After seeing its official release only two days ago, Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories” is steamrolling its competition and heading straight for a debut at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart. Predicted to sell over 300,000 copies by the end of the week (Sunday, May 26th) “Random Access Memories” will be the duo’s first #1 album on a Billboard chart and will be the second largest debut week this year following Justin Timberlake’s “The 20/20 Experience.”
In only one week Daft Punk’s latest will have sold more copies than “Human After All” has since its release in 2005 – a staggering accomplishment for two of electronic music’s most iconic talents.
The Lotus F1 team has partnered up with Columbia Records in a deal that will promote the iconic labels’ music through the team’s website and track activities. The Formula 1 racing team had a similar partnership last year with Linkin Park for the Monaco Grand Prix. As the F1 season begins, Columbia will offer streaming playlists via the team’s website as well as CDs, vinyls and musical performances throughout the season. So far six extremely brief video clips have been teased of the collaboration and features Daft Punk-themed drivers and racecar.
As part of the monthlong Red Bull Music Academy series in New York City this month, the legendary Giorgio Moroder was billed to take on his first ever DJ set at Output in Brooklyn this past Monday. With the assistance of his “music director” Chris Cox (whom you will hear Moroder himself introduce through a vocoder at the beginning of this recording), the pioneering producer spent the extent of his set breezing through many of the highlights of his life’s work, including his work for Donna Summer, Three Degrees, Sparks, and Suzi Lane. He touched on his own work as Munich Machine, his Academy Award-winning soundtrack for Midnight Express, and his new track “Racer,” premiered by Google earlier this week. For a 73-year-old, we think he’s doing pretty well for himself these days.
With the official release of Daft Punk‘s Random Access Memories, it seems Japan got more than was bargained for. The exclusive Japanese album edition received a fourteenth bonus track, entitled “Horizon.” The tranquil offering surely ends the album on a lighter note following “Contact,” featuring sweeping synthwork and emotive harmonies, before closing with a sedative fade out. There is no doubt the revelation of a final track will offer new meaning to complete the Random Access Memories narrative.
In a recent interview with Mixmag, Daft Punk unveiled their plans to personally remix the album’s lead single “Get Lucky” and slated its release for the end of June. The duo also encourage fans to remix their tracks by manipulating the loops in much the same way that they did to get their start.
“In the past we took loops of disco records, put drum tracks on them and it wasn’t something people were able to do at home so easily. But today there is the ability for everyone to do this in their bedrooms.”
Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories” may have leaked early last week, but today the album receives its official release. For those of you still listening to the leaked version, support our robot overlords and head over to iTunes to purchase the album today.
Like harrowing chimes across the industry skyline, the untimely passing of Romanthony has shaken the global dance community. As the New Jersey talent behind “One More Time” and an abundance of musical assets from American house music’s dotted timeline, the 46-year-old Black Male Records proprietor leaves behind an influential reign over the industry he helped foster. In the wake of a tragic battle lost to kidney disease, the undisputed fact remains that on May 5th, 2013, house music lost one of its most integral voices to date.
Before Random Access Memories, even before Human After All and Discovery, Thomas and Guy of Daft Punk had established themselves in the dance music scene. Only three years after the release of their debut album, Homework, the duo remained steady in the electronic music scene, and a recording from Winter Music Conference from the year 2000 has surfaced as evidence. The set comes from one half of the robot duo, Thomas Bangalter, and offers insight to the DJ technician unmasked. Find the tracklist below the break.
Kanye West closed Saturday Night Live’s season finale with the debut of two new tracks off his forthcoming album, Yeezus. One, “New Slaves,” was projected on buildings across the globe a night earlier, the other “Black Skinheads,” made its mark on national television with stampeding drums, screeching lyrics, and an energy that blurred hip-hop with rock, with electronic elements.
The morning after Kanye’s latest spectacle, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone shared a quote from his newest Daft Punk interview that has Bangalter revealing details behind their collaboration, indicative of work on “Black Skinhead.”
With immeasurable amounts of hype finally drawing to a peak this week after Random Access Memories became available to stream on iTunes, Daft Punk continue to leak secrets and stories including Part 2 of their Pete Tong interview during Coachella. In endearing French accents, the pair give a background look into the inspiration of praised single “Giorgio By Moroder,” their rooted love for classic disco and rock music, how they ultimately picked their collaborators and why they’ve chosen an anonymous lifestyle. Read what Dancing Astronaut editors thought of the album here and don’t forget to join in on the discussion.
Presenting us with the hottest in new music from around the globe, Pete Tong showered us in delicacies last night during his weekly BBC Radio 1 dance music marathon. Kicking the show off with the world premiere of Kaskade’s autonomously sung and produced new single “Atmosphere,” moving on into Sander van Doorn’s electrifying “Neon,” and the bouncy, big room Hardwell remix of Krewella’s “Alive,” followed by other progressive anthems.
Pete’s coveted “Essential New Tune” went to none other than ex-SHM member Axwell for the remode his new single “Centre of The Universe,” replacing Francesco Rossi’s enigmatic tune “Paper Aeroplane” from last week. Daft Punk continued the discussion with Tong in Part 2 of their Coachella interview while immersing in new tracks off RAM “Giorgio By Moroder,” “Loose Yourself to Dance” and “Instant Crush.”
London-based techno producer Scuba ran through his picks for week’s “Goodie Goodies” including Locked Groove’s “Do It Anyway” and favorite tune of the year Dusky’s “Vanishing Point,” while house legend Kerri Chandler was knighted into Tong’s “Hall of Fame” while explaining the compelling story behind “Bar A Thym.” Tong pins Blond:ish as his future star, ending of with a hot mix from Israeli tech-house sensation Guy Gerber.
