DAFT PUNK
Produced by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo
Released May 17, 2013
I have been expressing this thought to myself for many years and years and that is the following: Disco is not dead. They'll just call it something else.
Dear readers and listeners, I am extremely late to the Daft Punk party and aside from a song or two and that LCD Soundsystem track which sings their praises, I know virtually nothing about the band aside from the silly conceit that the members are two faceless robots (actually Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo in disguise) who are slaves to the rhythms they create and that they are at the forefront of the EDM music scene, the latest re-invention of disco, proving that this particular musical genre has never faded into oblivion no matter how strongly memories of Chicago DJ Steve Dahl's still infamous "Disco Demolition" at Comiskey Park in 1979 lingers. And yet, it makes perfect sense that one of the biggest songs of the summer was "Get Lucky," a straight ahead, non-ironic disco song featuring the smooth vocals of Pharrell Williams and propelled by the exquisite guitar work of disco/funk legend Nile Rogers. It was a song so pure in intent that is sounded as if it was plucked right out of the ashes of that aforementioned Disco Demolition completely unscathed and yet, it was also the perfect song for right now in 2013.
"Random Access Memories," the album from which "Get Lucky" resides, is easily one of 2013's most wonderful albums as Daft Punk have not only resurrected elements of disco, they have actually taken their electronic sounds back to the basics of the more analog synths and live instrumentation that undoubtedly inspired them as musicians. It is a supremely warm, inviting, and at times oddball concept album about a robot (or humanity's) need to regain, reclaim and re-connect with that increasingly elusive human touch in our advancing technological age. That concept, merged with the overall sound of the album made me feel as if I was listening to one of Air's stranger recordings. or better yet...an album by The Alan Parsons Project!
The album's opening track "Give Life Back To Music," serves a nothing less than a rainbow colored fanfare as well as a passionate mission statement for everything we are about to hear throughout this album which, in the days of vinyl, could easily be a sprawling double album complete with massive gatefold illustrations and lyrics to sink yourself into. The concept extends itself most explicitly through two tracks. The first being "Giorgio By Moroder," the nine minute prog rock/funk tribute to electronic music pioneer Giorgio Moroder (who appears on the track detailing his musical odyssey). The second is the goofy, bizarre, surprisingly sincere and...ahem...downright touching track, "Touch" featuring Paul Williams as the voice or inner soul of a robot or computer desiring human connection and augmented by orchestras, barrelhouse ragtime piano, children's choirs and whatever else Daft Punk decided to throw into the musical stew. That track in particular is one that should be an absolute disaster but succeeds grandly through the purity of the excursion.
Mostly, Daft Punk allows the human-made grooves and the intentionally simplistic and mantra like lyrics to carry the day as far as the concept goes. "The Game Of Love" is a vocoder sung slow jam while the fantastic "Instant Crush" (featuring warm electronically treated vocals by Julian Casablancas) is a PERFECT pop song. But "Lose Yourself To Dance" (also featuring Pharrell Williams and Nile Rogers) is the album's unquestionable stand out as the hypnotic swirl of Rogers' interlocking guitar rhythms, combined with dizzying vocoder vocals and Williams' slinky invitations for you to take his shirt and wipe up all the "Sweat! Sweat! Sweat!!" What greater way to suggest the life that music brings to us all than to conjure up the emotions and physicality that arrives when on the dance floor? Daft Punk shows that human contact does not have to be a memory long vanished. So, just listen to this terrific album and let's all make some new ones!
QUEEENS OF THE STONE AGE
Produced by Joshua Homme and James Lavelle
Released June 3, 2013
What a disturbingly long road back.
No one, not even Queens Of The Stone Age's lead singer/songwriter/mastermind Joshua Homme, could have anticipated that the follow up release to the band's extravagantly pulverizing "Era Vulgaris (released June 12, 2007) would have taken six long years to come to fruition...and not that Homme hasn't been quite busy, especially after recording and touring with his supergroup Them Crooked Vultures alongside Dave Grohl and Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones. Yet, on my very first listen to this album, I was struck as to just how disturbing the proceedings actually were, to the point that "...Like Clockwork" became a downright frightening experience. A little DJ detective work discovered that Joshua Homme's personal life in between albums did indeed take a frightening turn of events, that undoubtedly formulated this new batch of mercilessly delivered grim material.
Seemingly Joshua Homme undertook a somewhat routine surgical procedure during which he supposedly lost his life for a blessedly brief period of time. While recuperating, he underwent a bout of writer's block brought on by a debilitating depression, even though his bandmates (multi-instrumentalists Troy Van Leeuwen, Dean Fertita, Michael Shuman) and friend Trent Reznor attempted to cajole him into recording again. Homme eventually conceded, found the gumption to push forwards and eventually emerged with this existential howl of a song cycle, which is easily the most mature work the band has produced to date, without sacrificing one bit of the dangerous rock and roll edge they have cultivated for themselves. Frankly, with the serious musings and darkly painful observations that run rampant throughout "...Like Clockwork," this album just may be their most brutally rampaging and heart aching album yet.
While "I Sat By The Ocean" details a drunken night by the water spent trying to forget a lost love, the very bulk of the album seems to be giving us signposts into Homme's dark depressive period as well as his insights, fears and pains with aging and mortality. "Keep Your Eyes Peeled, "The Vampyre Of Time And Memory," "I Appear Missing" and "Kalopsia" (on which Reznor appears) are all relentlessly unsettling selections that contain pummeling rhythms that slunk and creep like hungry zombies, place Homme's gorgeous yet sinister vocals (especially that spine-tinging falsetto) front and center and all contains lyrics that suggest being spiritually trapped in some sort of existential stasis and the difficulty with attempting to move forwards in life when your soul is ready to give up. "Fairweather Friends" is a prog rock epic, with shifting melodies and time signatures, exploding guitar solos and even the help of Elton John on piano, all compressed in under four minutes. "Smooth Sailing" is a true standout and Homme and his bandmates fly straight through some slinky, nasty, electrofied funk while "If I Had A Tail" and "My God Is The Sun" pack in the metallic crunch QOTSA is celebrated for. The album closer, "...Like Clockwork," forges completely new territory as Homme presents himself at his most fragile, amidst a sea of heavenly background vocals and sorrowful slide guitar that augment the harrowing lyrics that "Not everything that goes around, comes back around you know? One thing that is clear. It's all downhill from here."
Despairing stuff, true. But, powerfully infectious and even inviting. That said, and in comparison to the relatively warm sound of The Flaming Lips's most recent release, I think this album should have been called "The Terror."
WASHED OUT
Produced by Ben H. Allen and Ernest Greene
Released August 13, 2013
The :musical genre known as "chillwave" is also completely new to me. Well...sort of. It's not the actual music, which seems to be a more rhythmic version of the trancey electronic music soundscapes that I have loved for most of my life. It's just the term, one more of which pops up suddenly and I just do not have the time or patience to keep up with. So, it is indeed all down to the music. I first heard of Washed Out, the brainchild of sole member Ernest Greene, through the track "Feel It All Around," which was utilized as the theme song for television's "Portlandia" and sounds like an outtake from Prince's "1999."
Like Daft Punk, Washed Out's second album "Paracosm" feels as if it is also trying to regain a more human quality by using analog synths, live instrumentation and natural world sounds to evoke an "end-of-summer" vibe that is warm, calming, peaceful and still quite danceable. It is precisely the type of sounds and album I would urge the likes of Moby, M83 and Passion Pit as their "more is more" synthetic soundscapes actually rob their works of some real personality as everything just sounds the same.
"It All Feels Right" is soothing psychedelia that wouldn't sound too far removed from Tame Impala's wonderland and "Weightless" sounds just as zero-gravity as you think it would. "Don't Give Up" and the woozy synth/Marvin Gaye styled "Great Escape" will liven up any late afternoon garden party. But it is on tracks like "All I Know," "Falling Back" and the title track where the bittersweet glory of "Paracosm" makes its full arrival as the music serves as the softly melancholy soundtrack to a setting sun or the fading of a season.
I am still getting into this album at the time of this writing but the way Washed Out has moved me, gives me continued hope that new music is still viable, vibrant and excitingly creative...no matter what name of genre you'd like to place it into.
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