Daft Punk Jb Hi Fi

[Janeth Counter]

Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. They achieved early popularity in the late 1990s as part of the French house movement, combining elements of house music with funk, disco, techno, rock and synth-pop.[1] The duo garnered further acclaim and commercial success and are now regarded as one of the most influential acts in dance music history.[2]

Daft Punk formed after Bangalter and de Homem-Christo's former indie rock band, Darlin', disbanded. Their debut studio album, Homework, was released by Virgin Records in 1997 to positive reviews, backed by the singles "Around the World" and "Da Funk". From 1999, Daft Punk assumed robot personas for public appearances, with helmets, outfits and gloves to disguise their identities; they made few media appearances. They were managed from 1996 to 2008 by Pedro Winter, the head of Ed Banger Records.

In 2013, Daft Punk left Virgin for Columbia Records and released their fourth and final album, Random Access Memories, to acclaim; the lead single, "Get Lucky", reached the top 10 in the charts of 27 countries. Random Access Memories won five Grammy Awards in 2014, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year for "Get Lucky". In 2016, Daft Punk gained their only number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Starboy", a collaboration with the Weeknd. In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked them the 12th greatest musical duo of all time; the same publication has included two of their albums on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. They announced their split in 2021.

Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter met in 1987 while attending the Lyce Carnot secondary school in Paris.[3][4] The two became friends and recorded demos with others from the school.[5][6] In 1992, they formed a band, Darlin', with Bangalter on bass, Homem-Christo on guitar,[5][6] and Laurent Brancowitz on guitar and drums.[7] The trio named themselves after the Beach Boys song "Darlin'", which they covered along with an original composition.[7] Both tracks were released on a multi-artist EP under Duophonic Records, a label owned by the London-based band Stereolab, who invited Darlin' to open for shows in the United Kingdom.[7]

Darlin' disbanded after around six months, having played two gigs and produced four songs. Bangalter described the project as "pretty average".[8] Brancowitz formed another band, Phoenix.[8] Bangalter and Homem-Christo formed Daft Punk and experimented with drum machines and synthesizers.[citation needed] The name was taken from a negative review of Darlin' in Melody Maker by Dave Jennings,[9] who dubbed their music "a daft punky thrash".[10] The band found the review amusing.[4] Homem-Christo said, "We struggled so long to find [the name] Darlin', and [this name] happened so quickly."[11]

In September 1993, Daft Punk attended a rave at EuroDisney, where they met Stuart Macmillan of Slam, the co-founder of the Scottish label Soma Quality Recordings.[4][12] They gave him a demo tape, which formed the basis for Daft Punk's debut single, "The New Wave", a limited release in 1994.[8] The single also contained the final mix of "The New Wave" called "Alive", which appeared on Daft Punk's first album.[13]

Daft Punk returned to the studio in May 1995 to record "Da Funk". After it became their first commercially successful single, they hired a manager, Pedro Winter, who regularly promoted them and other artists at his Hype nightclubs.[6] They signed with Virgin Records in September 1996 and made a deal to license tracks through their production company, Daft Trax.[3][6] Bangalter said that while they received numerous offers from record labels, they wanted to wait and ensure that they did not lose creative control. He considered the deal with Virgin more akin to a partnership.[14]

In the mid-to-late nineties, Daft Punk performed live at various events, without the costumes they later became known for. In 1996, they made their first performance in the United States, at an Even Furthur event in Wisconsin.[15] In addition to live original performances, they performed in clubs using vinyl records from their collection. They were known for incorporating numerous styles of music into their DJ sets.[16]

Daft Punk released their debut album, Homework, in 1997.[12] That February, the UK dance magazine Muzik published a Daft Punk cover feature and described Homework as "one of the most hyped debut albums in a long long time".[17] According to The Village Voice, the album revived house music and departed from the Eurodance formula.[18] The critic Alex Rayner wrote that it combined established club styles and the "burgeoning eclecticism" of big beat.[19] In 1997, Daft Punk embarked on an international concert tour, Daftendirektour, using their home equipment for the live stage.[8] On 25 May, they headlined the Tribal Gathering festival at Luton Hoo, England, with Orbital and Kraftwerk.[20]

The most successful single from Homework was "Around the World". "Da Funk" was also included on The Saint film soundtrack. Daft Punk produced a series of music videos for Homework directed by Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, Roman Coppola and Seb Janiak. The videos were collected in 1999 as D.A.F.T.: A Story About Dogs, Androids, Firemen and Tomatoes.

Bangalter and Homem-Christo created their own record labels, Roul and Crydamoure, after the release of Homework, and released solo projects by themselves and their friends. Homem-Christo released music as a member of Le Knight Club with Eric Chedeville, and Bangalter released music as a member of Together with DJ Falcon and founded the group Stardust with Alan Braxe and Benjamin Diamond. In 1998, Stardust released their only song, the chart hit "Music Sounds Better With You".[21]

Daft Punk's second album, Discovery, was released in 2001. The duo said it was an attempt to reconnect with the playful, open-minded attitude associated with the discovery phase of childhood.[7] The album reached No. 2 in the UK, and its lead single, "One More Time", was a hit. The song is heavily autotuned and compressed.[7] The singles "Digital Love" and "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" were also successful in the UK and on the US Dance Chart, and "Face to Face" hit number one on the US club play charts.

Discovery created a new generation of Daft Punk fans. It also saw Daft Punk debut their distinctive robot costumes; they had previously worn Halloween masks or bags for promotional appearances.[22] Discovery was later named one of the best albums of the decade by publications including Pitchfork[23] and Resident Advisor.[24] In 2020, Rolling Stone included it at number 236 in its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".[25] In 2021, Pitchfork cited Discovery as the centrepiece of Daft Punk's career, "an album that transcended the robots' club roots and rippled through the decades that followed".[26]

Daft Punk partnered with the Japanese manga artist Leiji Matsumoto to create Interstella 5555, a feature-length animation set to Discovery. The first four episodes were shown on Toonami in 2001, and the finished film was released on DVD in 2003.[27] That December, Daft Punk released Daft Club, a compilation of Discovery remixes.[28] In 2001, Daft Punk released a 45-minute excerpt from a Daftendirektour performance as Alive 1997.[29]

On 21 May 2006, Daft Punk premiered a film, Daft Punk's Electroma, at the Cannes Film Festival sidebar Director's Fortnight.[33] The film does not include Daft Punk's music. Midnight screenings of the film were held in Paris theaters starting from March 2007.[34]

For 48 dates across 2006 and 2007, Daft Punk performed the Alive 2006/2007 world tour, performing a "megamix" of their music from a large LED-fronted pyramid. The tour was acclaimed[35] and is credited for bringing dance music to a wider audience, especially in North America.[36][37] The Guardian journalist Gabriel Szatan likened it to how the Beatles' 1964 performance on The Ed Sullivan Show had brought British rock and roll to the American mainstream.[36]

Daft Punk's performance in Paris was released as their second live album, Alive 2007, on 19 November 2007.[38] The live version of "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" was released as a single,[39] with a video directed by Olivier Gondry comprising audience footage of their performance in Brooklyn.[40] In 2009, Daft Punk won Grammy Awards for Alive 2007 and its single "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger".[41]

Daft Punk made a surprise appearance at the 50th Grammy Awards on 10 February 2008, and appeared with rapper Kanye West to perform a reworked version of "Stronger" on stage at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.[42] It was the first televised Daft Punk live performance.[42]

In 2008, Daft Punk returned to Paris to work on new material. Winter also stepped down as their manager to focus attention on his Ed Banger Records label and his work as Busy P.[43] He stated in a later interview that Daft Punk were working with an unspecified management company in Los Angeles. The duo held its Daft Arts production office at the Jim Henson Studios complex in Hollywood.[44] In 2008, Daft Punk placed 38th in a worldwide official poll of DJ Mag after debuting at position 71 in the year before.[45] Daft Punk provided new mixes for the video game DJ Hero, and appeared in the game as playable characters.[46]

At the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, it was announced that Daft Punk had composed 24 tracks for the film Tron: Legacy.[47] Daft Punk's score was arranged and orchestrated by Joseph Trapanese.[48] The band collaborated with him for two years on the score, from pre-production to completion. The score features an 85-piece orchestra, recorded at AIR Lyndhurst Studios in London.[49] Joseph Kosinski, director of the film, referred to the score as a mixture of orchestral and electronic elements.[50] Daft Punk also make a cameo as disc jockey programs wearing their trademark robot helmets within the film's virtual world.[51] The soundtrack album was released on 6 December 2010.[52] A music video for "Derezzed" premiered on the MTV Networks on the same day the album was released.[53] The video, which features Olivia Wilde as the character Quorra in specially shot footage, along with images of Daft Punk in Flynn's Arcade, was later made available for purchase from the iTunes Store and included in the DVD and Blu-ray releases of the film. Walt Disney Records released a remix album, Tron: Legacy Reconfigured, on 5 April 2011.[54]

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