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Daft Punk's Discovery: The Future Unfurled
Daft Punk's Discovery is a record that looked into the future and liked what it saw; an album that predicted the electronic music explosion, YouTube and the end of privacy, while dragging soft rock back into vogue. Discovery was not only one of the best albums of the 2000s, it was one of the most prophetic, the kind of record that makes you wonder: how did they know?
You can draw lines from Discovery to Glass Swords, Kanye West, EDM, Autotune, iTunes, Beyonce, Guilty Pleasures, social media and more. Discovery's footprints can be found all over the modern world but it also looked back to Daft Punk's childhood, to Van Halen records, Japanese cartoons and even Johann Sebastian Bach.
Discovery was a record that confounded many fans when it was released in 2001, thanks to its blatant pop hooks and unlikely sonic bricolage. It was a record that was - and still is - widely misunderstood; Discovery's impact has only become clear with the passing of time, as Daft Punk have been proved right time and time again.
This book is a homage to a fascinating, troubled beast of an album that casts a huge shadow over the 21st Century, as Discovery reaches its 20th anniversary.
You can draw lines from Discovery to Glass Swords, Kanye West, EDM, Autotune, iTunes, Beyonce, Guilty Pleasures, social media and more. Discovery's footprints can be found all over the modern world but it also looked back to Daft Punk's childhood, to Van Halen records, Japanese cartoons and even Johann Sebastian Bach.
Discovery was a record that confounded many fans when it was released in 2001, thanks to its blatant pop hooks and unlikely sonic bricolage. It was a record that was - and still is - widely misunderstood; Discovery's impact has only become clear with the passing of time, as Daft Punk have been proved right time and time again.
This book is a homage to a fascinating, troubled beast of an album that casts a huge shadow over the 21st Century, as Discovery reaches its 20th anniversary.
- GenresMusicNonfiction
279 pages, Paperback
First published September 3, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 17, 2023
Suffers from a lack of access to the subject, structure, and clear writing. Mostly a compilation of people talking about listening to Daft Punk. I didn’t learn much. At least we can all agree that One More Time has no business being the FIRST track on Discovery. Come on!
March 13, 2022
Ben Cardew has written a carefully and interesting study on Daft Punk's 2001 album Discovery, which is at the same time a love letter to the band's enduring and monumental legacy, resulting in a fantastic book for which I am humbly grateful.
Writing with the utmost journalistic rigor, the book explores and dissects the origins of Discovery, an album whose influence on both modern music and our relationship to it via internet consumption cannot be overstated.
As the author writes on the foreword, "With Discovery, Daft Punk looked into the future and liked what they saw". The book then sets out to ponder the journey and legacy at large of the album, which to this day is rightfully regarded as an absolute masterpiece.
But Cardew also writes from a place of love and admiration for the robots, which makes the book the ultimate Daft Punk fan treat, if you too, like me, admire and miss the robots since their announced split on 2021.
Writing with the utmost journalistic rigor, the book explores and dissects the origins of Discovery, an album whose influence on both modern music and our relationship to it via internet consumption cannot be overstated.
As the author writes on the foreword, "With Discovery, Daft Punk looked into the future and liked what they saw". The book then sets out to ponder the journey and legacy at large of the album, which to this day is rightfully regarded as an absolute masterpiece.
But Cardew also writes from a place of love and admiration for the robots, which makes the book the ultimate Daft Punk fan treat, if you too, like me, admire and miss the robots since their announced split on 2021.
March 16, 2022
A great examination of Daft Punk's eternal artistic triumph, "Discovery", an album that postmodernishly looked at the past at the same time as the future, and did so with truly phenomenal skill and confidence.
Reading about Daft Punk is a bit like reading about Kraftwerk, in that you realize their privilege, their education, their business savvy, and their Whiteness were all key to understanding why they're names that everybody knows. It is not just raw talent that sees these two's finest work at the top of 21st century album charts, it is also an incredible contextual cultural savviness that comes from people who view their art as more than just that art itself - in this case, Daft Punk created identities for themselves that were purposefully at a remove from culture, shrouded from the public, and created an album that embraced as many trends as it bucked, offending as many fans as it delighted upon its release.
Beyond examining just the album itself and providing context to each of the tracks, this wonderful book paints a bit of a broader picture about the role Daft Punk played in the US acceptance of EDM, with some interesting theories about Kanye West that may well be true.
This book to me could benefit from some kind of intangible improvement of context, though. The conclusion mentions and credits electronic music as a fundamentally Black art form ("House music was born from a place of liberation: from the clubs where Black, Latino and gay people would gather to escape the pressures of racism, homophobia and the societal obligation to conform. Daft Punk, as middle-class Parisians, probably wouldn't have faced the same pressures. You can consider their music as a luxury, maybe, rather than something that simply had to be made."). I appreciated the inclusion of that. It's just a bit hard to read a book about electronic music history in 2022 and not have more mention of the fact that two White Europeans achieving global success in these forms of music, no matter how original their derivations, is a form of some kind of cultural appropriation that sits weirdly. This doesn't diminish from the titanic achievements of these two - their work is unquestionably one of genius - but it just feels a bit weird.
Very easy read and full of wonderful information, and well-researched as well. Another win for Velocity Press!
Reading about Daft Punk is a bit like reading about Kraftwerk, in that you realize their privilege, their education, their business savvy, and their Whiteness were all key to understanding why they're names that everybody knows. It is not just raw talent that sees these two's finest work at the top of 21st century album charts, it is also an incredible contextual cultural savviness that comes from people who view their art as more than just that art itself - in this case, Daft Punk created identities for themselves that were purposefully at a remove from culture, shrouded from the public, and created an album that embraced as many trends as it bucked, offending as many fans as it delighted upon its release.
Beyond examining just the album itself and providing context to each of the tracks, this wonderful book paints a bit of a broader picture about the role Daft Punk played in the US acceptance of EDM, with some interesting theories about Kanye West that may well be true.
This book to me could benefit from some kind of intangible improvement of context, though. The conclusion mentions and credits electronic music as a fundamentally Black art form ("House music was born from a place of liberation: from the clubs where Black, Latino and gay people would gather to escape the pressures of racism, homophobia and the societal obligation to conform. Daft Punk, as middle-class Parisians, probably wouldn't have faced the same pressures. You can consider their music as a luxury, maybe, rather than something that simply had to be made."). I appreciated the inclusion of that. It's just a bit hard to read a book about electronic music history in 2022 and not have more mention of the fact that two White Europeans achieving global success in these forms of music, no matter how original their derivations, is a form of some kind of cultural appropriation that sits weirdly. This doesn't diminish from the titanic achievements of these two - their work is unquestionably one of genius - but it just feels a bit weird.
Very easy read and full of wonderful information, and well-researched as well. Another win for Velocity Press!
September 27, 2023
This book is very interesting and excellent to read. I found out much more about Daft Punk's Discovery album that I didn't know before. I also found out how Daft Punk became who they are from their 1997 electronic, house-music debut album "Homework" to their 2001 smash hit French-House, EDM, Disco inspired second album "Discovery". It also talks about the making of the album and what was happening during the recording sessions along with some artists that they collaborated with on the album.
If you're into Daft Punk, want to learn more about their beginning era from a person's perspective or looking for something about House, Disco or electronic music. I would highly recommend this book.
If you're into Daft Punk, want to learn more about their beginning era from a person's perspective or looking for something about House, Disco or electronic music. I would highly recommend this book.
December 31, 2024
I loved the concept of the book - took deconstruct Daft Punk’s Discovery album and see where electronics are and where the roots are. Some of the findings I agree with - and, as a fan - applaud. But I also got the urge to approach the author to discuss the 1997 BT album ESCM and, on it, track 7 called Nectar, which brings a full house beat, electronic vocals and a guitar solo. Not to prove that others did it before. Because Ben obviously knows and knows many others. Just because I felt smarter after reading the book and willing to discuss with someone. And that is surely something. Also, special greetings to the listening suggestions in Appendix 1!
June 13, 2024
Gets an extra star just for the inclusion of Rustie in the Discovery universe! Rigorously compiled interviews and an in-depth knowledge of Daft Punk and related acts' catalogue and influences offered a lot for a relatively new (Alive 2007) fan. Enjoyed putting together the YouTube playlist as much as reading the book, delving into Chicago house, Todd the God and soft rock soothers.
Fascinating how prescient Guy-man & Thomas in the late nineties.
Fascinating how prescient Guy-man & Thomas in the late nineties.
January 9, 2025
Learning about Daft Punk's history leading up to 'Discovery' was great. The disection of the album was pretty good. All the repetition of facts like they hadn't been brought up before aswell as the extent of complaining about lackluster remixes and 'Human After All' seemed unnecessary.
May 9, 2023
Hardly to imagine the time Cardew spent on this thrive extensive Inside Discovery document. Decoded a lot of samples, back and forth with joy
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews