#studio recorded daft punk tribute album WHEN !!!!

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ever since daft punk officially retired i'm living vicariously through twrp

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Society article about Daft Punk 29th July 2021 part.2 - Translated

As Thomas Bangalter said one day to the Columbia record company, Daft Punk made an unexpected turn with imagining RAM as melancholic tribute to their teenager passion for disco and funk of the big years. Opposed to nowadays digital ease, they built their project with craftmen’s meticulousness. Each bar, each melodic line, had a instrumental colour.  Everything had been recorded on big tape cassettes, multiplying the takes in order to grab just what they needed of groove and sensibility. The saviours of Pop? ‘’Daft Punk said that the industry was sick of technology, To them, this album was a remedy. Their analysis was extremely simple and also extremely powerful’’, explains Stéphane Le Tavernier, who managed the French segment of Columbia. But after that, nothing happened, apart from years of silence and a restless wait which ended up smashed to pieces. And this question which, now, is in everyone’s mind : what happened during these 8 years between the release of Daft Punk’s masterpiece and their separation ?

***

September 2013. After having done full-scale promotion for Random Access Memories, Daft Punk find the shade of their daily life again. Separately. With his wife, the actress Élodie Bouchez, and their two boys, Thomas Bangalter lives in a beautiful hôtel particulier in the center of Paris. At the start of the school year, the eldest return to school as a sixth grader (or year 7) in a public school of the neighbourhood. If the Daft Punk was here this day to come with him, no one would have recognized him. In Paris, Thomas Bangalter makes the most of the anonymity that his masked character allowed him to keep despite the huge success of his group. The Daft Punk, who likes DIY, has by the way the habit to walk to the BHV store [a big store owned by the Galeries Lafayette group selling a lot of different things like clothes, furniture, decoration, DIY, etc...] on the Rivoli street a stone’s throw away from his house, and for longer trip he has a Vélib’ card [a bike-sharing system in Paris]. More practical than this old Matra car that he bought himself a few years ago because it looked nice, but which he put away in the garage a long time ago. Like any other period of his life, it’s to music that Thomas Bangalter devotes most of his time. In Gang, the Parisian recording studio where a part of RAM had been finished, the musician never stops testing the possibilities of his machines, among these there is a polyphonic modular synthesizer which he tinkered with it himself. A treasure, since that, in this genre of machines, we can usually only find monophonic functions. On obscure forums which he brows through at home, in a little office which he recently had arranged, or in the library, in books whose names only ring a bell to him, half of Daft Punk also polishes his theoretical knowledge. ‘’He seems to be living in a bubble. He only talks about specialized brands, about reverberation quality, summarize his friends. He’s an extreme perfectionist’’. Thomas Bangalter is the kind of guy who is being able to detect a tiny flaw in the capacity of a compressor known by everyone. ‘’At that time, the suppliers was totally panicked when they heard about this, laughs DJ Falcon. The engineers ended up confessing to their boss that they had made a change in the products without telling anyone. Thomas was the only one who had noticed it’’

For his part, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo lives in a flat on a side of Montmartre, where one can find design furniture inspired by the 70s. There are rocks, also, and crystals which he likes to collect. ‘’For my 40th birthday, he gifted me a crystal saying it could create a connection with ancient Greece, tells Antoine Ressaussière. Guy-Man is down-to-earth, but he also likes transcendental stuffs. A long time ago, we visited the Mont-Saint-Michel [a very beautiful abbey located on a kind of island in Normandy in France] together, I remember that it moved him a lot’’. In 2010, after love at first sight that happened in New York but didn’t last in the end, Guy-Man had suddenly divorced from the mother of his daughter and son. He lives alone in Montmartre with a French bulldog which he takes for walks in the surrounding streets. But it is in another high height that this Daft Punk generally keeps his days busy. From the windows of the 41st floor of the Tour France, a skyscraper of the close suburb on the bank of the Seine, one can admire the whole of Paris. In another time, it was the singer Gilbert Bécaud who lived here. Nowadays the place is inhabited by Eric Chédeville, aka ‘’Rico’’. With Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, they are Crydamoure, a label, a group and a friendship that always existed, even before the Daft Punk success. ‘’Guy-Man came to my house, we were like a family’’, explains Eric Chédeville. In the little studio that he [Eric] had arranged up there, in the middle of a bric-a-brac of keyboards and pedals protected by a large portrait of Bob Marley, the two friends spend hours improvising snippets of melodies, as they had always been doing since they were 20. Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo also makes the top floor of the tower his personal outhouse, by storing things telling what is his life nowadays: state-of-the-art phones given by a famous brand, a foot/soccer ball signed by the player of the ‘’équipe de France’’ or the trophy of the man of the year from the GQ magazine. On the contrary to his friend from Daft Punk, who is a full-time father, and who is never really in the mood to party, Guy-Manuel often wants to party when he doesn’t have his children with him. ‘’Guy-Man suffered with his divorce. He was alone and wanted to go out, clear his mind. He would send messages like: ‘What kind of party is there tonight?’”, says a friend. Several nights a week, the Daft Punk of Montmartre finds himself drinking in the darkness of a few en vogue clubs in Paris, like the Silencio. “At the time, it was our lifestyle, explains Eric Chédeville, who accompanies then his old friend in his trips. When we were 20, we spent 5 days a week going out. We told ourselves that we would spend our whole lives in clubs”.

And so, this is the life of the two Daft Punk at that time of the story. Away from their album’s success, around the rhythm of their routine, as if nothing happened. And each one, on his own. “They’re not the Simpsons, they’re not always everywhere together, explains Antoine Ressaussière. What links them together is not a friendship anymore, but a spirit. They share a territory”. But Daft Punk will soon be getting together, and not for nothing. At the end of 2013, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter are about to put their helmets back on in public for the first time in ages. In competition for 4 awards including the one for the “Best Album of the Year”, they are on the program of the 2014 edition of the Grammy Awards. On the stage of the Staple Center of Los Angeles, they will be forming one of the most majestic group of history. Everything is agreed on and countersigned: as well as Nile Rodgers and Pharrell Williams, who will accompany time like on the album to play Get Lucky, Daft Punk will have by their side the totem Stevie Wonder. A way to celebrate their disco inspirations for eternity. “It’s like kids who watched Star Wars and who, 30 years later, make a film with George Lucas”, says DJ Falcon.

***

The sun, the long boulevards, the palm trees and this sensation that summer will never end: here is Los Angeles, Daft Punk’s beloved city. “Thomas and Guy-Man have always been inspired by LA. It’s a matter of vibe”, remarks the producer Todd Edwards. Thomas Bangalter got seized by a passion for the Pacific coast megalopolis in the early 2000s, at the time when his wife, Elodie Bouchez, had just gotten a part in the Alias series and was trying to start her American career. Some time later, the couple was buying a house on the hills, not far from the Hollywood sign. With their two children, they lived there for a few years and even if they then moved in Paris , they chose to keep this house where, since then, they like spending their time in summer there. Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo also likes spending the summer in Los Angeles, but he prefers the ease of hotel rooms in the best hotels, in which he makes series of reservations. Daft Punk goes to the beach, to the restaurant and in bars, like the one of the Château Marmont, where Paul McCartney, who is also a regular client, always greets them with pleasure. In Los Angeles, neuralgic central point of star-system and paparazzis, Daft Punk manages nevertheless, just like in Paris, to take advantage of an anonymity without any fissures, which relaxes them but also sometimes makes them laugh. One day, a groupie of Sunset Boulevard bore the cost of it. Peter Franco still hasn’t covered from it: “We were having drinks together on the patio of a club and, suddenly, a young girl showed up in a fury saying on the tone of confidence: ‘You know what? Apparently Daft Punk are here. I’m desperately looking for them’. Thomas and Guy-Man acted like they were all excited: ‘You’re joking!? Where are they?’ They swore that they would keep an open eye and that they would tell her if they found the robots. When she left, we all bursted out laughing”. For the Grammy Awards, Daft Punk are soon joined in Los Angeles by some close Parisians who came specially to applaud them, like DJ Falcon, Eric Chédeville or Daniel Vangarde, Thomas’s father, producer also. The little group, livened up by Daft Punk’s Californian circle, meet up on the hills, in Thomas Bangalter’s house. On the pool side, one listens to music, and the master of the house handles the barbecue while serving rounds of amaretto sour, his speciality. Good times that don’t last long. Because soon, Daft Punk will have to go to their office.

As well as being a relaxing place, Los Angeles is the general headquarters of their career. For the past nearly 10 years now, it’s in the heart of the angeleno checked pattern city that are established the Daft Arts offices. At the angle of Sunset Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, the address is the same as the ones of the studios occupied a long time ago by Charlie Chaplin. Nowadays, the walls are the property of the Jim Henson Company, the name of the creator of the Muppet Show. The entrance is guarded by a huge statue of Kermit the frog, famous character of the show, it’s a complex looking like a millefeuille where recording studios –one of which being the one where Daft Punk recorded a part of RAM- neighbor big film sets and Henson’s puppet laboratory. Nothing, on the outside, indicates the presence of Daft Punk, and nothing much on the inside. In the duo’s offices, wallpaper showing the surface of the moon is covering the walls of one of the rooms. In a corner lie a gaming console and the FIFA game which, at the time of exhausting work sessions on RAM, served a lot as an outlet for the group.

[buddhajeans]

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A German band from the early 70’s changed the way music sound

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Kraftwerk was created in the German city Düsseldorf; the band formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970,  fronted by them until Schneider’s departure in 2008. Their signature is easily recognizable driving; repetitive rhythms with strong melodies, minimalist strictly electronic instruments, almost naïve lyrics simplified and at times sung through a vocoder of computer speech software. The harmonies are classical western; however, these simplified lyrics are conceptual and enormously strong future-oriented.

Description once exotic objects in our consumer culture that today are the most ordinary and important things surrounded with (similarities to pop art). In 1981 came the albums Computer Welt those lyrics singing about home computers, pocket calculators a conceptual work and vision of today’s world of computers. In 1986 came the albumElectric Café and again Kraftwerk lyrics are about the telephone, mobile phones, and a society builds upon electronic communication; still with the catchy melody laying on the top making their songs feel like any Beatles tunes sing along. Earlier work as the Autobahn (1974), Radioaktivität (1975) and Trans-Europe Expresss (1977) state a clear vision of the future, motorways, transportation, superfast trains, energy consumption etc.

No band has influenced pop culture more than Kraftwerk since the Beatles

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Kraftwerk distinctive sound was revolutionary and has had a lasting effect across many genres of modern music. No other band has influenced pop culture more than Kraftwerk since the Beatles, their massive impact on the sound and music for an artist such as Moby, David Bowie, R.E.M., Daft Punk, Orchestral Maneuver’s in the Dark, Madonna, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Missy Elliott and Fergie. It doesn’t stop their Techno music from Detroit would not have happened if it wasn’t the impact Kraftwerk had on ‘Belleville three’ (Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson & Derrick May), who fused the repetitive melodies of Kraftwerk with funk rhythms. Hip Hop roots is no exception for their influence; Trans Europe Express and Numbers mixed in Planet Rock by Afrika Bambaataa and The Soul Sonic Force, one of the earliest hip-hop/electro hits. Richard D James (Aphex Twin), Björk, Joy Division and New Order were heavily influenced by Kraftwerk. David Bowie’s “V-2 Schneider,” released as B-side to the “Heroes” single, features on the album “Heroes,” is a tribute to Florian Schneider. Furthermore, disco scene and later electronic music would not have been the same.

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Live at Tribal Gathering 1997

I have luckily seen the band play since the 80’s when I saw them at Rockefeller in Oslo, a 1000 capacity club, later the night. I even shared a few beers with Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider on an after a show in a club near the venue. In 1997, I saw them on the legendary dance festival Tribal Gathering in Luton outside London. The performance should be one of the key concerts in their history; club land was at its highest point commercially and that night all other bands stopped playing simply because every other musician wanted to experience the band. Kraftwerk has always cultivated their own style, whatever trend going on in pop culture they resisted making changes; their total anti-fashion statement should turn to the fashion statement. After a concert, I had seen the members walk out of a venue without even being recognized, with a small sack, jeans and a jacket they looked like the most ordinary people.

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The album The Man-Machine (German: Die Mensch Maschine), was released in 1978, and it is the album that created the fashion look this post is about. The album was recorded at their studio Kling Klang; however, due to the complexity of the recording, the album was mixed at Studio Rudas in Düsseldorf. The cover of the album produced in white, red and black and the design was highly inspired by the Russian artist El Lissitzky, and the moment named Suprematism. The cover shows the band members dressed in red shirts and black ties. Great website on Kraftwerk publications etc.

The Man Machine

The tune from the album Das Model or “The Model should become one of the most selling records in Kraftwerk history, and the song is also a classic tune for the dance floor. Many of Kraftwerk cover art designed by German multi-artist and painter Emil Schult, his unique signature style highlighting his role in pioneering the unique aesthetic that eventually came to represent not just Kraftwerk, but an entire style ethos of the period, copied and admired still today. Schult style can remind of Russian communist propaganda posters; however, on acid as many of his paintings shows a dream of space or even an urge to break out of the strict frame of the design.

On 21 November 2008, Kraftwerk officially confirmed Florian Schneider’s departure from the band; Floridan is one of the original members from the start. Kraftwerk has not only a pioneer electronic music but pushed the limits of music technology with some notable innovations, such as custom-built devices and self-made instruments. The Kling Klang studio has always been perceived as a complex music instrument as well as a sound laboratory; especially Florian Schneider developed a fascination for music technology, sponsored by computer brands as IBM and Sony. Donatella Versace used the theme of Kraftwerk “The Man-Machine” in their menswear line to create a contemporary spin. Alexandre Plokhov head of menswear at Versace, he ushered in a new skinny tailored silhouette. Lean black suits were worn with high-necked red shirts or T-shirts for a look that channeled the German band Kraftwerk.

 Immortalized

Kraftwerk was immortalized when they were performing eight shows at the Museum of Modern Art April 10th through April 17th, 2012 and Tate Modern, the concert sold out so fast the ShowClix servers crashed. I guess almost every single artist was visiting MoMA or Tate Modern for one or more Kraftwerk concerts; from REM’s Michael Stipe, shipping scion Stavros Niarchos and curator Vito Schnabel, consisted mainly of male hipsters, art types and electronic enthusiasts in a series of concerts understood as “a visual and phonic feast. Kraftwerk finally released The Catalogue box set on 16 November 2009, a 12? LP-sized box set containing all eight mastered CDs in cardboard slipcases, as well as LP-sized booklets of photographs and artwork for each individual album.

KRAFTWERK MUSIC NON-STOP

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WHO: Kraftwerk WHERE: Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany GENRES: Krautrock, avant-garde, EDM, experimental, synthpop ESTABLISHED: 1970 –present MEMBERS: Ralf Hütter – lead vocals, vocoder, synthesizers, keyboards, organ, drums, and percussion, guitar, bass guitar (1970–1971, 1971–present) Fritz Hilpert – electronic percussion, sound engineering (1987

SONGS ON MAN MACHINE

The Robots, Die Roboter

Spacelab

Metropolis

The Model, Das Modell

Neon Lights, Neonlicht

The Man-Machine, Die Mensch-Maschine

DISCOGRAPHY

Kraftwerk (1970)

Kraftwerk 2 (1972)

Ralf und Florian (1973)

Autobahn (1974)

Radioaktivität (1975)

Trans-Europe Express (1977)

Die Mensch-Maschine (1978)

Computerwelt (1981)

Electric Café (1986)

BANDS AND ARTISTS INFLUENCED BY KRAFTWERK

Moby

David Bowie

Daft Punk

Orchestral Maneuver’s in the Dark

Madonna

Jay-Z

Kanye West

Missy Elliott and Fergie

U2, Neon lights

Laibach’s

Uwe Schmidt Senor Coconut,

Dr. Alex Paterson the Orb

Afrika Bambaataa Planet Rock

Simple Minds, Neon lights

Ladytron

Yazoo

Depeche Mode

Franz Ferdinand

Coldplay, Talk

Official website of Kraftwerk  www.kraftwerk.com

kraftwerk records for sale on recyclesound.com

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The Model Computer love Vinyl 7 Inch

Tribal Gathering CD compilation live

Radio-Aktivität LP vinyl

Man-Machine LP vinyl Fame

Tour de France Vinyl 12 inch

Expo remix 2×12 vinyl

Electric Cafe Vinyl Album

Das Model EP 12 vinyl

Showroom dummies EP 12 vinyl

The Mix 2xLP vinyl (German Version)

Expo2000 EP 12 vinyl

Showroom dummies Single 7 vinyl

Computer love Single 7 vinyl

The Model, Single 7 vinyl

Pocket calculator Single 7 yellow vinyl

Pocket calculator Single 7 vinyl

Die Roboter Single 7 vinyl

Kraftwerk changed music, youth culture and fashion A German band from the early 70’s changed the way music sound Kraftwerk was created in the German city Düsseldorf; the band formed by…

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[Grammy Special] Mix Analysis #6 “That’s What I Like” by Bruno Mars

FOREWORD

This is part one of my Grammy Special where I will do a mix analysis of track from a record awarded for „Best Engineered Album“. We will start in 2018, going back all the way to 2010. Here’s the full list:

2018 - “24k Magic” by Bruno Mars 2017 - “Blackstar” by David Bowie 2016 - “Sound & Color” by Alabama Shakes 2015 - “Morning Phase” by Beck 2014 - “Random Access Memories” by Daft Punk 2013 - “The Goat Rodeo Sessions” by Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile 2012 - “Paper Airplane” by Alison Krauss & Union Station 2011 - “Battle Studies” by John Mayer 2010 - “Ellipse” by Imogen Heap

Every now and then I will refer to “Recommendations for Hi-Resolution Music Production” by the Producers & Engineers Wing of the Grammys cause there are a few discrepancies between this document and the awarded recording. After all the name suggests that only flawless audio recordings can win in this category but in my personal opinion only one of ten records deserves this trophy.

I will also provide more information and pictures from now on, as I felt that previous articles were lacking depth and justing scratching the surface. Therefore you will also find specific information about release date, duration, a music video (if available), record label as well as more pictures.

In this article I will analyze the mix of Bruno Mars’ „That’s What I Like“ off of his album „24k Magic“. Among „Best Engineered Album“ it also won in the categories “Record Of The Year”, “Album Of The Year”, “Song Of The Year”, “Best R&B Performance”, “Best R&B Song” and “Best R&B Album”.

The difference between „Album Of The Year“ and „Record Of The Year“ wasn’t very clear to me to begin with but after a closer look I found out that the latter is about a single song. Then again, why is there a category called „Song Of The Year“? Different category, same content, right…? This won’t be last contradiction I discovered during my research.

HARD FACTS

Record Label: Atlantic Records

Year of Release: 2016

Duration: 03 m 27 s

PSR: ~ 11.0 (lowest) ~ 8.0 (highest)

Average Loudness: -9.1 LKFS

Inter-Sample Peaks: 1.3 dBTP (left) 0.8 dBTP (right)

Digital Peak: -0.0 dBFS (left) -0.0 dBFS (right)

Mixing Engineer:  Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios

Mastering Engineer: Tom Coyne at Sterling Sound

For measuring the PLR, Average Loudness and Inter-Sample Peaks I used MasterCheck Pro by british company Nugen Audio. To keep it as neutral and simple as possible, I chose the „Optimal Master - Codec Only“ preset. For measuring the Digital Peak Level I used the 4U Meter, Fader & MS-Pan Plug-In by german company HOFA. The DAW used is Logic Pro X. The source material is 16 Bit and 44,1 kHz. If you want to now what all those fancy words mean, have a look at this article.

Furthermore I recommend reading and / or downloading the “Recommendations for Hi-Resolution Music Production” released in 2017 by the Producers & Engineers Wing of the Grammys. Which is not only a very helpful and well structured guideline for modern audio production but also a reference I will mention a few times.

As you can tell by the waveform, Sterling Sound pushed the loudness of the audio material quite a bit without sacrificing to much of the dynamic and transients. If you would zoom in you could see that actually a lot of it is still intact. It also has that certain „snap“ you can only hear when the signal is not completely squashed and over-compressed. Yet the average loudness is at -9.1 LKFS which I would consider a „hot“ master. If this would be played back through Spotify or YouTube the overall loudness would be lowered by -4.9 LU to match their peak at -14.0 LKFS, which is a shame cause this brilliant sounding mix / master doesn’t need to be this loud.

There are no Digital Peaks occurring but Inter-Sample Peaks reach up to 1.3 dbTP! And we’re talking about a record that was awarded „Best Engineered Album“ and mastered at one of the world’s most renowned Studios. It’s even more baffling considering the fact that page 24 of “Recommendations for Hi-Resolution Music Production” tells us how to avoid errors, clipping, and distortion during internal digital signal processing.

This raises the question if it’s really about a flawless, stellar sounding record from a technical point of view or actually about rewarding the most popular artist for being the most popular artist. Vice versa this would create a lot more attention for the Grammys, so both sides win, am I right?

Back to the hard facts: The bass frequencies are pushed pretty good but without sounding boomy, it’s more like a nice, warm blanket of bass covering your ear drums. There’s a small but very wide dip in the mid frequency range and the high end has been boosted very gentle. It doesn’t sound harsh or bright, more like silk. The compression makes everything sound very thick and in your face but therefore sacrificing some dynamic. The music in general is very percussive, even melodic instruments like the synthesizers are emphasizing the drums, which makes every song on „24k Magic“ danceable! The overall sound is very clean (not steril), clear, punchy and is just what you would expect from a Bruno Mars record.

PERSONAL IMPRESSION

If you didn’t grow up in the 90s (unlike me) or don’t like the music coming from that era, you’re probably not gonna like this record. If one of those two things apply to you, you’re in for a great 34 minute trip through nostalgia land! Clearly inspired by the sound of Michael Jackson’s „Dangerous“, Bruno Mars also pays tribute to his funk roots with his own impersonation of James Brown in „Perm“. The icing of the cake are the best sounds of 80s synthesizers and vocoders you can imagine.

Thematically „24k Magic“ is also using classic structures of this era: Starting with the uplifting party / happy songs, slowing down with some ballads worshipping women, gaining some tempo again with faster tracks and closing the whole thing with a ballad. This record is full of great harmonies and hook lines that’ll be stuck in your head for days! Besides „Best Engineered Album“, every other Grammy is well deserved in my opinion.

CONCLUSION

„24k Magic“ is a great album celebrating the sound of the 90s with huge influences coming from the 80s and adds a little funk of the 60s / 70s here and there. Regarding sound it’s more of a contemporary record, especially when it comes to unnecessary loudness and compression (which can be heard sometimes). Would be interesting to know if this was a conscious decision by Tom Coyne or if Atlantic Records and / or Bruno Mars pushed him to increase loudness.