Ryan Ninesling
, February 24th, 2021 09:39
Daft Punk announced their split with an eight-minute video taken from the end of their avant-garde film Electroma which offers the key to understanding their whole oeuvre, finds Ryan Ninesling
Earlier this week, French house pioneers Daft Punk bid adieu to the world after 28 years atop the throne of international dance music. By the time their reign had ended, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo became household names both in and outside the electronic music scene, setting themselves apart with a pair of instantly iconic robotic suits and a seemingly boundless appetite for pushing their beats into previously unexplored territory. After nearly three decades of grooving through nearly every genre and form imaginable, it would have made perfect sense for the duo to go out on a note as joyful and celebratory as their own music. Instead, they said farewell with a somber eight-minute clip from a relatively little-seen silent film t
The electronic music duo, Daft Punk called it quits on Monday after 28 years.
But those who have closely followed the pair say no one should write them off for good. They have a tendency to pop up where you least expect them, said Patrice Bardot, author of Electrorama, a book on French dance music.
So what does the future hold for Daft Punk? Will we see them return some time in the future?
Have Daft Punk really gone for good? Despite announcing their retirement on Monday, no one should write off the inscrutable pair just yet, say those who have closely followed their career.
Daft Punk’s breakup video on Monday is still being felt and shared days later. Though reactions ranged from shocked to expected, the reality is that any rumors of new Daft Punk music are now, more likely than ever before, firmly solidified as false.
However, there’s still a lot of music for us to look back on, and not just the music they’ve released on their own. Over the years, Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter have co-written or co-produced, together or separately, a huge number of songs with other artists including Kavinsky’s “Nightcall,” N.E.R.D’s “Hypnotize U,” Arcade Fire’s “Electric Blue,” and of course plenty of Kanye West tracks.
Daft Punk, they of the mysterious robot helmets and mainstream electronic hits, announced on Monday that they had broken up. The group had been on hiatus, so this felt more like people who had tacitly already called it quits just making the subtext text. But it still represents the end of an era for a group whose most recent and, ultimately, final release, 2013’s
Random Access Memories, picked up the Grammy for Album of the Year.
There is a lot to celebrate and acknowledge in Daft Punk’s 28-year career. But what’s always stood out to me as its most interesting, influential release isn’t a concert or an album: It’s an anime.