Daftside

June 21, 2013 10:28 AM

Nicolas Jaar (previously on MeFi) and Dave Harrington, the musicians constituting the hypnotic and funky group Darkside, have remixed Daft Punk's Random Access Memories (previously on MeFi) in full. You can stream it here.
posted by en forme de poire (27 comments total)

delightfully weird and abrasive. if you thought RAM was too polished or too disco-sounding, i think you'll dig this.
posted by raihan_ at 10:58 AM on June 21, 2013

This is way better than RAM so far.
posted by azarbayejani at 11:10 AM on June 21, 2013

I am going to mention purely in passing that this userscript will enable downloads on any soundcloud page.
posted by jaduncan at 11:11 AM on June 21, 2013 [6 favorites]

...and having gone to the soundcloud link, it would appear that it now breaks when you actually press the download button. Mods, if you want to kill both of these comments it's probably best.
posted by jaduncan at 11:16 AM on June 21, 2013

Darkside is amazing -- so glad they weren't a one-off.
posted by thetruthisjustalie at 11:27 AM on June 21, 2013

This is pretty terrible. Repetitive, uninspired, and completely lacking in direction (not that RAM has tremendous direction, but RAM is at least a hot mess). I really don't get the love for this -- it's a bastardization of the source material.
posted by bfranklin at 11:31 AM on June 21, 2013

haha - their take on Lose Yourself To Dance is the best critique of Pharrell's singing I've heard. 2 seconds is enough.
posted by thetruthisjustalie at 11:43 AM on June 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

During "Get Lucky" I kept expecting somebody to shout "Hey! Teacher! Leave those kids alone!"
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:52 AM on June 21, 2013

I dunno man. I am no expert but IMO RAM needed more Nile Rodgers not less. Can we get Quincy Jones to remix it?
posted by Ad hominem at 11:54 AM on June 21, 2013 [2 favorites]

Can we get Quincy Jones to remix it?

RAM was already a Quincy knock off. I'm not sure he could improve it much other than scraping most of the boring stuff.

Also, when I first saw this post, I thought it was Dave Harrington of the Kronos Quartet, and I was like...wait...what?

Anyway, this is alright. I don't know that's it's better or worse than RAM. RAM definitely needs something...I'm not sure this is it. Also I hate radio noises.
posted by Lutoslawski at 12:00 PM on June 21, 2013

Audible Gasp.


Can't wait to get home to listen to this.
posted by So You're Saying These Are Pants? at 12:11 PM on June 21, 2013

Needs Trapaholics drops on it. "I'm up all night to ----- Damn Son, Where'd you find this"
posted by Ad hominem at 12:13 PM on June 21, 2013 [3 favorites]

I'm a big fan of Nicolas Jaar (thanks to Metafilter), of Daft Punk in general, and of Random Access Memories in particular. So this mix thing is pretty much the best thing in the history of music for me. All that's missing is a download so I can play it via my crappy fixed wireless network. The take on Get Lucky is sure amazing.

How does remixing work with the kids these days. Has Daft Punk released a bunch of clean studio tracks for people to rework, or does a project like this start with the retail release? Is it likely that a remix-friendly release will happen some time? Many folks have commented that one of the best things about the Daft Punk album is how amazingly produced all the studio work is, seems a shame to leave it all locked up in just one album.
posted by Nelson at 12:14 PM on June 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

I absolutely love Nicolas Jaar to bits and I have yet to hear any song off Daft Punk's new album, in any form. I wouldn't even know if I've heard 'Get Lucky' in a store or some background music or wherever. I may have to change all of this. By listening to Daftside now, of course.
posted by iamkimiam at 1:11 PM on June 21, 2013

Ugh, I think this is terrible on first listening. For me, remixes need to have a better understanding of what makes the source material interesting to work, and this was mostly noise. I really like RAM but am not sure if I love the actual album or the sort of meta-statement embedded in the work (about electronic music, machine v. human power, and studio production). Probably a little of both. But these remixes seem deaf to both the actual source material and its context.
posted by LooseFilter at 1:11 PM on June 21, 2013

Also, I'm curious about Nelson's question: How does remixing work with the kids these days?

Do they have access to the multi-track originals, or is it all reverse engineered from a final copy, and then remixed?
posted by LooseFilter at 1:13 PM on June 21, 2013

I'm curious too.

deconstructing hip-hop remakes classic tracks using modern technology like Maschine, but he does shit like sample off YouTube with his iPhone. And matches up instrument sounds with a sound pack.

Also don cannon makes a track.

Also Young Chop talking about producing a track and Kanye West remixing it.

It really seems like it varies.
posted by Ad hominem at 1:27 PM on June 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

This is incredibly boring, even more boring than the original. I do love 3 songs off the original album but this project does nothing for me at all.
posted by chaz at 1:47 PM on June 21, 2013

I like this. Gone through a filter. Boring, maybe. Noise, yeah. Interesting in the moment, at least. Not sure what it says long term, if anything, but I've been playing it in my office all afternoon, half-listening, and feeling good about it. Our air conditioning is pretty loud too, though.
posted by J0 at 2:05 PM on June 21, 2013

Really digging their take on Beyond.
posted by en forme de poire at 2:23 PM on June 21, 2013

I don't get the sense that Darkside had access to anything other than the commercial release for this remix effort. There's no isolation of anything going on.

I'm only into the second track, so I'm curious as to how this is going to unfold. My favorite remixer is Junior Vasquez... I'd LOVE to hear what he would do given the stems and permission...
posted by hippybear at 6:03 PM on June 21, 2013

Hrm, okay... well, I think it's a good example of what remixers can do without stems, and it has some good moments, but generally it's not the kind of remix album I'd be looking for with this particular album.

Still, a very interesting thing to listen to, and so thanks for posting!
posted by hippybear at 7:02 PM on June 21, 2013

Wow. I haven't heard of Darkside before, and I have to say not all of the songs are up my alley, but so far a few of them are *awesome*.

Thanks for sharing!
posted by davezor at 11:39 AM on June 22, 2013

Finally had space to give this a proper listen and oh, I wish I liked it better. It's admirable that they produced it so quickly and I like how it sounds very different from the souce album. But I'm anticipating a lot of interesting remixes of Random Access Memories and sadly, this isn't it for me.

But thanks to this post I learned about DarkSide. Here's a formal EP release (CS008), here's an article about them (Nicolas Jaar + Dave Harrington), and here's their Facebook page.
posted by Nelson at 12:03 PM on June 22, 2013

Yeah, I think this was more a fun one-off and not a grand statement of purpose like one might perhaps expect from their choice to remix something so high-profile. But I'm glad people are digging Darkside's other stuff - there's not very much out there yet but what there is I think is pretty great.
posted by en forme de poire at 2:05 PM on June 22, 2013

Ah, I like David Wong's version of Get Lucky.
posted by etaoin at 3:46 PM on June 29, 2013

I'm anticipating a lot of interesting remixes of Random Access Memories and sadly, this isn't it for me.

You have no idea how many unofficial remixes of Get Lucky there are. Seriously, it's ridiculous.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:40 AM on July 9, 2013