In recent interviews, french electronic music duo Daft Punk have discussed their new album, saying they hope to humanise dance music with Random Access Memories.
"This album is about technology going towards humanity, in a world where humanity is going towards technology. We tried to capture robotic emotions with music, replacing this time our electronic machines by real human beings." They said.
"Dance music is almost exclusively made today with laptop computers, on the same software, with the same virtual instruments, and a lot of the same drum sounds. Computers, as music instruments, are making it difficult for musicians to have their distinctive sonic personality, and a lot of dance records are starting to sound the same, in a very formatted way. We have always been fascinated by the relationship and connections between man and machine." The duo added.
"I think they might be missing the tools. The problem with the way to make music today, these are turnkey systems; they come with preset banks and sounds. They’re not inviting you to challenge the systems themselves, or giving you the ability to showcase your personality, individuality." Thomas Bangalter explained.
"They’re making it as if it’s somehow easier to make the same music you hear on the radio. Then it creates a very vicious cycle: How can you challenge that when the system and the media are not challenging it in the first place."
"We really felt that the computers are not really music instruments, and we were not able to express ourselves using a laptop. We tried, but were not successful." He added.
'Random Access Memories' will be out on May 20 via Columbia Records.
http://www.randomaccessmemories.com
