Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

[pooman2084]

From an engineering point of view, it's a seriously f**king needed breath of fresh air! They've treated everything simplistically and sympathetically, given everything room to breathe, left the mid range thick and not compressed the sh*t out of everything. The top end is soft as opposed to over cooked, the bass is thick and warm without being the focal point and pumping against the kick drum. The low-mids are left thick and there's a lot of dryness in the mix too, very light use of reverbs and delays.

It's a very bold statement to make an album like this in this day and age as its goes against everything modern pop music production stands for. It sounds fresh and modern, but my god it sounds old, absolutely reeking of the mid-late 1970s. Basically it's a testament to less is more and it takes a high profile, intelligent duo like Daft Punk to pull something like this off. (But let's not forget they worked alongside Nile Rodgers for the whole album

)

I guarantee you this will have been the simplest album DP have ever made, yet it's probably the most intelligent and accessible too. I'd even go as far as to say it's one of the best produced pop albums we've seen in ten, possibly twenty years.

Yes, there's music I prefer and listen to over this of course. But like I said, from an engineering point of view, when I put it on, my ears smile

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After such an empassioned and credible argument from stevearcade, and as a retired audiophile (I found ignorance is generally cheaper when it comes to real hifi!), I gave it another listen on my proper stereo.

Wow, now I hear you Steve, the sound is incredibly rich and warm and there is just the right mix of retro and modern styles. It sounds familiar, yet new and fresh.

The album is almost like a movie soundtrack in that there is a story being told and it is a genuine journey to listen to the album from start to finish.

My only remaining complaint is that there is too much use of that god awful auto-tune style that Cher so kindly introduced us to all those years ago.

So I take it all back, Daft Punk FTW!

 

[strykr]

the production is like butter! There was a very good article in sound on sound about the production, needless to say all vintage mics and preamps, neve consoles etc. They also recorded simultaneously to tape and pro-tools at 96k and A/B'd to find the best results. The budget was just like an old school album, and featured such superb musicians!

Its a bold move and a total throwback in that they wanted the drums to sound like drums, the guitars to sound like guitars etc. hardly any post processing just great performances captured superbly with the best equipment in the world. None of this one man band sitting in front of there mac getting the cheap plug ins out on fruityloops lol

I still listen to 3 or 4 tracks quite regularly but musically its hit and miss for me, and I can take or leave the vocoder vocals, but that is there signature sound I guess.

Its great to see a proper album doing well though, and hopefully (doubt it tho) might make record companies invest a bit more to make more timeless albums opposed to throw away by the numbers pop crap.
strykr2013-07-31 17:48:36