Ben Cardew (3:32)

Yeah, totally. I mean, it's an incredibly, incredibly influential album in many ways. I mean, you can see Hyper Pop is really important for that. It was really important for the whole yacht rock revival and particularly edm, because on, on the one hand it was really big when Kanye west sampled Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, on. On History. And that was like a really big moment for Daft punk in the US and also their Coachella set, which, you know, 2006, which was again, really massive. I believe in the whole history of edm, that was really kind of Discovery heavy. And you just look at a lot of, you know, the bigger names of EDM and they have, you know, they're Daft Punk fans, they played a lot of Daft Punk music. You know, people like Skrillex, Navici, kind of everyone was. Was sort of a fan. So, yeah, that was one of the many ways in which it influenced music.

All of It Host Alison Stewart (4:29)

So Discovery was the duo's second album and they had recently released. Well, two years earlier they had released Homework. What were Daft Punk? Where were they to position in their career when Discovery was released?

Ben Cardew (4:45)

Well, this is sort of the interesting thing because their debut album, Homework is an absolutely brilliant, brilliant records. But they were, you know, one of many dance music acts like that were having a kind of impact round now. You know, people talked about them in the same breath as like the Chemical Brothers and Underworld and the Prodigy and people like that. And Discovery, for me, just. Well, not just for me, I think in general took them to a whole nother another level of. Of being legendary. And I think generally, you know, I mean, Daft Punk's reputation today, obviously they split up many years ago, but like their reputation today is like really so much higher than almost any other dance music act really. You know, maybe only Crawford can, I guess the sort of other like American, not the Crawford. The American pioneers of. Of dance music kind of have anywhere near the same type of acclaim, but even they're not. Not of as big as Daft Punk. And just Discovery, I think, was the record that kind of opened it up. You know, if you look at a lot of their classic tunes, one more time, Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, they're on Discovery. I was looking back at Discovery I mean, obviously I do fairly, fairly often, but I back at it just the other day for something I was writing, and it's like greatest hits, you know, literally. I mean, almost any one of these tunes, if somebody played it in a club, I would, you know, it would be the highlight of my night, I think.

All of It Host Alison Stewart (6:08)

Well, how did Discovery. How is it different from their debut album, Homework?

Ben Cardew (6:14)

Well, the debut album was very heavily influenced by Chicago house and Detroit techno and they did put their own sort of French spin on it. But, you know, I mean, they literally had a song called Teachers in which they talked about, you know, the principally American producers that had influenced them. So it was great, but it was kind of, you know, you could see where it came from. Whereas, like, Discovery just brought in all these really unusual things. Like I said, it had like elements of soft rock. It kind of had elements of almost like baroque instrumentation. I remember, you know, there's a. There's a tune that. Called Aerodynamic, which is the second tune. I remember, like the first time I. I played it, and it got about halfway through and suddenly there's this like big, like, metal guitar solo and you're just thinking, what? I remember literally thinking, what on earth is that? Why, like, why have they used it? I'd never heard anyone do something like, it's like Van Halen had just turned up, you know, and at first I was like, oh, do I like. I think. I don't know. And there was. I mean, there was that in the music. But then there was so many other different things you mentioned, like the robot costumes they put on. They also made a whole film to go around was just very, very different. And a lot of people weren't sure at first. A lot of people were like, I don't know if I like this, like me. And, you know. But then they were won over.

All of It Host Alison Stewart (7:34)

Well, let's listen to Aerodynamic by Daft Pun. We are Talking about the 25th anniversary of the Daft Punk album Discovery. My guest is Ben Cardew, author of the book Daft Punk's Discovery, the Future Unfurled. We've got some great texts. This text says our daughter Ruby was born while Daft Punk Discovery was playing in the hospital off my computer. She's a big fan. Now, 23 years later, this one says, so. I've run five New York City marathons and 60 plus half marathons. And I'm not ashamed to say I pretty much solely listen to Daft Punk. This album in particular, even on repeat through the Races. Those are amazing comments.

Ben Cardew (9:52)

That's beautiful thing.

All of It Host Alison Stewart (9:53)

Yeah. Let's talk about the robot helmets. It discovery coincided with them introducing these sort of these robot costumes. Where did this come from?

Ben Cardew (10:05)

Well, the, the law is that they, they were working in their studio. December 31, 1999, the Millennium Bug happened. All of their equipment blew up basically and they were sort of reborn as robots. Which is. Which a brilliant, brilliant story. I mean the, the sort of more mundane truth is that basically they had been, when they started off, they were just, you know, normal young people from France showed their face and they started wearing a few more masks, you know, in photo shoots and that kind of thing. And basically they, they decided they were going to take on this, on this Persona and they went to this studio in Los Angeles that specialized in kind of visual effects and that kind of thing and got them to design the robot mask for them. And it. And that sort of basically became the way they, they looked. I mean they weren't sort of photographed outside of those masks for years. Which actually, when you think about it was really, really, really smart because, you know, I mean with 2001 pre social media. But it just gave them, I think, a kind of, a kind of freedom, you know, because it's great before, you know, you. If people don't know what your actual face is, if you're kind of famous, you know, I mean, they can probably lead pretty normal, normal lives. And also it's a fantastic image. You know, you just look at those kind of masks and okay, that's Daft Punk. You know, you can actually render the kind of Daft Punk looking in very few lines. It's such an iconic kind of look. And lots of people, I mean they weren't, they weren't quite the first to do it, but lots of people have done it since you've got people like, you know, deadmau5 marshmallow and people and people like that who've kind of copied them. But one thing I think that, that people often get wrong about them is that people like, oh, that they're totally anonymous. No one knows who they are. That's not quite true because in the first few years they, you know, they're photographed many a times without, without their masks on. And you know, I don't think they really. Well, that hid their identity. It was just like the robots were a lot cooler.

All of It Host Alison Stewart (12:13)

Well, just so people can know, tell us a little bit about who's underneath those helmets.

Ben Cardew (12:17)

Thomas Bangalta guy manuel Doman Cristo. Two people from Paris now in their sort of late 40s. Thomas's dad, Daniel Van Gaar was kind of quite big in French disco music in the 70s. Wrote the song D I S C O for example. But like, I mean, they grew up in like, quite a nice part. Quite a nice part of Paris, you know, but very, very. I don't want to use the word normal because, you know, no one's normal. Everyone's normal, if you know what I mean. Like, you know, I mean, there's nothing incredible that sort of jumps out from, from. From their, Their background, you know. I mean, Thomas's dad was a musician. Yeah. But like, other than that, you know, just kind of two kind of people you might. Music nerds you might meet at school, that kind of thing, which I've always loved about them, actually.

All of It Host Alison Stewart (13:10)

Listeners, favorite song off Duff Punk's Discovery album. What do you remember from when it came out? Did you ever get to see Duff Punk perform live? Our Phone number is 2124-3396-9221-2433. WNYC. This is an edition of Silver Liner Notes where we celebrate the 25th anniversary of albums. Discovery includes a song called Digital Love. What does the song capture about Daft Punk?

Ben Cardew (13:38)

Now, for me, this is my absolute favorite song off the album. Really, really strong competition, but this is my favorite. I think what it, what it covers is like, the incredible songwriting, you know, because if you go back again to. To homework, their first album, brilliant, brilliant album. But like, nothing kind of prepared you for Digital Love because it's like, it's a kind of song that you could play on an acoustic guitar round a campfire and I reckon people would still love it. It's the kind of song that, like, if. I always thought that if, like, I don't know, Britney Spears, for example, had done it in. In the early 2000s, it would have been a global number one because it's just a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant pop song. And they added to that this kind of, like I said, the kind of weird, like, metal element, the scrolling guitars. It's just such a weird combination. I think a lot of the best pop music is like that, you know, when you have a great tune that's kind of feels instantly familiar and then you add in just this little touch of strangeness to it. And I love the lyrics too, you know, about someone who's, you know, dreaming of someone and we never quite know if, you know, they ever get it together or if it's just a dream or if it was all going to happen again. I love that, that kind of ambiguity. So, I mean, again, there's very, very Strong composition. But for me, this is the best song on the album.

All of It Host Alison Stewart (15:02)

Let's hear Digital Love by Daft Pun.

Daft Punk Song Lyrics (15:28)

Last night I had a dream about you in this dream I'm dancing right beside you and it looked like everyone was having fun the kind of feeling I waited so long don't stop, come a little closer as we jam the rhythm gets stronger there's nothing wrong with just a little, little fun we were dancing all the time is right you put my arms around you you're feeling right you wrap your arms around you but suddenly I feel the shining sun Before I knew it this dream was all gone I don't know what to

All of It Host Alison Stewart (16:17)

do

Daft Punk Song Lyrics (16:19)

about these dreaming you

Ben Cardew (16:23)

I was

Daft Punk Song Lyrics (16:24)

Christy's dream comes true. I don't know what to do.

All of It Host Alison Stewart (16:34)

Let's go to Kat, who's calling in from West Orange. Hi, Kat. Thanks for making the time to call all of it.

Listeners Calling In (16:40)

Oh, my gosh. Hi, Allison. Thanks for taking my call. I was a college radio DJ in Spokane, Washington. I live in West Orange, New Jersey, now. But back when I was a college radio DJ, this came out. Discovery came out when I was 20. It was so formative. It was so much fun. I have so many memories about just every song on this album. Dancing with Friends in Basement. There's no other album I can think of that was quite like that. It's everything you all have said, just new things to it. Shocking. Not super shocking, but surprise elements that you weren't expecting. So much fun. The mystery of the masks. Like, it just. There's nothing that tops it for me. So just standing there, listening to Digital Love on the phone, I was like, oh, my gosh, the memories, the memories. So much fun.

All of It Host Alison Stewart (17:23)

Love that you're having that experience. Kat, thanks for calling in. We're Talking about the 25th anniversary of the Daft Punk album Discovery. My guest is Ben Cardew, author of the book Daft Punk's Discovery, the Future Unfurled. I want to play harder, better, faster, stronger. What do we need to know about this track

Ben Cardew (17:44)

again? Another kind of iconic kind of track was sampled by Kanye West a few years afterwards, I think went to number one, which had a massive impact on, you know, introducing or reintroducing Daft Punk to kind of particularly American audiences. Has an absolutely incredible vocal that sticks. Sticks in the mind forever, basically. And I mentioned sort of briefly the film that goes with this in Interstellar, which is like this whole anime film. So we're soundtrack by Discovery. And this is one like this bit which is like a production line making. Making the band into robots, basically. Which plays out to Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger is one of my favorite moments in. In the entire film.

All of It Host Alison Stewart (18:37)

Let's hear Harder, Better, Faster.

Daft Punk Song Lyrics (19:14)

It.

Ben Cardew (19:33)

Make it do it make sense. Harder, better, faster, stronger more than power hour never.

Daft Punk Song Lyrics (19:56)

Ever after work is over Work it,

Ben Cardew (20:04)

make it do it makes us careful Harder, faster, Stronger.

All of It Host Alison Stewart (20:21)

Ben, we're going to talk about sampling. What was unique about the way that Daft Punk used sampling?

Ben Cardew (20:29)

I'm glad you mentioned that. I was just thinking that actually when Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger was playing that, that is one of the really brilliant examples of using a sample in Discovery. I mean, there aren't that many samples in discovering compared to, like, you know, a lot of, like, dance music from this time. But that particular song samples Edwin Bird's song. And the funny thing is, like, a lot of people like, oh, I've heard the sample, and now Darth Punk weren't doing anything. They just use the sample. And I just think that so kind of misunderstands it because it's like when you. You listen to Edward and Burton Kola bottle waving and you can hear like, Harder, Better, Faster in there, but, like, the work they had to do to get where. To get to where it is. And the really, really ingenious way in which they sample is absolutely brilliant. And also, like, for example, another unlikely sample on Superheroes, you've got a Barry Manilow sample, you know, which is hardly, like, you know, your typical dance music sample, but they use it brilliantly. And one of the. One of the. My favorite tracks is Face to Face, which is made with New Jersey garage producer Todd Edwards. And Todd Edwards, sort of very briefly has his own. He's an incredible, incredible musician who kind of came up with his own method of sampling, which is like, you take loads of samples, like 80 samples, and cut them into tiny, tiny, tiny little bits, and then you stick them back together, which is something I absolutely love. And you can hear that on Face to Face. Apparently there is something like. I think he said, like 160 samples on it.

All of It Host Alison Stewart (22:12)

Well, you know what? Let's listen to it so people can hear a little bit. Yeah, let's listen.

Daft Punk Song Lyrics (22:30)

Sa.

All of It Host Alison Stewart (23:03)

Let's go to Mimish in Manhattan. Hey, Mamesh, thanks for calling all of it.

Listeners Calling In (23:09)

Hi, this is Manish. I just wanted to say I'm a huge fan of Daft Punk. I have two young boys and they

Ben Cardew (23:17)

love the Discovery album and many of

Listeners Calling In (23:20)

the songs that are on there.

Ben Cardew (23:22)

I wanted to say that the random access memory actually played a big part in my wedding.

Listeners Calling In (23:28)

My wife and I Both walked out

Ben Cardew (23:30)

to lose yourself to dance and some

Listeners Calling In (23:34)

of our bridal party walked out to get lucky. So just wanted to share that.

All of It Host Alison Stewart (23:39)

Thanks so much for sharing, Ben. As we finish up, what has been interesting to you about the way the members of Post Def Punk since they broke up? What have they done with their time? What's interesting to you about that?

Ben Cardew (23:52)

What's fascinating is basically Guy Manuel has done very little. He's been very much in the shadows. He produced, co produced one song on the recent Rosalia album and he has a couple of other credits, but he hasn't done all that much publicly. He hasn't done any interviews. No one seems to really know where he is. And Thomas Van Galta has been just doing whatever he wants. He did like a ballet. He recently popped up DJing with Fred again. He's done the soundtrack to Dali, the film. He's done lots of art. He's just, he seems to me just to be having this wonderful life where he's just like, yeah, no, I'd like to do a ballet. Oh, I'd like. And he actually scored the ballet himself, you know, properly writing out and it's just like that is absolutely incredible. And he seems just an incredibly talented musician, just having his, his absolute best life. And like, as I just, I think it was last weekend, a couple of weekends ago he returned to DJing. Well, no, he did that in the end last year, but like did really big DJ date in London going back to back with Fred again. And it was just so exciting. I mean, I wasn't there, but to see, you know, to see everyone's videos from it and to see, see it happening and to see the kind of love he got. And there was lots of Discovery songs being played there.

All of It Host Alison Stewart (25:08)

Sounds like it was a good time. Yeah. Ben Cardew, author of the book Daft Daft Cardew. Excuse me. Author of the book Daft Punk's Discovery, the Future Unfurled. Thanks for joining us for our silver liner notes.

Ben Cardew (25:22)

My pleasure. Anytime you want to talk about punk, I'm very much here.

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