Rediscovering Discovery

What's all the fuss about EDM? The genre peaked nearly 15 years ago

Children of the early 90s are very strange creatures in that we're about the same age the Internet. As we've grown and developed into young adults, the electronic world has too, into the behemoth it is today. We're young enough that the Internet and all its accessories are an integral and essential part of our lives, but we're also old enough that we remember using flip phones, iPod Classics, and even CD players.

This nostalgia trip serves a purpose. When I was ten years old, my prized possession was a CD of Daft Punk's Discovery and the corresponding boombox on which I never stopped playing it. And let's be honest, most of the time I barely made it to track 2 and just kept playing "One More Time," ahem, one more time.

It was one of the first new songs I ever, ahem, discovered all on my own, and I was totally hooked. It was unlike anything I had heard before, because it was unlike anything my parents had heard before. And it left us asking the same things. What are those instruments? How is the singer's voice doing that? Where's the other music like this?

They're simple questions (I was ten) with not-so-simple answers. And those answers wouldn't be revealed to me for quite a while.

*******

I now know that groups like Daft Punk had been around for some time, and their "original sound" was more like a compilation of ideas that came before it. The booming production techniques that drew me to check out "One More Time" in the first place had been pioneered half a century earlier. Phil Spector's "wall of sound" revolutionized the art of recorded music, transformed the producer's role, and planted influence within every pop genre throughout the 1960s. The premise was to layer a song with as many tracks as possible, all of which are caked with reverb and panned across the spectrum of the stereo speakers.

Not to get too technical, but it's easy to hear the exact same thing going on in Daft Punk's work and the modern-day pop industry as a whole. For DP, you can detect in their synth pads on songs like "Digital Love," "Nightvision," "Verdis Quo," and several others. They provide a deep texture and presence to a track, lurking beneath booming drums and blaring lead lines. And of course, all of those other parts were digitally made too.

At that point, synthesizers had been getting plenty of use for decades. Even in American pop music, you could hear it everywhere from a bassline on a Michael Jackson song to the hook for one of The Boss's smash hits.

Sure, using synthesizers exclusively was a relatively new phenomenon when Discovery came out. But plenty of other acts like the Chemical Brothers, Moby, and Daft Punk themselves were already exploring with the idea. But unlike any of those others, the French duo was bringing a different influence to that new concept of a musical instrument. Daft Punk's arrangements had more funk to them than punk.

One need only take a look at some of the songs they sampled to see that most of Daft Punk's inspiration came from disco, lounge, funk, and just the slightest tinge of R&B. If that's not clear from their beat-heavier early work, it's made obvious by their most recent album Random Access Memories. It has more of a neo-disco quality than anything else, essentially forging a whole new identity.

The unique blend of influences prevented a listener from pigeon-holing Daft Punk into a specific genre. They were their own genre, and paved the way for all the trance, progressive house, and even dubstep that came after it. But no one has reached the same level of mastery since.

Anyone can put out an intricately-produced album. It takes true musicianship to create a sequence of tracks that both blend together and stand alone.

*******

Discovery is, for all intents and purposes, a concept album. In fact, there's an entire anime movie set to the music.

I don't necessary recommend watching it; it's not exactly an artistic masterpiece. But it does go to show how the album can--when listened to a certain way--tell a unifying story. It's achieved through the emotional peaks and valleys created by a disappearing art: track sequencing.

It starts at "One More Time," the highest of highs. The a rapid plummet through "Digital Love," only to spike back up half a song later. Then, by the time "Nightvision" and "Voyager" come along, it's drowning within the deepest, most ponderous of depths. Then it finally rises back to the relaxed, accepting middle ground of "Too Long." And all the while, the songs blend together seamlessly.

You want proof? Here, have some proof. Those are all off a live album the tandem recorded in 2007. Their entire performance is a series of mashups of a pair--sometimes a trio--of their songs into one track. It seems almost any cluster of Daft Punk songs can blend together, and the tunes on Discovery are no exception.

But these songs not only work together; they stand alone. We've already discussed my phase with "One More Time," What we haven't discussed are my phases with, in chronological order:

1. "Aerodynamic," circa 2003
2. "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" circa 2006
3. "Superheroes" circa 2008
4. "Digital Love" circa 2011
5. "Too Long" circa 2013
6. "Face to Face" circa right fucking now

No matter how many times I move onto something else, I'm always drawn back to this album through one of its many gems. You'll notice I, in general, am more drawn to the songs with vocals; that's just my nature. But what proves their true worth is how good those lyrics are. They're simple, but because of that they have to be so precise and cut down to one basic concept. HTBF, "Too Long," and "Face to Face" all do this marvelously.

Unfortunately for listeners, that quality seemed to disappear right around the same time Daft Punk made their disappearance in the mid 2000s.

*******

My opinion oscillates back and forth as to whether or not today's EDM is any good. There's no doubt the tracks from artists all over the world have become even sharper and cleaner since Discovery's release nearly 15 years ago. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's gotten better.

On the occasion a hyper-digitized song can make you feel something, it really does resonate phenomenally. But because they're hyper-digitized, less and less of them can actually do it. Most DJs won't even include samples from other tracks, something that gives Daft Punk a human touch. Unless they, ahem, get lucky like DP did with Pharrell or Zedd did his with his singer on the song "Clarity," today's EDM songs are nearly devoid of emotion altogether.

(Quick tangent: "I like "Clarity" and that the video's kinda cool, but what the fuck is Zedd doing? There's this heavy plot and this cool visual thing going on, and instead of playing a role he just shows up in three random shots? And he's just standing there staring into the camera? The director couldn't think of ANYTHING better for him to do? What the hell is that?? And believe me, that video's not the lone culprit. I could write a fucking essay on all the ass-clownery in Zedd's music videos, but that's for another day.)

The point is, Daft Punk accomplished something that few other EDM artists have. While perfecting their production arrangements and tonal aesthetic, they've also created emotional resonance throughout an entire electronic album. A few others can it in spurts or even entire songs, but to do it over 14 consecutive tracks? That's never going to happen again in the genre, and you can criticall it.

Granted, live sets are far more important in the modern-day DJing landscape, and albums are a dying breed no matter what the genre. But Daft Punk made plenty of songs worth dancing to, and a mope like Martin Garrix should demonstrate that any motherfucking animal can do that.

*******

On their 2007 live album, Daft Punk begins their performance with a rendition of "Robot Rock." But it's different. For every time they play an Autotuned cut of the word "robot," they respond with a similar-sounding version of the word "human." It goes back and forth for minutes, as though they're finding the perfect mix between the two before the concert can actually begin. It's a balance the group has tried to perfect in every song they make. And it's one they mastered in Discovery.

No artist has struck that balance as well since, and as the genre leaks further into the pop music mainstream, it's hard to figure anyone ever will. There's nothing quite like that album, and I highly recommend you take an hour to check it out. And if you've heard it before, rediscover it like I did.

I don't have that CD anymore, and I sure and shit don't have that boombox. But when I put that album back on, I have vivid memories of the times I did, and all of the countless times it's come back to me since.