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Various Artists - Discovered: A Collection of Daft Funk Samples
Created On November 19th, 2007 by grattan
Recent compilations of samples have already dug in to the record collections of Jay-Z, Tupac and Kanye and now there’s a similar compilation looking at one of Mr West’s own sample sources: Daft Punk. Featuring source material familiar to all from Homework, to Discovery and Human After All, these tunes take a curious journey through hard funk, soul and Moroder electronica. Curious because while there are some gems on offer here, the real draw is the chance to glimpse how those elusive Daft Punk’s work. Though it’s not that Daft Punk want to let you into the workings of their circuits, this is not an official Daft release – in fact the cover has to coyly refer to the disk as a collection of ‘Daft Funk’.
The lead track on this compilation of tunes, Breakwater’s Release the Beast has been known to break the hearts of many fans of the world’s favourite robot musicians. This towering piece of Parliament-style funk-rock is immediately too recognisable as Daft Punk’s Robot Rock riff. In fact it’s hard to hear what the French duo have added to the guitars, other than their chanting their new title over the top. The shock continues with George Duke’s I Love You More which blatantly opens in exactly the same way as Daft’s Digital Love before drowning in the syrup of a family sit-com theme tune. It’s like finding out that your favourite song is closer to the Family Ties theme than you’d be prepared to admit. The intro to Edwin Birdsong’s Cola Bottle Baby continues the trend as Harder, Better, Stronger, Faster seems to launch from your speakers. Thankfully for the Daft fans wanting to maintain some of the mystique most of the other samples aren’t so obvious, or at least just not just the opening bars of the track.
They proved with the soundtrack to Electroma that they aren’t afraid to delve into unexpected musical territory. The film featured tracks from Todd Rundgren, Curtis Mayfield along with darkly folkish tunes and even Frédéric Chopin. But, when they’re writing their music, Daft Punk seem to lean towards disco and funk tunes for inspiration and infringement. Once the trainspotting novelty of hearing the samples wears off the compilation becomes a collection of party tunes including Oliver Cheatham’s Get Down Saturday Night and cuts from Chaka Khan and Sister Sledge. Other highlights include Tata Vega’s Give it up for Love and Can You Imagine – from the Tom Waits name-checked Little Anthony & The Imperials – a track that sounds far more like Daft Punk’s Crescendolls than anything in Mr Waits’ catalogue.
That familiar riffs are lifted from older tunes shouldn’t surprise anyone, but with a group as mysterious and revered as Daft Punk this collection may reveal too much about how they work. With a hip-hop artist sampling is perhaps more accepted because we can all see the DJ cutting the breaks on stage; it’s part of the culture of the music. But in dance music the source of the music is more obscure. There’s no visible explanation – no plectrum plucking a string, no stick hitting a drum, no record moving under a needle – it seems to just come out of a computer or perhaps a giant pyramid. It may be a little depressing to do your homework and discover that Daft Punk are human after all. But this collection gives you a glimpse into the Daft Punk record box and some great tracks to add to your next party mixtape.
tigger says...
"homework and discover that Daft Punk are human after all" How droll.
Rockah says...
This is so incredibly retarded. Why do people get upset about this fact? Like 70% of hip-hop is heavily sampled.. So whats the problem with this? Everyone loved the songs before they found out about the samples... then all of a sudden they lose credibility? Would anyone have in fact gone an listened to the originals... and more importantly - enjoyed them?! No.
stereo_tone says...
Cds like this only fuel the fire for jealous peeps to take Daft Punk down yet another peg, yet in reality it gives them a deeper intricacy; just like the myth that the people on tour behind the robots are roadies, Daft Punk aren't infringing on talented artists as the reviewer alleged they are actually staging an elaborate prank laughing at the gullibility of the general music population. Laughing on large piles of cash surrounded by many beautiful womens.
p-e-e-t-a-h says...
I don't think this guy is saying that sampling is bad, I think what he's trying to say is that he was suprised that Daft Punk didn't really do much with the samples, that they sound exactly the same in the originals as they do in the Daft Punk songs. Most of the more respected artists use their samples in a way that you can't really tell what is new and what is sampled. I know I've definitely had times where I've heard a song and thought it was really awesome, only to find out later that they just took a massive chunk of another song and put a beat over it or sung or whatever, and it's taken away from it. Kanye West did this in a few of his really popular songs a few years ago, he pretty much just played some soul songs and rapped over the top, and Black Eyed Peas did it very badly with Pump It when they sampled Miserlou. They took entire riffs from songs and made them the riffs of their own songs and I believe sampling like that is stealing, whether they payed the royalties or not. For me it just showed that the artists didn't really have any new ideas to add to it and they are just riding on ideas that other people had. I think that's the angle this guy is taking and it sounds like he was just a little bit disappointed in the way Daft Punk used they're samples, but I could be wrong. If you can still enjoy Daft Punk knowing where the samples came from and being able to see exactly gow they did it, then I think that's great, but I guess there are some people who will be a little disappointed too. Some people love the mystery of it all and thinking "how the fuck did they make that!?" I don't think there's a problem with sampling, I'm actually a HUGE fan, but it's all about what you add to it or how you use it that makes it good or interesting.