The latest installment of Daft Punk’s Memory Tapes docuseries features never-before-seen video clips.
Back in May, defunct French house superstar duo Daft Punk shared the first episode of a docuseries called Memory Tapes. The second installment dropped on Thursday, and it features footage of Chilly Gonzales working alongside the duo to record “Within” from their 2013 album Random Access Memories.
In an interview segment, the Canadian singer-songwriter explains that Daft Punk initially tapped him to remix “Too Long” from their 2001 album Discovery. He jokes that he intentionally misheard “remix” as “remake” on account of of their French accents, turning it into a ’70s ballad that still had the duo’s signature “crying robot” vocodered vocals.
It worked out in the end. Daft Punk were happy enough with his rendition of “Too Long” that they brought him back to work on “Within,” whose somber chord progression gives the listener a respite between otherwise dancefloor-oriented singles on the album.
Working with your heroes can turn out to be disappointing once it actually happens, but with Daft Punk, it far surpassed even my greatest expectations on Random Access Memories especially. When they themselves willfully removed some of those sonic elements that had made them so famous, it was as if they were also saying, ‘Now that we have access to all these traditional musicians, let’s see if we can still make it sound like Daft Punk.’
Chilly Gonzales
Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo met in Paris in 1987 and originally played together in a band called Darlin’. They formed Daft Punk in 1993 and released their debut album, Homework, via Soma Quality Recordings in 1997. They went on to release critically acclaimed albums like Discovery in 2001 and Human After All in 2005.
Random Access Memories was Daft Punk’s final album before they disbanded in early 2021. In May, they released a ten-year anniversary edition of the effort.
Watch episode 2 of Daft Punk’s Memory Tapes docuseries below.
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