It has been ten years since the release of Daft Punk’s five times Grammy winning and two times Platinum iconic last album.
Released on May 17, 2013, Random Access Memories was the French electronic duo’s fourth studio album.
It came amid a major promotional campaign that reflected how it paid tribute to the music of the late 70s and early 80s.
After completing the soundtrack for 2010’s Tron: Legacy, Daft Punk decided they wanted to work mainly with live musicians for their next album.
Random Access Memories (RAM) features collaborations with Chic’s Nile Rodgers, Giorgio Moroder, The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas, Pharrell Williams, Animal Collective’s Panda Bear, Todd Edwards, DJ Falcon, and Chilly Gonzales.
Rodgers provided some of Chic’s signature ultra-clean guitar sound which was combined with vintage vocoders and a custom built modular synthesizer.
Combining disco, prog rock and pop, the album was described as capturing Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo’s interest in the past.
In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked RAM number 295 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
The album’s hit single, Get Lucky, has gone Platinum eight times and has been immortalised as the “sound of the summer” by Limmy’s repetitive ironic tweets.
“Check out Daft Punk’s new single ‘Get Lucky’ if you get the chance. Sound of the summer,” the comedian has tweeted, from his account with the handle DaftLimmy, every Friday since 2014.
Glasgow producing duo Slam are credited with discovering Bangalter and de Homem-Christo who took on the name Daft Punk in the early 90s.
Getty ImagesStuart McMillan and Orde Meikle founded the label Soma Quality Recordings and, after being sent a demo tape, released Daft Punk’s debut single The New Wave in 1994.
Daft Punk returned to the studio in May 1995 to record Da Funk – considered a classic of 90s house music.
They signed with Virgin Records, released their debut album Homework in 1997 and found overnight fame.
With the release of their 2001 follow-up Discovery, they began wearing their famous robot outfits during both concerts and public appearances, including press, and would often perform at festivals from the top of a giant pyramid.
In 2021, in an eight-minute video they announced they were disbanding.
Dressed in their famous suits travelling through a desert landscape, it concludes with one of the group detonating into hundreds of tiny fragments.
The clip ends by cutting to a sunrise as a choral version of RAM’s Touch plays and the dates 1993-2021 appear.
To celebrate the anniversary of RAM, a special edition containing 35 minutes of unreleased music has been released.
It features outtakes, demos, and unreleased songs.
It comes as the Recording Industry Association of America announced new certifications including the album going Platinum twice.
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