. Daft Punk's live performances are also captivating in that they are remixes of their songs. This gives their live performances a new musical experience. This shows that not only is Daft Punk a duo of great recording artists, but live performers as well.
Looking at the album from a non-technical perspective, the tunes are catchy and easy to dance to. If electronic music is your thing, this album won't steer you wrong.
Amazing Masterpiece By The Rockin Robots! Jan 05, 2010
Ok. I Love Daft Punk. Every Song I Love On This Album Or On Any! Its my goal to track down all their albums and buy them (there 3 studio ones and there 2 live ones). this was the first step to my goal. I love this album and every song on it! Very amazing album and worth more than 10.99! love this album! every electronic fan should buy this Masterpiece! Period.
Simply Astonishingly Beautiful; A Downright Classic Dec 16, 2009
I started listening to Daft Punk in 2007. My first purchase was their live album released that year, Alive 2007. I thought it would be a good place to start. And honestly, other than a few nice points here and there, I hated it. I certainly could not have enjoyed it not knowing any of their songs! I realize that now, but, at the time it seemed Daft Punk was an overrated, lame dance band.
Then, in 2008, I bought their best of. Just cuz I'd found that, with dance bands, the studio albums are overlong and mucky and filler-ridden. Daft Punk certainly grew on me a bit there. Then I picked up Homework. It seemed like a good album, but it was so damn scratchy and distorted! It hurt my head after a while. But they certainly seemed interesting. Then, I picked up Discovery.
Discovery is one of those albums you come across once every few years and hate yourself for not having picked it up when it came out; Beck's Odelay, the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique, and Arcade Fire's Funeral come to mind. But, compared to Discovery, those albums are filler-ridden. This one of a kind album blows my mind with each listening.
What makes it so good is that it highlights every emotion you feel, sometimes without lyrics. When you're feeling wild and want to party, you've got the cheesy disco hit "One More Time". When you feel head over your heels with a beautiful person you've just met and feel like you're about to burst with butterflies (sounds lame, but oddly, it happens), you've got "Digital Love". When you go out with that person and you are subsequently dumped, you get the beautiful instrumental "Veridis Quo", a certain album highlight. And when you feel like an absolute freak and just want to bug out, you have "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger".
Every single song would be a certain album highlight on any other album out now. This is a lovely album that I look forward to bonding with these next few decades.
 Fine tunes Nov 27, 2009
Daft punk did a fine work here. The texts that come with the sound make us look for the references and find good surprises. The samples of "harder, better..." are the best.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Annoyingly Stessful Oct 25, 2009
Only good song is Harder Better Faster Stronger. The rest of the album just annoys me. Too much repetitive beats and noises... it was causing me to stress out instead of getting in the zone. Didn't really take me anywhere except a loop. If you must sample the songs and buy à la carte.
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