Daft Punk’s first album laid the groundwork for their robot personas, with four to the floor beats, programmed drum machines, and sequenced synthesizers. On their second album Discovery, Daft Punk fully lean into the artificial – singing through robotic vocoders that correspond with their now-iconic robot helmets.
But in there is a paradox, explored on episode 2 of Listening to Daft Punk: the more machine the robots become, the more human the music sounds.
Songs Discussed
Daft Punk - One More Time
Daft Punk - Teachers
Daft Punk - Aerodynamic
Sister Sledge - Il Macquillage Lady
AC/DC - Thunderstruck
Laurie Anderson - O Superman
Daft Punk - Revolution 909
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Kraftwerk - The Robots
Earth, Wind & Fire - Let's Groove
Herbie Hancock - I Thought It Was You
Zapp - More Bounce to the Ounce
Stevie Wonder - 1-2-3 Sesame Street
Cher - Believe
Kid Rock - Only God Knows Why
Barry Manilow - Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed
Daft Punk - Superheroes
Edwin Birdsong - Cola Bottle Baby
Electric Light Orchestra - Evil Woman
Daft Punk - Face to Face
Daft Punk - Something About Us
Daft Punk - Voyager
Daft Punk - Veridis Quo
Daft Punk - Superheroes
Daft Punk, Pharrell Williams - LYTD (Vocoder Tests) [feat. Pharrell Williams]
Daft Punk - Digital Love
Daft Punk - Crescendolls
Eddie Johns - More Spell On You
George Duke - I Love You More
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