Daft Punk Remix
Artist: Daft Punk
With three platinum-selling albums under their belt, not to mention a huge world tour, Daft Punk are one of the most popular electronic music acts in the world. And if anything 2010 may be the year where they reach an even wider audience with their soundtrack and accompanying tour for the Disney movie "Tron Legacy."
"Homework" in the 90s was a landmark record for a lot of today's listeners, even though it was itself a collection of all of Daft Punk's influences from the early house and techno scene (a list of artists they recited on "Teachers").
At this point though, Daft Punk themselves have become the defining influence for a whole generation of artists, especially in the electro-house/ French disco scene. For upcoming producers and bloggers, the "Daft Punk remix" has become so common it's almost a cliche. But as with everything, there are some real gems buried in all the mediocre efforts out there, and even if you own every Daft Punk album, single, compilation and live bootleg, chances are you still haven't heard a bunch of great Daft Punk remixes. It's all subjective, of course, but this page is our attempt at collecting the best.
Darlin - Cindy So Loud
"Homework" was actually not Daft Punk's first release, before that there was an EP called "The New Wave." But before that, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo were actually in a punk-pop band with a guy named Laurent Brancowitz. They called themselves Darlin' after a Beach Boys song and released an EP where they covered the song of the same name (which you can hear below). OK, so it wasn't the most accomplished piece of music ever, but hey, they were just teenagers. What is interesting is that you can sort of hear the roots of Daft Punk's sound in these early records. Oh yeah, I guess this isn't actually a remix at all, so let's move on to...
Daft Punk - Da Funk (Casino, Inc. Amazing Disco Remix)
Although there was already plenty of buzz going about the band, with tracks like "Rollin' & Scratchin'" getting played out in clubs, "Da Funk" was the song that really propelled Daft Punk to stardom. With a super-catchy hook and lo-fi electro production, you could sort of fit the band in with The Chemical Brothers and other "big beat" artists, but not really. The track came with a weird video by Spike Jonze about a dog wandering the streets of Manhattan that used the song almost as background music. This recent remix by Casino Inc. takes the basic hook of the song and reshapes it into a house/ disco track instead of a slow electro burner.
Daft Punk - Around The World Again (Nicky Van She & Dangerous Dan)
If "Da Funk" paved the way for the band's success, "Around The World" sealed the deal. Also accompanied with a clever video by Spike Jonze, it remains one of the few house tracks pretty much everyone can hum along to. Van She released this remix (really a cover) of the track a few years ago, which reimagines "Around The World" as sort of a garage rock tune.
Daft Punk - Rollin' & Scratchin' (Gonzales Rework)
One of the cool things about Daft Punk, especially in the earlier years, is that even though they could knock out pop hits like "Around The World" they would still include a handful of really hard techno tracks on their album. "Rollin' & Scratchin," which still sounds pretty over the top today, was the epitome of that. Although not so much on this piano-house remix version by Gonzales.
Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You (Mux Mool Remix)
"Music Sounds Better With You" is probably one of the better known house tracks out there, but it was actually conceived almost accidentally during a one-off live performance at the Rex Club in Paris where Daft Punk's Thomas Bangalter was playing with French house producer Alan Braxe and vocalist Benjamin Diamond. Apparently Balgalter and Braxe were messing around with looping the first couple bars of the disco track "Fate" by Chaka Khan, and Diamond just starting improvising the lyrics on top of it.
The three artists subsequently recorded the track under the name Stardust and it became a massive hit, entering the UK charts at #2. The Mux Mool remix of the track is pretty much a 180 from the upbeat original, as he slows the track down into a bleepy electro tune with a little bit of 8 bit influence.
Daft Punk - Harder Better Faster Stronger (Sticky K Remix)
Along with "One More Time," "Harder Better Faster Stronger" was probably the biggest hit off of Daft Punk's second album, "Discovery." Sticky K, who was recently signed to Dubsided Records, isn't a very Daft Punk-influenced producer but his bass-heavy sound meshes surprisingly well with this track, putting a new spin on it.
Daft Punk - Face To Face (Todd Edwards Unreleased Remix)
Todd Edwards is sort of an under-appreciated legend in the world of house music, which is probably why Daft Punk collaborated with him on the track "Face To Face" off "Discovery." For some reason Edwards never released this dubby house remix he made of the track.
Prime Time of Your Life (Tits And Clits Remix)
I'll admit I don't know much about the remix of "Prime Time of Your Life" by some band calling themselves Tits and Clits. Except that it completely f*cking rocks.
Daft Punk - Voyager (Dominique Torti's Wild Style Edit)
It's been pointed more than a few times that Daft Punk's tracks, the sample-based ones anyway, lift pretty generously from their sources, and "Voyager" is a good example of that. In fact once you hear the original, you realize that it's practically a re-edit of the disco-funk track "Get Down Saturday Night" by Oliver Cheatham. However, as with a lot of house and electronic music, it's not so much the source of the content as it is the production and presentation that matters. Here is a rare (and very entertaining) live performance of Cheatham's original along with the glitchy, chopped-up house of Dominique Torti's "Wild Style Edit" of the track.
Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You (Miami Horror Remix)
Miami Horror make catchy, 80s-influenced electro-house, and Daft Punk is no small influence on their sound. So it's appropriate that they remixed "Music Sounds Better," giving it a much more electronic treatment than the original. A great remix that is well worth tracking down. And just for fun we'll throw in a clip of Benjamin Diamond performing the track live in Tokyo.
