Various – Discovered: A collection of Daft Punk samples – Rapster
Parisian duo Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (a.k.a. Daft Punk) quickly rose to acclaim by adapting a love for first-wave acid house and techno to their younger roots in pop, indie rock, and hip-hop. Their albums: Homework, Discovery, Human After All, Musique and Alive have all had huge critical and commercial success. What their legions of fans and dance music lovers may not be aware of is their love of a good sample. The best of Daft Punk’s sample library have been rounded up on this crucial collection of original tracks that form the basis of Daft hits, including ‘Da Funk’, ‘Around The World’ and ‘Harder Better Faster Stronger.’ With a major world tour on, including a stop in Perth next month, and the release of their debut film Electroma, Daft Punk continue to win new fans. Be you new fan or old, these tracks are essential listening.
Pnau – Pnau – Etcetc
Pnau’s third offering sounds distinctly like a pop record, probably because producer Sam Littlemore recently worked with the likes of Gwen Stefani and Nelly Furtado. A shiny and often overly precise orgy of sound, the album is mostly full of detailed and well thought out arrangements. The opening track and one of the clear highlights ‘With You Forever’ features the vocals talents of The Sleepy Jackson’s Luke Steele and nicely blurs the gap between top 40 and straight techno. The make-up space cadet also pops up on the track ‘Freedom’ and his airy voice floats perfectly over the electronic thumps. Other tracks such as ‘Baby, Come Together’ and ‘Shock To The System’ are strengthened by vocals from a group of chanting children. While a large chunk in the middle of the album seems a slightly monotonous DJ set, the album is overall an enjoyable electronic take on pop.
Apocalyptica – Worlds Collide – Led label
In case you don’t know the deal with Apocalyptica. They are classically schooled musicians from Finland who play metal on cellos, now a days also aided by a drummer (sometimes Dave Lombardo, most times not). They also bribe some famous singers to guest on some songs, to much varied results. Oh and they started off as a cover-band even performing on Eurovision. Fair enough, but how do the Finnish fucks measure up on their self-professed “make it or break it†sixth album? Well, quite impressive I must say. It felt like the band found the right balance between slow haunting beauty and hard-ass balls-out riffing on the 2005 eponymous album and are now just continuing to work on the formula, honing up their songwriting skills and making each song as strong as possible. Some of the songs here are easily some of the best in the band’s career; Ion has a groove and drive that you just can’t help but dig, and I don’t think Christina Scabbia has ever sounded as interesting in Lacuna Coil as she does here. I guess that means her band sucks… (so what else is new?). The greatest surprise though has to be Rammstein’s front man Till Lindemann’s German version of The Thin White Duke’s Heroes 9. It’s slowed down a bit here but works surprisingly well sung in German. On cello. Just goes to show that a good song is a good song. Unlike some of the older Apocalyptica albums I’m pleased to say that on Worlds collide the original compositions do not pale beside the covers. I also don’t get the same feeling of aural fatigue that Inquisition symphony and Cult could cause. This is perfect proof of how well the band has developed in their songwriting- and compositional skills, showing once again that technical skills is not a mean unto itself.
U.S.E – United State of Electronica – Original Electric Recording Company
This is some of the most infectious and cheesy music that I’ve heard in some time. Imagine a cross between Daft Punk, The Cardigans, and Andrew W.K. and you’re getting somewhat close to what United States of Electronica (even with a cheesy name!) is about musically. Lyrically, the group doesn’t exactly scratch the surface in terms of deepness, basically taking things back to the old-school raver theme of P.L.U.R. (peace, love, unity and respect). In other words, this is 12 tracks of music whose main goal is for you to check your brain at the door and leave your ass on the dancefloor. Although there’s nothing quite as ludicrous as party til you puke, song titles like IT IS ON! and Takin’ It All The Way haunt the release while All Sounds And All People is sort of a spoken-word track in which some dude preaches to the party people over the sounds of a crowd screaming. Open Your Eyes follows it and is basically a blueprint for the album with juicy synth lines, vocordored vocals harmonizing with regular vocals and huge choruses that involve shouting (and likely arm-pumping). The entire album isn’t filled with 4/4 singalongs, though, and when the album slows things down they stumble pretty badly. Night Shift is an attempt to bring things down to a chill level, and the cringe-worthy vocals simply bog things down far too much when they don’t have a pumping beat and chorus of synths and guitars behind them. In the end, this is a total bubblegum album that is fun for awhile but can’t quite sustain the energy that it bursts out of the gate with. If you’re a person looking for some pure fluff summer music for playing with the top down, you’ll no doubt find this in your player as the weather gets warmer, but if you’re looking for anything deeper at all, look elsewhere.
