Legendary electronic duo Daft Punk has officially split up after 28 years.
They broke the news to fans with a heartbreaking excerpt from their 2006 film Electroma. Fittingly titled “Epilogue,” the 8-minute video signals the end of Daft Punk and echoes the melancholia of the conclusion of the most pioneering act in dance music history.
The video shows the duo behind Daft Punk, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, walking through a desert until Bangalter eventually stops walking altogether. He then sheds his Daft Punk jacket and turns around to reveal a power box. Conflicted with switching on the self-destruct sequence, de Homem-Christo finally does and watches Bangalter walk away.
After 60 short seconds, the robot explodes into smithereens and the screen fades to black with the text, “1993-2021.” de Homem-Christo then walks away into the sunset while an angelic choir sings the most memorable lyrics from Daft Punk’s 2013 song “Touch.”
It may be a sad day in electronic music, but Daft Punk’s legacy will live on. After all, they’ve brought so much to the genre.
Their 1997 debut album, Homework, started it all. “Around The World” and “Da Funk,” among other fabled tracks, introduced the scene to a disco-inspired sound that would forever change the music industry. But it wasn’t until 2001’s Discovery that Daft Punk would be crystallized in music lore. The album contains some of the most seminal electronic songs in the genre’s history, such as “One More Time,” “Digital Love,” and “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.”
From there, they skyrocketed to international renown. A year after the release of their third album, Human After All, the tandem made history with one of the most important musical performances for electronic dance music. They performed at one of the biggest music festivals in the United States, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, shattering boundaries by appearing at a fest that had mostly rock acts on the bill at the time.
Daft Punk performing at Coachella in 2006
In 2010 Daft Punk made it to the big screen, working with Disney to create the soundtrack for Tron: Legacy, a score that would become one of their most impactful contributions to the music zeitgeist thanks to blood-pumping tracks like “Derezzed.” They even made a cameo in the film as robot DJs in the End of Line Club scene.
In 2013 Daft Punk released their last album, Random Access Memories, which features one of their most popular songs to date, “Get Lucky” with Pharrell Williams and fellow disco music legend Nile Rodgers. The global radio hit garneded them two Grammy Awards. They also went on to collaborate with a handful of elite artists to further solidify their impact on the contemporary music landscape, such as The Weeknd, whose 2016 hits “Starboy” and “I Feel It Coming” feature the duo.
Source: Pitchfork
