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‘Daft Science’: Beastie Boys meet Daft Punk in a suite of eight amazing remixes
11.17.2016
12:47 pm
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Toronto-based musician Coins has an admirably succinct self-description on his Bandcamp page: “Coins makes dance music.”

For my part I’m not one to dance much, but he makes electronic music quite ably. He favors the thick, sproingy analog sounds of electro and classic Acid House, but what concerns us today is a project from two and a half years ago that just came to our attention via Metafilter: “Daft Science,” a Beastie Boys/Daft Punk mashup project that floats the Beasties’ a capella tracks over music beds made up entirely of Daft Punk samples. It’s really good, exactly the kind of transformation of both sources that a band vs band mashup should be. The entire album is available for free download here, but we’ll share a few tracks below, of course. He seems to have posted no new projects since September of 2014, so it’s unclear what, if anything, he’s up to currently. I’m also unable to locate an online tip jar for those who’d wish to support further music from him, which seems odd for someone NAMED “Coins,” but so it goes.

Enjoy Coins’ transformations of “Sure Shot,” “No Sleep Till Brooklyn,” and “Body Movin’”.
 

 
More ‘Daft Science’ after the jump…

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Posted by Ron Kretsch
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11.17.2016
12:47 pm
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Daft Punk’s eerily accurate retro magazine ads
05.19.2014
09:31 am
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Daft Punk
 
Daft Punk might be the most aggressively “retro” act since Oasis, riding canny reappropriations of the 1970s disco sound to five Grammies a few months ago. I love “Get Lucky” just as much as the next guy, and I really have to hand it to the design geniuses who cooked up these incredible faux advertisements, done up in the style of ads you might have seen forty years ago in the pages of Rolling Stone, Playboy, or Cosmopolitan.

I can’t imagine a better melding of the cool, spacey Daft Punk (already retro) vibe and the smeary, confident, sexy steez of the era of cocaine, feathered hair, and trendy jeans. 

Even better, every one of the ads is promoting a specific Daft Punk product you can buy on their website, including a poster, a record player slipmat, T-shirts, a belt buckle, and so on, all available at grotesque markups.

The ads remind me a lot of these brilliant “ALT/1977: WE ARE NOT TIME TRAVELERS” ads that popped up a couple of years ago imagining iPhone, Nokia, and Nintendo products if they had been new in the 1970s.

If you’re having trouble summoning up images of the kinds of ads the Daft Punk is referencing, here are a few examples.
 
Daft Punk
 
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via Retromania

Posted by Martin Schneider
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05.19.2014
09:31 am
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Daft Punk, Schmaft Punk—what about The Earons?
01.27.2014
12:44 pm
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Random Access Memories by the overpraised French synth duo Daft Punk cleaned up at the 56th annual Grammys last night. So it goes. Nobody who’s paying actual attention to music is looking to corporate label circle jerks for cues anyway, so it’s not like something lame sweeping an awards show is anything to pants-shit over. But I wonder if even a modicum of that recognition will ever filter down to the prior band from whom D.P. blatantly jacked a lot of their moves.
 

 
In 1984, over a decade before Daft Punk, a band of anonymized musicians in outer space motorcycle gear released an album of acutely ‘80s synthed-up funk tropes. They were The Earons, and the album was Hear On Earth. I actually owned a copy! A friend of mine recommended it to me based on my love of The Residents, evidently thinking my obsession with that band had less to do with music than headgear. Just so we’re clear, it’s an enjoyable period piece, I’m NOT going to the mat for Hear On Earth as a lost classic that’s going to take us all back to school or anything. It’s just that the parallels are so crazy obvious.
 

The Earons, “Video Baby”
 

The Earons, “Standing Room Only”
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Sound of SIlver(heads): Rockets on Italian TV 1978

Posted by Ron Kretsch
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01.27.2014
12:44 pm
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Daft Punk to market ‘Get Lucky’ condoms
07.10.2013
12:31 pm
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Apparently Daft Punk is teaming up with Durex to make their own line of “Get Lucky” condoms. Okay. The logo on the box will feature the iconic image of Daft Punk, Pharrell, and Nile Rodgers in front of a sunset. Super.

Diplo received some of these promotional condoms, posted them on Instagram and wrote, “Thank god I had those daft punk condoms last night.”

Aren’t we all, Diplo… aren’t we all? I hope you had two in case you needed “One More Time” and thanks for over-sharing!

Below, Daft Punk unmasked at secret gig:

Posted by Tara McGinley
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07.10.2013
12:31 pm
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The best song from Daft Punk’s ‘Random Access Memories’ is not even on the album


 
It’s a bonus track from the Japanese edition of Random Access Memories called “Horizon” and it is drop dead gorgeous. Sounding more like Air or Pink Floyd than Giorgio Moroder or Herbie Hancock, this acoustic guitar-lead track is the kind of epic, melancholy loveliness I wish the album had more of. Judge for yourselves:

Daft Punk “Horizon”
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds:

Giving Life Back To Music: obligatory review of Daft Punk’s ‘Random Access Memories’

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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05.22.2013
11:57 am
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Giving Life Back To Music: Obligatory review of Daft Punk’s ‘Random Access Memories’
05.20.2013
01:50 pm
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I can still remember where I was the first time I heard Daft Punk’s “Da Funk.” It was the summer of 1996 and my brother had taped a 1995-end-of-the-year-round-up show by Annie Nightingale off BBC Radio 1. Well, I say “first” but actually it was the second, as I had previously heard it in a dj mix, but at that point I had no way of knowing what it was. Thankfully Ms Nightingale was forthcoming with information, meaning I could track the tune down myself (in a shop and by word of mouth, remember the days?)

To say that “Da Funk” blew my mind is a bit of an under-statement. As a piece of music it referenced both the genres I was loving the most at the time, house music and hip-hop, but far from being some tawdry “hip-house” jam, “Da Funk” was the perfect summation of the best elements of both genres without compromising either. Everything about the record was perfect, including the feeling of “what the fuck was THAT?!” I got after hearing it. A year later Daft Punk released Homework, and it became the record that, more than any other, defined the late 90s for a whole generation of kids who were sick to death of grunge and Britpop and looking for something new and exciting that wasn’t about the past.

So there you have it. My Daft Punk background. I was there the first time round, and young enough for it to be absolutely MY thing. Does that make me an old fart now? Does that make my opinion on Random Access Memories, Daft Punk’s new album and the most hyped music product ever since the last most hyped music product ever, irrelevant?

Answer in the comments if you like, but to be honest, I don’t really care. Having grown up with Daft Punk, and had them make an immense influence on my own music production and song writing, I feel a personal connection to what they do that makes a review of their new album more than just another Internet commentariat bleating along with the herd (though I can’t stop anyone from shooting it down by calling it that).

So in as brief a nutshell as I can possibly put together, here is my review of Random Access Memories: potentially amazing production let down by really lacklustre songs. Now you know what I think. Feel free to ignore the rest of this piece if you want. For the rest of you, here are my gripes…

Daft Punk “Random Access Memories” full album stream:
 

 
Read the full review after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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05.20.2013
01:50 pm
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Heavy Meta: The Daft Mystery of Thom Yorke’s Halloween Costume
11.02.2012
06:14 pm
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Photo via Chris Holmes on Instagram

Rumor has it that it was not—as the crowd certainly seemed to think—Daft Punk who were DJ’ing at Maroon 5’s elaborate Halloween party the other night at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, but rather Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Chris Holmes of Ashtar Command in costume as Daft Punk.

Both men were at the party, I saw them myself: Chris Holmes was dressed as a skunk (skunk rhymes with punk… is that a clue?) and Thom Yorke was seen circulating around the grounds—a huge carnival-themed production in an actual graveyard in Los Angeles where the likes of Cecil B. DeMille, Douglas Fairbanks and two Ramones are buried—wearing a Dickensian-looking tramp get-up.

If this is true, I commend these gentlemen for their beyond-the-call-of-duty dedication to this priceless, multi-leveled Halloween gag. I’m guessing that Daft Punk must have been in the crowd—perhaps dressed as Thom Yorke and Chris Holmes—laughing their asses off.

Second place for best costume should go to Maroon 5’s Mickey Madden who was dressed as Skrillex. His costume was so good that my friends and I thought that it was Skrillex dressed as himself.

Via The Daily Swarm
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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11.02.2012
06:14 pm
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Tonight, A DJ Will Save Your Life: An interview with Performer Extraordinaire The Niallist

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‘...I’m from an old school that believed that music and musicians could change things - maybe not radically and maybe not quickly, but that the seeds for change could definitely be sown with songs and videos and shows and interviews.’

Niall O’Conghaile aka The Niallist is talking about the music that inspired him to become a musician, a producer, a DJ, a one-man-disco-industry, and a Performer Extraordinaire.

Niall makes music that moves you “physically, mentally and emotionally. Dance music, for want of a better term!” But it’s always been about more than that.

Let’s turn to the history book…

When Brian Eno was working with David Bowie in Germany, he heard Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” in a record shop. Eno bought the single and ran, holding it aloft, back to Bowie in the studio, where he announced, like a pop John-the-Baptist, ‘I have heard the future.’

Niall is part of that future and his musical output is quite phenomenal and brilliant.

But it’s not just music that Niall has made his own, you’ll know him as a star blogger on Dangerous Minds, and perhaps through his work on the blogs Shallow Rave, Weaponizer, Menergy and his site, Niallism.

Niall also DJs / organizes club nights with Menergy and Tranarchy, and is the keyboard player with Joyce D’Ivision. All of which, for my money, makes The Niallist one of the most exciting, talented and outrageous DJ/producers currently working in the UK. Not bad for a boy who started out spinning discs on one turntable at school.

Now, it’s strange how you can spend much of your working day with someone and yet never really know that much about them. Wanting to know more about the extraordinary Niallist, I decided to interview him for (who else?) Dangerous Minds, and this is what he said.
 
DM: Tell me about how you started in music? Was this something to moved towards in childhood?

The Niallist: ‘Yeah, music is something I remember affecting me deeply as a kid. My sister, who is older than me, was a huge Prince fan and naturally that teenage, female, pop-music enthusiasm rubbed off on me. I would read all her old copies of Smash Hits and create my own scrap books from the magazines, even though the bands were, by then, either non-existent or pretty naff.

‘My brother was into more serious, “boy” music, which I didn’t like as a child, but which I really appreciated when I hit puberty. He had a big box of tapes that was crucial to me, even though he didn’t like me borrow them, but he had pretty much all Led Zep’s albums in there, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Bowie, The Stone Roses, and I particularly remember him getting a copy of Nevermind when it had just come out, which was a key discovery. That box smelt of Dettol and musty cassettes, and to this day the smell of Dettol still takes me back!’

What were your early tastes in music? What were those key moments when a song a record made you realise this was what you wanted to do?

The Niallist: ‘Well, Nevermind was definitely one. I think that record started a lot of people on a musical journey. But also, I really identified with Kurt Cobain, as he was an outsider in the pop music landscape who spoke up for gay and women’s rights, which really struck a chord with me. He was a man, but he also wasn’t scared of being seen as feminine. He was a pop star, he looked scruffy and spoke with intelligence and passion. He was different. As someone else who was different, and a natural outsider, I guess I saw music as maybe a place where I could fit in and still fully express myself.

‘Call me hopelessly naive if you will, but I’m from an old school that believed that music and musicians could change things - maybe not radically and maybe not quickly, but that the seeds for change could definitely be sown with songs and videos and shows and interviews. Looking back on the early 90s now, it seems like an incredibly politically-charged time for music and pop culture. Public Enemy, NWA, Ice Cube, Huggy Bear, Bikini Kill, The Prodigy with “Fuck ‘Em And Their Law”, Pearl Jam telling Ticketmaster to fuck off, Spiral Tribe, massive illegal raves, Back To The Planet, Senser, Rage Against The Machine, the fact that RuPaul was a pop star, even Madonna’s Sex book and Erotica album for God’s sake! If you weren’t politically active or at least aware back then, you were terribly uncool. That spirit seems to have disappeared from music altogether now, which is sad.’
 

 

 
More from Niall, including his Top 5 picks, after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
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06.21.2012
07:25 pm
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Nile Rodgers in talks to work with Daft Punk
02.07.2012
06:35 pm
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This really has to happen - it would be a match made in Disco Heaven! From a recent Nile Rodgers interview on the Culture Map Houston website:

Since receiving his cancer diagnosis in fall 2010, Rodgers has committed himself to an impressive array of new projects — ranging from production work for Adam Lambert’s sophomore effort Trespassing to finishing up his bestselling memoirs Le Freak.

Upon his return to New York, he said he would be meeting with the acclaimed French electronic music duo Daft Punk to discuss their long-awaited fourth album, rumored by fans to be drawing upon the group’s R&B influences.

The mind boggles at the potential funkiness these guys could brew up together… I mean, come on, who wouldn’t want to hear one of the best guitarists of all time jamming over “Around The World”, a song that sounds like he practically wrote it?

Daft Punk “Around The World (live)”
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Nile Rodgers’ ‘Le Freak’: music biography of the year
Miles Davis talks about his art on Nile Rodgers’ ‘New Visions’
Nile Rodgers dishes the dirt on Atlantic Records

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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02.07.2012
06:35 pm
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