Discovery (Daft Punk album)
Encyclopedia
Discovery is the second studio album by the French house
duo Daft Punk
, released in March 2001. It marks a shift in the sound from Chicago house
, which they were previously known for, to disco
, post-disco
and synthpop
-inspired house
. The album provided itself as a soundtrack to the anime
film Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem
, which was a collaboration between the creators of the album, Leiji Matsumoto
, and Toei Animation
.
All of the music videos for the tracks on the album are segments of the film. Interstella 5555 follows a story of a kidnapped extraterrestrial band. Discovery is recognized as a concept album
in reviews by New Musical Express
and Spin
magazines. Early versions of the album included a "Daft Club" membership card. The card included a code which granted access to an online music service, which featured tracks later released on the album of the same name
and Alive 1997
.
stated:
Leiji Matsumoto
supervised the creation of several music video
s for Discovery. The videos later appeared as scenes in the feature-length film Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem
. It was created as a collaboration between Matsumoto, Daft Punk, Cédric Hervet and Toei Animation
. The film features the entire album as its soundtrack. Regarding the album from the perspective of animation, Daft Punk stated that, "We think the music we made on Discovery has been done in a cinematic way in our minds. We were visually seeing the music and trying to find ideas that were appealing to people's imagination. An animation fan would find this mixture of elements and story in our music."
is present on the album. Rather than simply creating new music out of the samples, Daft Punk worked with them by writing and adding instrumental performance. The Discovery liner notes specify permitted use of samples for four tracks on the album: Part of George Duke
's "I Love You More" is featured in "Digital Love
"; Edwin Birdsong
's "Cola Bottle Baby" was sampled for "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
"; The Imperials
song "Can You Imagine" is used for "Crescendolls"; Barry Manilow
's "Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed" is credited for "Superheroes".
Several websites list many other samples present on the album, but Bangalter has stated that half of the samples listed are not true. He also stated the sampling they do is legitimately done, not something they try to hide. Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo
estimated that half of the sampled material on Discovery was played live by the duo:
, Todd Edwards
and DJ Sneak
. In regard to working with guest artists, de Homem-Christo stated:
Giving his take on working with Romanthony and Edwards, Bangalter stated:
DJ Sneak also discussed working with Daft Punk on the album:
's Top 100 Albums of 2000–04 and #3 in their Top 200 Albums of the 2000s despite receiving an initial rating of 6.4. In 2009, Rhapsody
ranked the album at #12 on its "100 Best Albums of the Decade" list. It was also named the 4th best album of the decade by Resident Advisor
. Q
rated the album five stars out of five, an unusual occurrence for the magazine.
Regarding the album's structure, the magazine Spin noted that, "It feels like a concept album -- in this case, the story of how wine-flow disco circumnavigated intellectual pretensions on all sides en route to a temporary utopia that may finally believe in nothing but the boogie but still has the infinite on its mind every minute." NME referred to Discovery as "audaciously weird" and added: "With its famously camera-shy creators now dressing as funkadelic Power Rangers
, it is also something of a concept album."
The album peaked at #2 in the United Kingdom and #44 in the United States. Discovery has sold at least 2.6 million copies as of 2005. The album was certified triple platinum in France (in 2007) for shipments denoting 600,000 copies. As a result of sales, Discovery was certified Gold
by the RIAA
as of October 11, 2010. Two cult hits were spawned from this album: "One More Time" and "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". The song "Face to Face" (featuring Todd Edwards) reached #1 on the Billboard Club chart in 2004. The album was included on BBC Radio 1
's Masterpieces in December 2009 presented by Zane Lowe
, further highlighting the progression of the reception of the album and showing how highly regarded the album is amongst fans and fellow dance artists.
Several songs from the album would later be sampled by other artists. Kanye West
's song "Stronger
" from the album Graduation
features a vocal sample of "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". "Stronger" was later performed live at the 2008 Grammy Awards with Daft Punk in their trademark pyramid while Kanye West was on stage rapping. Wiley
's song "Summertime" from the album See Clear Now features a sample of "Aerodynamic". Jazmine Sullivan
's song "Dream Big
" from the album Fearless
features a sample of "Veridis Quo". On February 18, 2011, Trinity Orchestra played the first ever live full orchestral performance of Discovery at Trinity College
. The filmed performance became the most watched YouTube
video in Ireland
on the day of its release.
French house
French house is a catch-all term for house music by many French artists, a popular strand of the late 1990s and 2000s European dance music scene and a form of Euro disco. The genre has also been referred to as "neu-disco" , "French touch", "filter house" and "tekfunk" over the years...
duo Daft Punk
Daft Punk
Daft Punk are an electronic music duo consisting of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter . Daft Punk reached significant popularity in the late 1990s house movement in France and met with continued success in the years following, combining elements of house with synthpop...
, released in March 2001. It marks a shift in the sound from Chicago house
Chicago house
Chicago house is a style of house music, a genre of electronic dance music which emerged in Chicago in the mid-1980s. Stylistically, Chicago house has no widely accepted definition, but generally includes the first house music productions by Chicago-based artists throughout the 1980s, and any later...
, which they were previously known for, to disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
, post-disco
Post-disco
Post-disco refers to a historically significant period in popular music history beginning with the commercial death of disco music in the late 1970s and ending with the mainstream appearance of house music in late 1980s.The stripped-down musical trends followed from the DJ- and producer-driven,...
and synthpop
Synthpop
Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...
-inspired house
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
. The album provided itself as a soundtrack to the anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
film Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem
Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem
is a feature-length Japanese animated musical film originally released on December 1, 2003. The film is the visual realization of Discovery, an album by Daft Punk. Each track from the album has been animated as an episode in the story of the abduction and rescue of an interstellar pop band...
, which was a collaboration between the creators of the album, Leiji Matsumoto
Leiji Matsumoto
is a well-known creator of several anime and manga series. His wife is also known as a manga artist.-Space opera:Matsumoto is famous for his space operas such as Space Battleship Yamato...
, and Toei Animation
Toei Animation
Toei Animation Co., Ltd. is a Japanese animation studio owned by Toei Co., Ltd. The studio was founded in 1948 as Japan Animated Films . In 1956, Toei purchased the studio and it was reincorporated under its current name...
.
All of the music videos for the tracks on the album are segments of the film. Interstella 5555 follows a story of a kidnapped extraterrestrial band. Discovery is recognized as a concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
in reviews by New Musical Express
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
and Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
magazines. Early versions of the album included a "Daft Club" membership card. The card included a code which granted access to an online music service, which featured tracks later released on the album of the same name
Daft Club
Daft Club is an album by Daft Punk featuring numerous remixes of tracks from their 2001 album Discovery and one from Homework. It was released in 2003 .-History:...
and Alive 1997
Alive 1997
Alive 1997 is a live album by Daft Punk released in 2001. It contains a 45-minute excerpt of a live performance recorded at Birmingham's Que Club on November 8, 1997.-Background:The album was initially released online as part of the Daft Club service...
.
Theme
According to an interview with Remix Magazine Online, Thomas BangalterThomas Bangalter
Thomas Bangalter is a French electronic musician best known as a member of the French house music duo Daft Punk. He has also recorded and released music as a member of the trio Stardust, the duo Together, and as a solo artist including compositions for the film Irréversible.Thomas Bangalter owns a...
stated:
Leiji Matsumoto
Leiji Matsumoto
is a well-known creator of several anime and manga series. His wife is also known as a manga artist.-Space opera:Matsumoto is famous for his space operas such as Space Battleship Yamato...
supervised the creation of several music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s for Discovery. The videos later appeared as scenes in the feature-length film Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem
Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem
is a feature-length Japanese animated musical film originally released on December 1, 2003. The film is the visual realization of Discovery, an album by Daft Punk. Each track from the album has been animated as an episode in the story of the abduction and rescue of an interstellar pop band...
. It was created as a collaboration between Matsumoto, Daft Punk, Cédric Hervet and Toei Animation
Toei Animation
Toei Animation Co., Ltd. is a Japanese animation studio owned by Toei Co., Ltd. The studio was founded in 1948 as Japan Animated Films . In 1956, Toei purchased the studio and it was reincorporated under its current name...
. The film features the entire album as its soundtrack. Regarding the album from the perspective of animation, Daft Punk stated that, "We think the music we made on Discovery has been done in a cinematic way in our minds. We were visually seeing the music and trying to find ideas that were appealing to people's imagination. An animation fan would find this mixture of elements and story in our music."
Production
A significant amount of samplingSampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
is present on the album. Rather than simply creating new music out of the samples, Daft Punk worked with them by writing and adding instrumental performance. The Discovery liner notes specify permitted use of samples for four tracks on the album: Part of George Duke
George Duke
George Duke is a multi-faceted American musician, known as a keyboard pioneer, composer, singer and producer in both jazz and popular mainstream musical genres. He has worked with numerous acclaimed artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and professor of music...
's "I Love You More" is featured in "Digital Love
Digital Love
"Digital Love" is a song by the French electronic music duo Daft Punk. It was released as the third single from the album Discovery. As part of the album, the song is featured in the film Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem....
"; Edwin Birdsong
Edwin Birdsong
Edwin Birdsong is a keyboard/organ player who was known in the 70's and 80's for his experimental funk/disco music. He never achieved chart success, but developed a strong fan base, and has also been sampled by other artists many times, most famously by Daft Punk who sampled "Cola Bottle Baby" in...
's "Cola Bottle Baby" was sampled for "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
"Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" is a song by French duo Daft Punk. The single was first released on 13 October 2001. A live version of "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" was released as a single from the album Alive 2007 on 15 October 2007. This version won a Grammy Award for Best Dance...
"; The Imperials
Little Anthony & The Imperials
Little Anthony and the Imperials is a rhythm and blues/soul/doo-wop vocal group from New York, first active in the 1950s. Lead singer Jerome Anthony "Little Anthony" Gourdine was noted for his high-pitched falsetto voice, influenced by Jimmy Scott...
song "Can You Imagine" is used for "Crescendolls"; Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer, conductor, and performer, best known for such recordings as "Could It Be Magic", "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", and "Copacabana ."...
's "Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed" is credited for "Superheroes".
Several websites list many other samples present on the album, but Bangalter has stated that half of the samples listed are not true. He also stated the sampling they do is legitimately done, not something they try to hide. Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo
Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo
Guillaume Emmanuel "Guy-Manuel" de Homem-Christo; is a founding member of the French house music duo Daft Punk, along with Thomas Bangalter. He has also produced several works from his record label Crydamoure with label co-owner Éric Chedeville. He and Chedeville formed the musical duo Le Knight...
estimated that half of the sampled material on Discovery was played live by the duo:
Featured artists
The album features guest appearances by RomanthonyRomanthony
Romanthony is an American disc jockey, producer and singer. He is best known for his work with French duo Daft Punk ....
, Todd Edwards
Todd Edwards
Todd Edwards is an American house and garage producer.-History:Todd Edwards began his musical career around 1992. He employs vocal reconstruction techniques to his songs, creating a unique vocal collage set to a four-on-the-floor beat...
and DJ Sneak
DJ Sneak
DJ Sneak is a Puerto Rican house music DJ and producer raised in Chicago, Illinois. He is noted as being one of the second wave of Chicago house producers, as well as a member of the vanguard of late-1990s United States house producers.-Biography:In 1983, Sneak moved to the city...
. In regard to working with guest artists, de Homem-Christo stated:
Giving his take on working with Romanthony and Edwards, Bangalter stated:
DJ Sneak also discussed working with Daft Punk on the album:
Reception
Upon release, critics noted the immediate style differences of Discovery from Homework. The change in aesthetic was a jarring move for fans of Daft Punk's earlier work and initially caused some critics to pan the album. Discovery gained praise in later years; the album ranked #12 in Pitchfork MediaPitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
's Top 100 Albums of 2000–04 and #3 in their Top 200 Albums of the 2000s despite receiving an initial rating of 6.4. In 2009, Rhapsody
Rhapsody (online music service)
Rhapsody is an online music store subscription service, launched in December 2001, and available in the United States only. On April 6, 2010, Rhapsody officially declared its independence from RealNetworks. Downloaded files come with restrictions on their use, enforced by Helix, Rhapsody's version...
ranked the album at #12 on its "100 Best Albums of the Decade" list. It was also named the 4th best album of the decade by Resident Advisor
Resident Advisor
Resident Advisor is an online electronic music magazine dedicated to the global dance music scene. The website won a People's Voice award in the 12th Annual Webby Awards in 2008.-Site History:...
. Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
rated the album five stars out of five, an unusual occurrence for the magazine.
Regarding the album's structure, the magazine Spin noted that, "It feels like a concept album -- in this case, the story of how wine-flow disco circumnavigated intellectual pretensions on all sides en route to a temporary utopia that may finally believe in nothing but the boogie but still has the infinite on its mind every minute." NME referred to Discovery as "audaciously weird" and added: "With its famously camera-shy creators now dressing as funkadelic Power Rangers
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is an American live-action children's television series based on the 16th installment of the Japanese Super Sentai franchise, Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger. Both the show and its related merchandise saw unbridled overnight success, catapulting into pop culture in mere months...
, it is also something of a concept album."
The album peaked at #2 in the United Kingdom and #44 in the United States. Discovery has sold at least 2.6 million copies as of 2005. The album was certified triple platinum in France (in 2007) for shipments denoting 600,000 copies. As a result of sales, Discovery was certified Gold
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
by the RIAA
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
as of October 11, 2010. Two cult hits were spawned from this album: "One More Time" and "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". The song "Face to Face" (featuring Todd Edwards) reached #1 on the Billboard Club chart in 2004. The album was included on BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
's Masterpieces in December 2009 presented by Zane Lowe
Zane Lowe
Zane Lowe also known as 'Zipper', is a radio DJ and television presenter. He was born in New Zealand and grew up in Auckland, where he was a presenter on the local music station Max TV, before moving to England...
, further highlighting the progression of the reception of the album and showing how highly regarded the album is amongst fans and fellow dance artists.
Several songs from the album would later be sampled by other artists. Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
's song "Stronger
Stronger (Kanye West song)
"Stronger" is a song by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released as the second single from his third studio album Graduation. It was produced by West and contains an extended outro co-produced with Mike Dean...
" from the album Graduation
Graduation (album)
Graduation is the third studio album by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released September 11, 2007 on Roc-A-Fella Records. Recording sessions for the album took place during 2005 to 2007 at Chung King Studios and Sony Music Studios in New York City and at Chalice Studios and The Record Plant...
features a vocal sample of "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". "Stronger" was later performed live at the 2008 Grammy Awards with Daft Punk in their trademark pyramid while Kanye West was on stage rapping. Wiley
Wiley (rapper)
Richard Kylea Cowie , better known by his stage name Wiley is a prolific British music producer, MC and recording artist, and rapper with roots from Trinidad...
's song "Summertime" from the album See Clear Now features a sample of "Aerodynamic". Jazmine Sullivan
Jazmine Sullivan
Jazmine Marie Sullivan is an American recording artist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is also the protégé of rapper Missy Elliott. Her debut single "Need U Bad" reached number one on Billboards Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, while her second single, "Bust Your Windows" peaked at number four...
's song "Dream Big
Dream Big (song)
"Dream Big" is the fourth overall single and first official UK single released from American R&B/soul singer-songwriter Jazmine Sullivan's debut album, Fearless."Dream Big" was made available on UK iTunes and 7 Digital as an EP on February 9, 2009....
" from the album Fearless
Fearless (Jazmine Sullivan album)
Fearless is the debut album of American R&B recording artist Jazmine Sullivan, released September 23, 2008, on J Records. Production for the album took place during 2007 to 2008 and was handled by several record producers, including Missy Elliott, Stargate, Carvin & Ivan, Wyclef Jean, and Salaam...
features a sample of "Veridis Quo". On February 18, 2011, Trinity Orchestra played the first ever live full orchestral performance of Discovery at Trinity College
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
. The filmed performance became the most watched YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
video in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
on the day of its release.
Track listing
Personnel
- Daft PunkDaft PunkDaft Punk are an electronic music duo consisting of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter . Daft Punk reached significant popularity in the late 1990s house movement in France and met with continued success in the years following, combining elements of house with synthpop...
– sequencers, samples, synthesizerSynthesizerA synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
s, guitars, bass, vocals, vocoderVocoderA vocoder is an analysis/synthesis system, mostly used for speech. In the encoder, the input is passed through a multiband filter, each band is passed through an envelope follower, and the control signals from the envelope followers are communicated to the decoder...
s, Wurlitzer electric pianoWurlitzer electric pianoWurlitzer 200A|250px|thumbThe Wurlitzer electric piano was one of a series of electromechanical stringless pianos manufactured and marketed by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, Corinth, Mississippi, U.S. and Tonawanda, New York...
, drum machines, programming, production, concept, art direction - RomanthonyRomanthonyRomanthony is an American disc jockey, producer and singer. He is best known for his work with French duo Daft Punk ....
– lyrics, vocals on "One More Time" and lyrics, vocals, co-production on "Too Long" - DJ SneakDJ SneakDJ Sneak is a Puerto Rican house music DJ and producer raised in Chicago, Illinois. He is noted as being one of the second wave of Chicago house producers, as well as a member of the vanguard of late-1990s United States house producers.-Biography:In 1983, Sneak moved to the city...
– lyrics on "Digital Love" - Todd EdwardsTodd EdwardsTodd Edwards is an American house and garage producer.-History:Todd Edwards began his musical career around 1992. He employs vocal reconstruction techniques to his songs, creating a unique vocal collage set to a four-on-the-floor beat...
– lyrics, vocals, co-production on "Face to Face" - Nilesh Patel – mastering
- Alex & Martin – concept, art direction
- Cedric Hervet – concept, art direction
- Gildas Loaëc – concept, art direction
- Simon Scott – concept, art direction
- Daniel VangardeDaniel VangardeDaniel Vangarde, born Daniel Bangalter in 1947, is a French songwriter and producer. He is the father of music composer Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk.-History:...
– concept, art direction - Pedro WinterPedro WinterPedro Winter aka Busy P is a French electrohouse DJ, producer, manager and owner of the Ed Banger Records label. Pedro Winter manages Cassius, Cosmo Vitelli, artists on his Ed Banger Records label, and managed Daft Punk from 1996 to 2008.-Life:...
– concept, art direction - Mitchell Feinberg – liquid metal photos
- Luis Sanchis – pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
photo - Tony GardnerTony Gardner (designer)Tony Gardner is an American makeup and special effects designer. He has been involved in films Zombieland, 127 Hours, Hairspray, The Addams Family, Seed of Chucky, Shallow Hal and There's Something About Mary...
& Alterian – bionics engineering - Tamiyuki "Spike" Sugiyama – Tokyo connector