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Daft Punk - RAM lOTl - They're nice robots, they chose to stay.

Shaneus

Member
I think Discovery is their weakest album next to this one.
I'm not sure I agree with this post of yours, (you did say "think", though ;) ) but the rest of what you've said I find it hard to argue with. So much so, that the albums you've listed in this post I'll be checking out post-haste (the ones I'm not already familiar with, obviously).

I'll also be e-stalking you on GAF in the future to see what else you listen to... you seem pretty damn well switched on.

<3 Shaneus


Might be too mainstream, but, definitely get a Beaucoup Fish vibe listening to this stuff.
Really, really can't hear that. Maybe it's in the placement of the tracks on the album, but that's it. Other than that, I can't hear anything that's similar b/w RAM and Beaucoup at all. And man, I *loved* BC. Curious to think why you think one's reminiscent of the other (genuinely... it seems like a fascinating line you've drawn).
 

LevelNth

Banned
I listen to plenty of electronic music thankyouverymuch and this album sounds fresh as fuck to me. Certain people are quick to point out the lack of originality yet I haven't seen anyone have the balls to produce some specific examples. You've thrown down some albums from bands in the electronic genre, big whoop. Doesn't really back up your argument.

Let's not turn into a dick measuring contest where we argue about who listens to more electronic music, plz thnx.
*slow clap with Giorgio*
 

PBY

Banned
Is a song only good if it's doing something that hasn't been done before?

I always struggle with the "this has been done before" argument in music. I have a hard time caring if music is groundbreaking or not. It just needs to sound good.
To me- they are very specifically trying to evoke certain sounds of an era. The issue for me is the difference between creating something that can stand on it's own, versus something that gets by on the strengths of the music it's aping.
 

see5harp

Member
I like a lot of the bands that dude posted but this shit sounds nothing like Bibio or Chemical Brothers or The Album Leaf. I've only listened twice so I don't have a fully formed opinion yet all I know is that the Frank Lloyd Webber shit that Paul Williams does is hella dumb.
 
I'm not sure I agree with this post of yours, (you did say "think", though ;) ) but the rest of what you've said I find it hard to argue with. So much so, that the albums you've listed in this post I'll be checking out post-haste (the ones I'm not already familiar with, obviously).

I'll also be e-stalking you on GAF in the future to see what else you listen to... you seem pretty damn well switched on.

<3 Shaneus



Really, really can't hear that. Maybe it's in the placement of the tracks on the album, but that's it. Other than that, I can't hear anything that's similar b/w RAM and Beaucoup at all. And man, I *loved* BC. Curious to think why you think one's reminiscent of the other (genuinely... it seems like a fascinating line you've drawn).

Maybe it's been a while (college) but wiki describes BC as "binary dream world"-ish, which is where I was headed with it. Feel like you could put Cups on RAM and it'd fit.

So....possibly not the album as a whole, but, the whimsical bits and at least a song.

If not, I'll give it a proper relisten later and see if it still matches my memory.
 

Flo_Evans

Member
man... I need to get some new speakers.

I had a pair of 10"s in my main listening setup in the living room but one of the crossovers has gone bad and it intermittently cuts out.

I swapped them out for some little 5" bookshelfs but I think I need some new ones for when the vinyl is out. :)
 

Blader

Member

Only one of these I've listened to is Album Leaf, who I like but sound absolutely nothing like RAM.
 
if you're going to claim RAM "isn't new" (which it isn't) by way of citing other examples, at least list some nu disco, funk, or 70s revival examples. chemical brothers--especially surrender--does not sound like RAM, like at all.

Breakbot - Baby I'm Yours
Phoenix - If I Ever Feel Better
Cassius - Rock Number One
Ghostland Observatory - Stranger Lover

these are all songs from acts that incorporate or outright produce music using instrumentation, composition, or just "sounds" from the 70s with a specifically "funk" or "disco" feel. do any of these songs sound exactly like RAM? no. and that's not what anyone (sane) is arguing. but if we're now going to start judging musicality and artistic merit on "has anyone ever done this exact same thing?" then there is zero hope for intelligent discourse in this thread.
 

Flo_Evans

Member
if you're going to claim RAM "isn't new" (which it isn't) by way of citing other examples, at least list some nu disco, funk, or 70s revival examples. chemical brothers--especially surrender--does not sound like RAM, like at all.

Breakbot - Baby I'm Yours
Phoenix - If I Ever Feel Better
Cassius - Rock Number One
Ghostland Observatory - Stranger Lover

these are all songs from acts that incorporate or outright produce music using instrumentation, composition, or just "sounds" from the 70s with a specifically "funk" or "disco" feel. do any of these songs sound exactly like RAM? no. and that's not what anyone (sane) is arguing. but if we're now going to start judging musicality and artistic merit on "has anyone ever done this exact same thing?" then there is zero hope for intelligent discourse in this thread.

This is 1000x closer to the random albums that other guy posted. I happen to love this style/genre so RAM is fucking ace to me.

edit: I would also add some MGMT in there! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9dSYgd5Elk
 

see5harp

Member
I don't know how genius it is. His vocals would probably stand out if they let him go full bore with distortion. It was probably just to make them not stand out so much. I'm surprised they left Panda Bear's vocals relatively virgin because that is pretty rare for even him. I'm also sorta surprised that they used him for a pretty traditional song. I think my main issue with the album so far is just expectations. They had built this thing up to be the greatest album of the generation and really nothing is truly blowing my mind. I loved the single but I was expecting to stuff that would redefine dance and electronic music. The first time I heard Afterburner on the Panda Bear album I was actually excited. I don't feel that way about his song here.
 

see5harp

Member
Lol, this sounds just like the entry level music comment. Fucking hell.

I think there are a lot of posters in here going the other way though. Like fully bought into the hype that this was going to be a work of genius...that every single millisecond was engineered to the point of perfection.
 

BeeDog

Member
Goddamn, "Contact" is intense, loud and noisy as hell, and this is coming from someone that digests hard-as-fuck techno on a non-stop basis. The first tune in quite a while to give me a proper headache. And I say this in a good way.

Still, one of the very few tracks I find good on this album.
 

Xcellere

Member
I've been listening to DP since Homework came out, and it seems like the negative reactions RAM is receiving is because it's not the Daft Punk people fell in love with. Discovery and Human After All weren't major stylistic departures from Homework, so they've held a consistent tonal identity over the course of their career until now. You might not have particularly liked one of their previous three albums, but you still got the feeling that you were listening to a Daft Punk album. Daft Punk's signature sound has always felt heavily synthesized, which makes sense because they created a robotic image to go hand-in-hand with that sound. Now they're trying to fuse an organic, live instrument-based sound with that robotic image, and it just doesn't mesh correctly.

For the most part, RAM doesn't sound like any of their previous work. This doesn't mean that RAM is a bad album, it just means that if you've grown accustomed to liking Daft Punks trademark style, there's a good chance you won't like the direction they've gone in. Artists have every right to make an about-face in style, they just shouldn't expect their fan base to go along with the change.

I also get the feeling that they never quite left the majestic orchestral overtones of the TRON Soundtrack behind when they were making RAM.
 
I think there are a lot of posters in here going the other way though. Like fully bought into the hype that this was going to be a work of genius...that every single millisecond was engineered to the point of perfection.

Hyperbolic comments are stupid, whether they're positive or negative, but I haven't really seen any positive comment that was as ridiculous as the post I quoted since the 'stream hype' died down.
 

wenis

Registered for GAF on September 11, 2001.
let's all please not forget...

And de Homem-Christo, who has said maybe a few dozen words up to this point, most of them about salad and directed at our waitress, peers over the golden top edge of his sunglasses and says: "So our new album is supposed to really suck."
 

see5harp

Member
I love the Moroder track as a nod to the master but I feel like Sebastien Tellier album Sexuality was a lot cooler way to tip your hat.
 

Error

Jealous of the Glory that is Johnny Depp
people that say discovery is one of the best albums ever forget that it was shat on back then for no being homework 2.0

it took some time before people started appreciating it for what it was.

And I don't know how you can hate on give life back to music, song rocks. was nile rodgers involved in give life back to music too?
 

jett

D-Member
I also get the feeling that they never quite left the majestic orchestral overtones of the TRON Soundtrack behind when they were making RAM.

They actually recorded full orchestral pieces for every track in the album, but in the end only four actually use them in some capacity. For the better no doubt.

of course it doesnt. you don't listen to enough electronic music.


i8EgB2zE1fv0B.gif
 

Eidan

Member
To me- they are very specifically trying to evoke certain sounds of an era. The issue for me is the difference between creating something that can stand on it's own, versus something that gets by on the strengths of the music it's aping.

I'm still struggling with the critique. How do you differentiate between the two, and is something that gets by on the strengths of the genre its inspired by not capable of "standing on its own"? Hell, what does that even mean?
 

wenis

Registered for GAF on September 11, 2001.

tumblr_lgc2wtzkcr1qcaqnoot.gif



Great quote:

"Most of the ideas behind this record are ideas of celebration," the duo said. "It turns out to be a very optimistic record with very celebratory and optimistic lyrics, and it's coming out in a world that is not so optimistic, and which is somehow maybe more cynical and slightly pessimistic."
 

PBY

Banned
I'm still struggling with the critique. How do you differentiate between the two, and is something that gets by on the strengths of the genre its inspired by not capable of "standing on its own"? Hell, what does that even mean?

It means that I have to stop and think whether it succeeds on its own, or whether it succeeds because of how evocative it is of certain sounds from the era its trying to evoke. I'm not the only one who has questioned this, there were other posters asking this very thing and a few early reviews brought up this very issue.
 

Eidan

Member
It means that I have to stop and think whether it succeeds on its own, or whether it succeeds because of how evocative it is of certain sounds from the era its trying to evoke. I'm not the only one who has questioned this, there were other posters asking this very thing and a few early reviews brought up this very issue.

I guess I just don't get music criticism.
 

Ran rp

Member
Space - Magic Fly
Basically the entire Italo Disco, Space Disco and late electronic Krautrock scene.

Hahah, those top comments:

Daniel Thorp 3 months ago
Daft Punks mum&#65279; and dad.

alanlovedog 3 months ago
it's like daft punk went back in time 20 years! - this must have seemed like&#65279; it was from another planet in 1977
 
Lol, this sounds just like the entry level music comment. Fucking hell.

Being "entry level" isn't a negative comment. It just means they're catchy and accessible and non-offensive to people who wouldn't normally listen to this style of music.

My point has been that I like alot of things from "entry level" music all the way to more complex, weird, experimental stuff and there's nothing here that I haven't heard before. Daft Punk can do better, they have 3 times before.
 

see5harp

Member
I understand not liking the fact that many people who listen to and admire Daft Punk don't really admire or listen to a ton of other electronic musicians. I think it's probably best to just admire the fact that they can crossover and potentially introduce more people to the genre.
 

jtb

Banned
AVD has the same problem as HAA (though, to a lesser extent since the songs on it are actually good on their own)&#8212;it's too repetitive. It's one thing to make your whole album in that style, but they didn't have enough ideas to really fill the full album on that one imo. Still liked it, though.
 

LevelNth

Banned
It means that I have to stop and think whether it succeeds on its own, or whether it succeeds because of how evocative it is of certain sounds from the era its trying to evoke. I'm not the only one who has questioned this, there were other posters asking this very thing and a few early reviews brought up this very issue.
To me it's a ridiculous argument, because it is akin to subjectively penalizing music for being music.

The line between inspired and standalone versus evoking but hollow doesn't really exist, it's simply been manufactured to support music critique in print IMO.

But I digress, we'll agree to disagree.
 

MThanded

I Was There! Official L Receiver 2/12/2016
I think Justice did a better job at the whole throwback retro rock/disco/funk thing while still staying "true to their roots" with AVD.

I like AVD a lot but I prefer the less synthy approach that Daft Punk took. Also a lot of repetition on that album. AVD was much more rock focused and this is much more funk and disco focused.
 
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