The weapons of mass instruction

I love Daft Punk. If you've never heard of DP, or are not familiar with their music, please go buy their album entitled "Discovery." Seriously. Right now. Stop reading this and go take a listen. Go ahead, I can wait.

Also, do some research. Their Wikipedia entry is a great start. Their official site will also shed some light.

All done? If you're not a huge fan of what they do, please find the red "x" [close] or similar browser-appropriate button and click. See you next post I guess.

The rest of you will surely appreciate the way DP has pioneered their corner of the music scene and built a global fanbase that is nothing short of an army of grooving, adoring robots. But far from being mindless, tasteless androids with wallets, DP's fans have come to love what they do because they recognize what it is - innovation. Imagination. Exploration.

For me, it's auditory ambrosia.

I've always wondered a) how they produce their music, and b) what they're doing live at shows if they're not playing conventional instruments. Musically I'm pretty inept. So, to come across these two articles was a real treat for me. Most hardcore DP fans will have already read these, but I thought I'd combine them both and repost for others. Thanks to the original authors of these posts at musicnewsculture and musicthing - I'll quote them later.

At concerts (at least for the Alive 2007 tour), both Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo sit atop a giant pyramid, an iconic visual thread through the album and tour:

After seeing tons of pictures and video of them at the controls, I started wondering what those "controls" actually were... I mean, they look pretty busy... Behold:

(the following is reprinted from http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2007/07/what-are-daft-punk-actually-playing.html... the numbers below correspond with the yellow labels in the 2nd photo and the quotes are DP)

These photos are cropped versions of what appeared in Mixmag, here’s the info that was cropped off:

1. ABLETON - “The show revolves around Ableton Live software on custom made super-computers, which we remotely access and control with Behringer BCR2000 midi controllers.”

2. SCREENS - “Next to the ethernet remote computer screens there are four Minimoog Voyagers, the classic analog synthesizers. They’re a 30-year old design.”

3. MOOGS - “We can mix, shuffle, trigger loops, filter, distort samples, EQ in and out, transpose or destroy and deconstruct synth lines. We keep some surprises on the side too!”

4. VISUALS - “There’s a direct connection between our rig and the lights and visuals of the show. The light and video engineers can also add or control layers during the show.”

5. SYNTHS - “Inside the pyramid are synthesizers and remote controls connected to the rest of the music equipment and computers, which are in rack-mounted towers off stage.”

6. TEAMWORK - “Working the music equipment, lighting and video equipment, and building the pyramid for each show takes around 10 people, including both of us.”

So. Freaking. Cool.