Dear Robots, Thank You.

I saw a bunch of folks put up posts about Daft Punk's announcement yesterday, and I had an immediate thought about that (especially with Touch as the music on the farewell video), but wanted to give an album a spin today with the intent of reflection and now feel like I have something to say.

I was late to the party, having been directed to the release in August, about three months after it came out. I never listened to Daft Punk intentionally, but the two lead radio singles, with Nile Rodgers providing the guitar tracks and Nathan East on bass convinced me I had to have a copy of the whole album. Somewhere within the first 25 minutes, I was awakened to the sound of post-disco and synth pop, or at least this particular blend. The album made the cut for my monthly listening for at least five years, and while it's dropped off some in rotation, it isn't because it wasn't influential to my taste in music. The most recent album that's fallen into this slot is Donny Benet's Mr Experience, from last year (with some crunchy fingerstyle StingRay work), which sounds delightfully 1983 to me. I can also trace the Cory Wong habit to this, and it is also the source of blame for the Zainichi Funk CDs I've ordered from Japan.

 

On the subject of the 1983 and the title Random Access Memories... I have few memory connections to my early and middle childhood, what with all the head trauma, with really just random events here and there to fall back on. In much the same way that the smell of hospital-grade cleaning supplies and medical-issue low-pile carpet used to send me into an actual panic, though, I guess the combination of strings, horns, and synthesizer really speaks to the sounds of the radio and shopping-trip background music I would have heard early on while growing up. Whether it can qualify as nostalgia, it sure seems like I had an immediate positive emotional reaction to the style. It also came into my orbit at a particularly important time in my adult life, and links me to a state of being I haven't been able to really get at since. Fresh out of the thyroidectomy but before I found out about the lymph nodes. Driving 'home' for the night after chowing down on a particularly nice pizza in Charleston, West Virginia, with Rogue's Dirtoir accompanying. Having a stable voice again and finally being at a certain stability with my thyroid replacement hormones. You know, the whole scene.

 

But all that wouldn't be anything to recommend to everyone if it weren't for the great performances. Nile Rodgers is a master of his craft and Nathan East is just such a smooth player, but the more I've listened to the work, the drumming, especially by Omar Hakim, is absolutely stellar. I think my favorite musical assembly is Touch, as I suggested earlier, but I love Contact and Giorgio By Moroder, and the string intro for Beyond is a fantastic opening salvo to the rest of the song. I can't really speak to how effective the lyrics are because of whatever my condition is, but they feel honest and it turned out I enjoy the sound of vocoders, at least on occasion. Even Julian Casablancas' guest spot on Instant Crush fits the style to a T. Plus the key change modulation in Within... I just can't get enough.

 

Anyway, if you haven't ever given it a spin, go find this on your listening destination of choice and give it a chance. I know a few of you are already on board, but still. This album was transformational to my listening habits.

 

Daft Punk wasn't an important part of my listening for years, and I still haven't given a deep dive to their other work, but this album was so important to me by itself that I'm thankful they did it. Thanks, robots: painters in my mind.

Reposted from Facebook. At least here, I have an expectation of low engagement.