Daft Punk are back. Okay, not actually. But there’s technically “new music” from the now defunct robots for the first time since they backed a pair of singles from The Weeknd in 2016. It seemed to be a running tradition that something would pop out from the archives of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christ on the anniversary of their abrupt split in 2021. And after surprise re-issuing a deluxe edition of Homework on top of streaming a 1997 appearance from Los Angeles’ Mayan Theatre, the former duo took things even further on the breakup anniversary’s two-year observance. And that was the announcement that Random Access Memories—Daft Punk’s fourth and final album in 2013—would be receiving a 10-year anniversary repackaging just days ahead of its birthday celebration.
On May 12—with the LP’s 10th birthday officially coming on May 17—Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel officially revisited one of dance music’s most iconic albums of all time. When the announce happened on that now infamous anniversary date earlier this year, the contents of Random Access Memories‘ re-issue were disclosed, with the two adding 35 minutes to its 74-minute runtime in the form of unreleased demos, studio outtakes, and previously exclusive bonus tracks that were only available through internationally released versions.
And after a about a month of “single” releases and coordinate drops, there are nine tracks that can officially renew the sentence “new Daft Punk music,” including “Horizon”—a Japan CD exclusive—studio outtakes of “GLBTM,” a 2013 demo titled “Infinity Repeating” with Julian Casablancas and The Voidz, an early take of “GL,” an unfinished 2012 TRON demo titled “Prime,” vocoder tests of “Lose Yourself To Dance,” the making of “Fragments Of Time” with Todd Edwards, and finally the version of “Touch” that everyone has heard hundreds of times while replaying their breakup video known as “Epilogue.” It’s truly up in the air as to what—if anything, realistically—will happen with the former robots going forward, but as we now somehow hold our breath for Alive 2027, we’ll enjoy the 10-year anniversary edition of Random Access Memories below.
DAFT PUNK 10-YEAR ANNY EDITION OF ‘RANDOM ACCESS MEMORIES’ WITH 35 MINUTES OF UNRELEASED MUSIC
Out May 12 https://t.co/DXX0XH3btM
— Dancing Astronaut (@dancingastro) February 22, 2023
Featured image: David Black
