Looking Back to Look Forward - Daft Punk's "Random Access Memories"

 

Has there ever been a better marketed album prior to its release than Daft Punk's "Random Access Memories?" You would have a hard time finding one. After a brilliant series of video interviews featuring The Collaborators from the album along with hints of the tracks, fans of Daft Punk knew that this was going to be something special. But the promotion left a high level of mystery. Until the album's leak, available streaming on iTunes, fans had no idea what this would sound like. Expectations were extremely high and "Random Access Memories" does not disappoint. Let's jump right into the first track...

"Give Life Back to Music" opens like the opening to an album, not the opening of an individual song. Those first three notes are big, powerful and grandiose. There's a ton of energy in that opening and then it pulls you into a groove that's so silky smooth, you're almost taken aback by it. One of the things Daft Punk has done really well throughout their career is contrast. By opening with brash chords, the slip into the Nile Rodgers driven guitar groove feels like a trip into another world, a world in which pop music hasn't lived in decades.

Throughout the album, the robot voice (vocoder) is a fantastic way to remind the listener that what they are hearing is Daft Punk. "The Game of Love" uses the vocoder vocals well proving that a "robot voice" can be just as expressive (if not more) than a human's.

"Giorgio" is definitely a polarizing track. Putting a 9 minute epic as the third track on your album is bold. But music lovers have to appreciate the incredible composition it is. "Giorgio" is an exploration throughout funk/early electronic music. The personnel on this track is loaded. The talent and technique exhibited throughout Giorgio is inspiring.

My only critique of the album is that it could use horn players. A saxophone, trumpet and/or trombone would have added an additional layer of sound, not to mention brought even more energy to the tracks. Many of the legendary disco groups and songs featured great horn sections. A homage to the disco era feels like it's missing something without horns.

Daft Punk are so attentive to detail in their sound engineering that the spoken sections by Giorgio Moroder (who everybody calls Giorgio) were done with 6 different microphones as he discusses different eras. Would anybody notice that? Probably not. But Daft Punk would. The grand finale, which Giorgio describes as "the sounds of the future," is dazzling.

A piano interlude by the fantastic Chilly Gonzales takes us into "Within." It's a really pretty melody with the most interesting sung lyrics of the album, thus far. "Please tell me who I am," "looking for someone"... these are emotional lyrics. They also take on a very different meaning when sung by a robot. The robots are experiencing emotion. The robots are becoming sentient!! IS NO ONE ELSE TERRIFIED?

Anyway, "Instant Crush" opens with what sounds eerily like Wham!'s "Last Christmas" but is carried by The Strokes' lead singer, Julian Casablancas. The first minute of the song is very a straight ahead groove, heavy on downbeats with little syncopation. When the chorus comes in, it's a brand new tune with a groove heavy on upbeats and syncopation. Due to the contrast between the chorus and verse, the chorus feels even funkier than it is (and it's already very funky). "Instant Crush" has potential to be the album's second big single.

The heaviest hitter among the collaborators, Pharrell Williams, makes his first appearance on the album with "Lose Yourself to Dance." However Pharrell is not the takeaway from this track, it is Nile Rodgers' fantastic playing, again. He is a master of groove, dictating the entire feel of the song with his complex, rhythmic guitar riffs. Rodgers may be the MVP of the album.

"Touch" is a bit out there for me. It's slightly disappointing as it features Paul Williams, composer of maybe the greatest song ever written for a film, "The Rainbow Connection" (which is masterfully sung by a puppet frog on the river, playing a banjo). The climax is grandiose, but it takes a long time to get there.


Here we get the album's hit single (and it's not even close), "Get Lucky." The NY Times piece on the song gives an excellent description of  why "Get Lucky" may be the biggest hit of the summer due to its genre-defiance and marketability. Though played by real drums, the drum track is manipulated to sound driving and almost electronic. Mixed with another great guitar groove by Rodgers and vocals from Pharrell, "Get Lucky" combines modern and disco sounds expertly, especially considering that none of the album's tracks were recorded together.

One way in which "Get Lucky" has Daft Punk's flavor is through the use of the duo's trademark technique of presenting a melody, then a counter-melody, and finally the two melodies on top of each other. In "Get Lucky," it's Pharrell's vocals, the robotic vocoder vocals, and then the two together. It's the blueprint for Discovery, Alive 2007 (in which they combined tracks/melodies from different albums), and a couple songs from Random Access Memories. It's interesting that while the groove may sound totally different, the basic musical structure remains the same.

After a grand orchestral opening, complete with a string section and timpani, "Beyond" falls into a groove reminiscent of Michael McDonald's "I Keep Forgettin'." When recording the album, Daft Punk sought to achieve what they called a "west coast vibe," referencing groups like the Doobie Brothers. Somewhat surprisingly, it was the short lived (and historically under appreciated) Michael McDonald-era of the Doobie Brothers sound that they achieved.

"Motherboard" is a track that will likely be overlooked, but it may be the closest thing to the Daft Punk of old. If Discovery were to be recorded by talented musicians without samples and loops, it would sound something like "Motherboard." It sounds like something out of a spy thriller (think Bourne Identity).

"Fragments of Time" features Todd Edwards, best known for his previous Daft Punk collaboration "Face to Face." While "Face to Face" sampled an Electric Light Orchestra song (Evil Woman), it sounded nothing like a record that could come out of the 1970s. "Fragments of Time" sounds like a Hall & Oates record. It may be cheesy, the lyrics are uninspiring, but it gives a modern touch to an 80s groove that brilliantly creates a new sound. It is a minor detail but in the chorus, in between the sung lyrics, there are a series of isolated guitar and keyboard figures, recorded on different tracks which sound like choppy fragments of phrases. As the song is about "Fragments of Time," Daft Punk continue to show their mastery of sound engineering.

"Doing it Right" features Panda Bear of Animal Collective, one of the more innovative electronic bands today.  It is one of the rare tracks on the album with little to no disco influence. For me, it falls short in terms of energy. The track does not build throughout, though it does use Daft Punk's technique of presenting melody, counter-melody, then the two together. Humans and robots singing in harmony. Beautiful stuff.

"Contact" is a gripping ending which makes great use of a quote from Apollo 17 in which an astronaut gives us reason to believe there is life outside of Earth. The five note phrase after "there's something out there" is chilling. What "Doing it Right" lacks in build, "Contact" more than makes up for. It culminates with an all out headbanging rock feel supporting an ascending synthesizer which sounds like a spaceship leaving Earth. It shows the depth of what the synthesizer can do and just how far it has come.

Earlier in the album, Giorgio discusses the synthesizer as being the sound of the future. With Random Access Memories, Daft Punk have left their mark on what the future should sound like. By recreating sounds of the past, with modern elements, Daft Punk pay homage to music's recent history while setting the bar for contemporaries. It is a timeless album and one that can be appreciated by all fans of music, young and old, not just fans of Daft Punk.

You Don't Have to Be a Bro to Love Dave Matthews Band - DMB 6/7/12 at the Comcast Center

Last night at the Comcast Center, four friends and I had the pleasure of seeing Dave Matthews Band. DMB has always been one of my favorite bands; the last time I saw them was in the 11th grade, before I could drive, before I had ever drank, and before I knew what that funny smell coming from the lawn seats was. At some point early in college, I drifted from DMB a bit, as many musicians looked down on the rowdy crowd of bros and biddies who worship their hero: Dave. The usual crowd at a DMB show is not my favorite group of people in the world but there is no sense in punishing the band for the crowd they draw. Inevitably, I realized I was being foolish for listening to the opinions of musical elitists (as listening to the opinion of any elitist generally is). So at age 22, roughly six years since last seeing DMB, I went back with the accompaniment of friends. And it was great.
 
Let me first say, we didn't see "Dave," we didn't just see "Dave Matthews," we saw "Dave Matthews Band." Referring to the band as just "Dave" is a tremendous injustice to the six other guys in the group. If people consider Dave Matthews a solo act, then he has the best backing band in the world.

The entire band goes through drummer, Carter Beauford. Beauford might not be a household name, but he should be. Without Carter Beauford, DMB is a solid jam band, but there is no way they are nearly as successful. His style plays perfectly into the style of the band. DMB's long improvised solos don't work unless they are able to build and have direction. It's a pretty simple concept: if you want to keep a solo exciting, it has to go somewhere and the longer a solo goes for, the harder it is to keep the excitement. Regardless of who the soloist is, they're going to start with something simple. Carter matches their intensity with something simple. The more minimal the band begins, the more dramatic the climax is. As the soloist picks up the intensity, whether its through volume of notes, loudness of the sound or getting into the upper register (or in Dave's case, scat screaming), Carter matches that intensity and goes beyond it. By the end of each solo, you have a moment where everyone is going nuts, pushing their instruments to the physical limit. At these moments, typically accompanied by a climax in the light show, the crowd goes wild. Though the crowd thinks they're cheering for the soloist, they're actually cheering for Carter because without him, that moment would not have happened.

Gibbons & Cote in the Evening: Rock & Roll!!!

Welcome back to the fun & excitement of Gibbons & Cote in the Evening! In this special pop culture episode, Gibbs & I discuss one of our favorite topics: music. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction is this weekend, so we break down some of the new inductees. The majority of the show is spent talking about our favorite rock acts ever, most of whom are in the Hall of Fame. Listen in for some awesome music talk, as well as clips from our favorite artists. There's no better way to rock out than with us! Cheers.

-Cote

Gibbons Reviews: Alive 2007 by Daft Punk

(This isn't a review as much as me wanting to share my thoughts on an album with you.)

The music that most impresses me is music that changes my mind about something. Before Alive 2007, I did not think that electronic music could be great live. What are the DJs really doing up there? Are they just pressing play and letting the tracks go? What's live about that?

Then I heard Alive 2007. Alive 2007 is a live album taken from a concert in Bercy, France. It comes after Daft Punk released the amazing album Discovery in 2001 and the pretty underwhelming Human After All in 2005. I was unimpressed by Human After All, finding it too repetitive and feeling undeveloped. After hearing Alive 2007, I immediately forgave the '05 album. They left it undeveloped for a reason.

Gibbons Reviews: Camp by Childish Gambino

(I know I’m late to the Childish Gambino party and that this album came out months ago. But the truth is I’ve been listening to Camp since it first came out, I just never got around to writing down my thoughts on it. Ordinarily I would say, the time has passed, forget about it, but this album is too good to ignore.)

For those of you who don’t know, Childish Gambino is the rap stage name of actor/comedian Donald Glover (best known for his work on Community, which is a great show). I’ve always been a fan of Glover’s, dating back to his sketches with Derrick Comedy. Seriously, who can forget this gem? (If you thought that was good, check out some of their other sketches. I’m a big fan of the B-Boy Stance and Jazz Man videos) When I heard about Childish Gambino, I was intrigued. Camp went way beyond my expectations.

Someday We'll Find It: My Interpretation of The Rainbow Connection

This past weekend I saw The Muppets in theaters and it was fantastic. As a big fan of the muppets, I had high expectations for the movie, and it did not disappoint. I plan on writing a full review of the film in a future post.

One of the high points of the movie features the whole cast singing one of my favorite songs “The Rainbow Connection.” The original Muppet Movie, back in 1979, opens with Kermit the Frog, sitting on a log, playing the banjo and singing this beautiful song. Many of you may be familiar with the song, but are unaware of just how brilliant it really is. It’s a catchy song and “the lovers, the dreamers and me” is a very memorable line, but what is the rainbow connection?

I must preface this post by saying The Rainbow Connection is kind of an emotional song for me. I’m not sure why, but something about it chokes me up. Maybe it’s a lot of nostalgia, as The Muppet Movie has always been one of my favorite films. I remember a photo of myself, probably about five years old, reading what I think is the booklet from inside the Muppet Movie VHS which I had just gotten for Christmas. Now seventeen years later, a muppets calendar hangs above my desk as I write this. As so much has changed in my life, the things that stay the same become all the more powerful. And as I grow, the song takes on new meaning. It’s far too deep for any five year old to understand.

Let’s focus on the lyrics:

Why are there so many songs about rainbows
And what's on the other side
Rainbow's are visions, but only illusions
And rainbows have nothing to hide
So we've been told and some chose to believe it
But I know they're wrong wait and see
Someday we'll find it, the Rainbow Connection
The lovers, the dreamers and me

Who said that every wish would be heard and answered
When wished on the morning star
Somebody thought of that and someone believed it
And look what it's done so far
What's so amazing that keeps us star gazing
What so we think we might see
Someday we'll find it, the Rainbow Connection
The lovers, the dreamers and me

All of us under its spell, we know that it’s probably magic

Have you been half asleep and have you heard voices
I've heard them calling my name
Are these the sweet sounds that called the young sailors
I think they're one and the same
I've heard it too many times to ignore it
There's something that I'm supposed to be
Someday we'll find it, the Rainbow Connection
The lovers, the dreamers and me

It’s profound.

The first two lines ask: who cares about rainbows? Why should we care about rainbows? “The other side” represents the unknown. If rainbows are only illusions, what do they matter? The first couple lines sound as if the singer is disparaging interest in the rainbow, but he turns it all around with “I know they’re wrong, wait and see.” We’ve been told that rainbows are just illusions, and while most people accept it as common knowledge, the singer does not. It’s a powerful profession of faith with no facts to support it. Emotion can’t be rooted in fact, why does belief have to be rooted in fact? But the final discovery has yet to be made (“someday we’ll find it”).

The next stanza asks: how did the belief in wishing upon stars begin? I think wishing on stars here is a metaphor for prayer, religion, superstition, or any other acts of putting faith in the supernatural. “Somebody thought of it and someone believed it” shows that its inception needed only one person creating and one person following, showing the simplicity of faith in the supernatural. The next line “and look what it’s done so far” is brilliant because it’s completely open ended. While religions have caused wars, pain and discrimination, belief in a God continues to bring healing, meaning and hope to the lives of people all over the world. Again, we haven’t found it yet, but someday we will. We’re all under its spell, it’s probably magic. It’s not real, but it’s probably something far, far greater and more powerful than that.

The final stanza is about finding and answering your personal calling. While the lyrics talk about hearing voices calling your name, it has to be a metaphor for something calling you in life. The sweet sound calling the young sailors creates an image of sailors, slowly navigating open waters, following a sound that invites them.

I think the next two lines finally explain what the rainbow connection is: “I’ve heard it too many times to ignore it. It’s something that I’m supposed to be.” The rainbow connection is your calling in life, what your existence is supposed to be all about. What is your purpose? Why do you exist? I don’t know. Nobody knows, really, but we have to keep searching for it and someday we’ll find it. Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection, the lovers, the dreamers, and me.

The lovers are people who think with their heart. The dreamers are people who think with their mind. This leaves the singer (me) somewhere in between, not categorized. In order to find your life’s meaning, you must combine the two: emotion and intellect.

I just want to remind those of you who are still reading that this is the opening of The Muppet Movie! We’re talking about a song sung by a puppet frog playing the banjo. But it’s incredibly profound. The end of the movie supports the meaning of The Rainbow Connection, as well. *Spoiler Alert* Just when the Muppets finally achieve their goal of making it to Hollywood and filming their movie, everything falls apart. Disaster strikes the set and almost all the equipment and scenery are destroyed, when a rainbow emerges from the sky. In the last lines of the song, the muppets sing:

Life’s like a movie, write your own ending,

Keep believing, Keep Pretending,

We’ve done just what we set out to do.

Thanks to the lovers, the dreamers and you.

Keep searching for your rainbow connection. The Rainbow Connection is a song about hope. There is hope that there really is a calling for each of us, a reason why we are here. It’s a song about faith. We have to have faith that there is a greater reason for our existence, though there is little fact to support it. Thinking back to the photo of five year old Matthew reading the VHS booklet (studying and analyzing the lyrics to this song, I’m sure), there’s no way he knew what that this song was about. All he knew was a singing frog playing the banjo made him happy. Since then, I’ve only grown older and smarter (I intentionally didn't use "wiser"). If ignorance is bliss, then knowledge must mean unhappiness, and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve certainly gotten more cynical and skeptical. At times, I find it hard to believe in a greater reason for my existence. Logic and reason do nothing to support its existence. But this song gives hope. Someday we’ll find it. Not today, probably not tomorrow, but someday. It’s a lot more powerful than just a singing frog playing the banjo and it makes me happy, too.

An Album Worth Listening to Again and Again

It seems like an appropriate time to work some music into the Bobby V's Fake Stache blog, a slight (ok, pretty dramatic) departure from the content so far. I have seen my fair share of fantastic concerts and heard my fair share of amazing albums. I'm always on the look out for new music as well. It's important to be open to new music, new stories, new art. However, at least once a year, I make sure that I listen to one of my favorite albums ever, Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. With my music taste constantly evolving, I like to remind myself of the brilliance of this album. The first time I heard the album was in 9th grade. I have been a fan of it ever since and have picked up new things every time I listen to it.

I have to preface the rest of this blog post by saying, early Genesis was, for lack of a better word, weird. It's true, I'll admit it. Genesis was one of the innovators of progressive rock in the early 70s, with bands like King Crimson, Yes and Pink Floyd. Some of you may have heard of Genesis, but are familiar with the 80s Phil Collins Genesis. I'm a big fan of that Genesis too, but that's not the band I'm talking about. In the late 60s and early 70s, Genesis was led by front man Peter Gabriel, with Phil Collins on drums and fanastic personnel on all the other instruments. Peter Gabriel, if you can believe it, was even crazier back then than he is now. Gabriel would wear elaborate costumes and create fantastic characters he would portray during shows.

What science fiction is to film and novels, progressive rock was to music and Genesis was pretty out there. It is not music to be listened to in the background of whatever you're doing. Their last album, before Gabriel decided to go solo, was The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. It is a two hour concept album, which plays like one really long sonic story, following a Puerto Rican from New York who falls into a parallel universe. I can't even begin to describe what the album is "about." There exists an annotation of the album, written by some hard core Genesis fans, which when put into a word document stretches to over 60 pages. Two summers ago, when my roommates and friends all went camping and I stayed back, I listened to the album straight through and followed the annotation. Woah. The brilliance of the writing by Gabriel borders on the insane. The whole album is enigmatic. The final track, called It, describes "it" but never says what "it" is, leaving it up to the listener. Deep.

In this blog, I don't want to delve much into the subject matter of the Lamb (which is far too ambitious for a blog post) but rather the music. I want to take you through my favorite track, In the Cage. Please watch the attached YouTube video of the song.



In this track, the narrator and protagonist finds himself trapped in this parallel world.

1:16 - The main groove kicks in and it's a great use of polymeter. The keyboards and vocals are in 4/4 time (they're playing with 4 beats in a measure) while the bass, guitar, and drums are in 6/8 (6 beats in a measure). The result: 2 beats in the keys and vocals equal 3 beats in the bass, guitar and drums. It's a tough technique to pull off well, but Genesis does.

3:20 - A keyboard solo that blew my mind the first time I heard it. Tony Banks absolutely nails this one. As a 9th grader and piano player, I was always jealous of the guitar. Listening to mainly classic rock at the time, the guitar got all the great solos. When I heard this, it really opened my eyes to how the keyboard could be used. Banks doesn't play this solo like a piano player, he never plays multiple notes at once. He plays it like a lead guitar player and it's brilliant, soloing over complex chord changes effortlessly. He and the rest of the band do a great job of building and leading into...

4:14 - The climax section. The repeating figure in the bass and guitar just makes me wanna nod my head with each time they hit it. The keyboard holds the last note of the solo above the rest of the music throughout. Collins plays the drums on the downbeats with such an intensity. The organ lays down a series of chords that are begging for a resolution.

4:39 - Gabriel's vocals join in again. Gabriel, though far from the best technical singer at this point in his career, sang with such a passion really embodying the mentality of these characters he created. This is one of the biggest climaxes of the album and Gabriel definitely conveys that with the intensity in his voice.

5:40 - The song returns to the main section again, only it becomes more frantic as it continues. The bass is now doing playing in an indecipherable rhythm, which just adds to the disjointedness. This section repeats and fades, the song is virtually over by 7:23 and the rest is transition into the next track.

If you liked what you heard, great! If you didn't, I'm not surprised or offended. It takes a very specific taste in music to appreciate Genesis. I listen to Genesis the same way I listen to classical and orchestral music, not rock music. The Lamb, for what it's worth, may not even be my favorite Genesis album (their best is probably Selling England by the Pound). Regardless, The Lamb always serves as a reminder to me that rock music can be meaningful, technically impressive, and artistic. It is anything but commercial. I've been listening to it for years, I will continue listening to it for years to come, and I will probably never really know what it is about, but I'm gonna keep trying to figure it out.