Are ‘real instruments’ coming back into Electronic Music?

[Cupe]

You've got to hand it to Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter (AKA Daft Punk): they certainly know how to generate buzz.

After Daft Punk chose to shun machines and samplers when creating their latest album Music Radar ask if the use of ‘real instruments’ will now be a familiar occurrence in electronic music.

The pre-release campaign for their new album Random Access Memories was brilliantly executed, with high-profile TV teaser spots for lead single Get Lucky being followed up with a big reveal via a video that was shown at the Coachella music festival.

This 90-second clip managed to upstage many of the acts that were actually performing, and further anticipation was built using YouTube interviews with some of the album's key collaborators.

The result was that the releases of Random Access Memories and Get Lucky felt like significant cultural events of the sort that the music industry generates all too rarely these days. But behind the hype lies the music, and this is where things start to get really interesting.

In an interview with Rolling Stone prior to their album's launch, Daft Punk went so far as to say that electronic music was suffering from an "identity crisis", with current releases being bereft of any kind of sonic signature.

The answer, as they saw it, was to do away with the "machines and samplers", and instead record real musicians playing real instruments. The fact that their new music has been met with both commercial and critical approval suggests that their approach has worked, but is this the start of a wider reaction to the heavily processed, intricately edited, sample-heavy sound of a lot of contemporary electronic music, or are Daft Punk fighting against the tide?

We spoke to producer, writer and remixer Jon Musgrave, who's currently writing and producing for Britain's Got Talent winner Jai McDowall and working on his own club project Bassfunk'd. Discussing Daft Punk's decision to go down a more 'human' route, he told us: "It's an interesting move, but these things tend to go in cycles. Daft Punk are renowned for heavily processing samples from other people's tracks, and that means a long process of sourcing and clearance. Anyone who is used to working in this way will find the immediacy of working with musicians very liberating."

This is certainly true - using a sample might feel like a quick fix early on but could turn into a real headache if your track ever becomes commercially successful - but the thrust of another of Daft Punk's arguments for using 'real' instruments seems to be that, if you're constantly trying to keep up with the latest cutting-edge sounds, your music will inevitably end up sounding of its time rather than timeless. We all know the names of the big plugin synths and effects that just about everyone seems to be using right now, but are you better off avoiding these in order to make your music stand out?...

Read the full story here.

[Mitch]

IMO: Do whatever suits you, your workflow & the sound you're trying to achieve, instead of straight out copying/mimicking whatever the latest "success" is doing

[russell]

IMO: Do whatever suits you, your workflow & the sound you're trying to achieve, instead of straight out copying/mimicking whatever the latest "success" is doing

true that. Gotta just try and make music that's right for you. If your making something you don't truly believe in it will be a chore.