I’m always intrigued with finding the sample sources for modern songs. I’m even more interested when it’s a group I love, a group like Daft Punk.

There is a video on YouTube titled “Where Daft Punk Got Their Samples From” that plays the Daft Punk song and the original sample back to back so you can hear and compare right away. It’s a pretty nice intro to the world of Daft Punk samples. Don’t get it confused with the (kinda funny) spoof video titled “Where Daft Punk Really Got There Samples From”.

Just last week I came across a promo copy of a CD titled Discovered: A Collection Of Daft Funk Samples. Much like that video, it’s a compilation of songs that Daft Punk sampled to build their songs. The CD is on the Rapster Record label, but it’s not listed on their website yet. According to Dusty Groove website, it’s coming out mid-November.

With only 12 songs on it, this collection manages to pull out a good variety of samples from each album, plus a sample for that “Music Sounds Better With You” song by Stardust.

I really appreciate it when someone takes a small and nearly unidentifiable sample, then uses it to make something totally new. Daft Punk do this with a lot for their songs. For example, “One More Time” uses an awesome disco jam called “I Put A Spell On You” by Eddie Jones, and although it’s clear that that song is the sample source, I’m still a bit mystified by how they actually used it. Using bits of songs in that way proves to me that samples can actually work as an instrument, and not just as a way to rehash some old hit.

Even though I appreciate diced up samples, I’m still a huge sucker for the easily identifiable samples. It’s always fun to be listening to something old, then out of nowhere catch a few bars of a modern song I know real well. Also, it’s more fun to play obvious samples for people and watch them get it, than having them listen and say, “Yeah, I guess I hear it”. Lucky for me there are a lot of Daft Punk songs based around these cut n’ loop style samples. “Harder, Better, Stronger, Faster” is a straight up loop taken from Edwin Birdsong’s song “Cola Bottle Baby”. Also, I was really surprised to hear the original source for “Robot Rock“, because all this time I figured it was just the distorted guitar that was lifted from some AC/DC song, but then I find out that the whole thing is pretty much one sample. Brilliant! To sample something that already sounds like it has been cut-up? It caught me off guard - like not being able to see the forest through the trees, or some shit.

Like most of the best sample source collections out there, Discovered is not some official thing - the name Daft Punk doesn’t appear anywhere on the CD or on the artwork, instead it’s a collection of “Daft Funk” samples, and I’ve never heard of those guys before.

Eddie Jones - I Put A Spell On You (used for “One More Time”)

Breakwater - Release The Beast (used for “Robot Rock”)

Chaka Khan - Fate (used for “The Music Sounds Better With You”)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 10:21 pm and is filed under General Bullshit, Les French, Nice Find, Samples. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.