Zeitgeists aside I think Basement Jaxx is better than Daft Punk

Grounds for comparison are probably debatable, but in how I became aware of electronic music, they played very similar gateway roles – they were accessible for an outside listener coming from another genre, and the are certainly contemporaries.

I think DP’s greater rep has a lot to do with grabbing the zeitgeist at least twice (with both Discovery and Random Access Mammaries). And DP has maybe benefited from its higher highs and lower lows, while BJ chugged along with less variance and a more gradual slide from their Remedy/Rooty/Kish Kash plateau.

But in sum I think I would take the BJ catalog over the DP one, although I could conceivably change my mind with extended re-listening. I can’t say I've done a deep dive on both discographies. This is a lazy message board post, not a weighty Slate thinkpiece. In summary, :welsh:.

Saw the thread title and immediately thought "Hey, Madrox is back."

I believe this same perspective was once argued on Pitchfork and I find it hard to disagree.

I enjoy a few Basement Jaxx songs. Not as many as I used to.

For example, a track like "Lucky Star" doesn't really do it for me anymore and there are a few others that give me the same feeling in 2014.

I don't know if I changed or if I just grabbed onto the same ideas about what kind of dance music was "good" as everyone else did sometime after 2006 or so.

Basement Jaxx or M People??????

My appreciation for Daft Punk if I'm honest is most likely rooted in watching cute theatre girls dance to "Digital Love" at a college party, and that never happened with "Where's Your Head At". So I guess I'm open to this line of thought.

Basement Jaxx have made some great singles but I've always thought their albums were uneven as hell. I only consider their first one to be classic start to finish. Daft Punk only had one album that I didn't like too much and that's human after all. Also, Daft Punk established their street cred early on with Teachers. I don't know about you guys but hearing a bunch of underground Midwestern DJs get shout outs from a couple of french guys was a HUGE deal back in 98.

If we are considering sustained success I'd say basement Jaxx wins.

Daft punk on the other hand made dance music cool for a whole generation of American kids who had previously viewed the genre as gay.

BGwaves wrote:Daft punk on the other hand made dance music cool for a whole generation of American kids who had previously viewed the genre as gay.

This kind of makes me hate them though.

I've got the first two albums by both of these artists on vinyl. I play them with roughly the same frequency - a couple of times a year maybe.

If I was to compile a "Best Of" comprised of my faves by both it would probably be a pretty even split, so I guess I rate them pretty similarly.

My gut reaction was to say I prefer Basement Jaxx but I think that's partly because I'm more frequently exposed to (through work and general osmosis) the portion of the Daft Punk catalogue that I'm not so hot on. Whereas, my Basement Jaxx listening is almost exclusively of my choosing.

cosign on the Teachers love

I admire the fact that a thread littered with BJs and DPs has not descended into a smutfest.

not sure I ever posted these but it seems apt with the Teachers talk:



https://soundcloud.com/ck303/daft-punk-teachers-podcast-42




https://soundcloud.com/ck303/theprequel96


i remember getting really chuffed when I figured out that the final shout out was Surgeon (and not some DJ that I hadn't heard of called Sir John)

Woo! I am going to be listening to this for the next three hours until I have to confront the single digit weather on my schlep over to classes. Thanks dog.

It would be dope if the typical Daft Punk fan was actively curious about their numerous influences. I guess that is just what happens when you make chart topping bangers though. Can't really fault that.

Bruegel wrote:My gut reaction was to say I prefer Basement Jaxx but I think that's partly because I'm more frequently exposed to (through work and general osmosis) the portion of the Daft Punk catalogue that I'm not so hot on.

Did we ever find out where you work at? Because seriously, where the fuck do you work at?

Breugs works overnights at the Ministry of Truth iirc.

yeah

i run a night shift at a big media monitoring firm

reuben wrote:Ministry of Truth iirc.

funnily enough, our office is only about 10 mins walk from the building that Orwell's image of the Ministry of Truth was supposedly based on....



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Truth


most of my uni lectures took place in there.

interestingly, it was also the building that Hitler had his eye on for a temporary HQ, so they say.

I'll take Daft Punk, but there are at least a few what-ifs that would swing it to Basement Jaxx for me.

- if this thread happened a year ago, pre-RAM
- if we're assuming an EDM perspective, since RAM isn't exactly electronic or dancey
- if I was forced to give equal listening time to the winner's entire catalogue (DP lows are way lower, and I'm not a fan of their early, repetitive house jams)

Huge soft spot for Jaxx, regardless. I've definitely spent more time listening to Rooty than any one Daft Punk album. I bought that CD just before starting a job where I had a hellish one hour (each way) commute for a year. Kept me sane on some pretty miserable dark, slushy winter mornings & evenings.

I'm not accusing Raj of either of these things, but I can feel a general reevaluation and/or rejection of Daft Punk quietly gaining steam.

In part from people who were/are fans of "techno music," and have zero time for RAM's analog disco odyssey (I can't wait for the remixes! / where are the drops?).

Also from more enlightened music fans or post-pitchfork snob type assholes like us, who have an understandable kneejerk distaste for acts lovingly embraced by the recording academy. I feel like the AOTY grammy was partly a pat on the back for recording a million dollar album with rockist production values. They wouldn't be jamming with Stevie Wonder on CBS if they didn't make a record with Nile Rodgers, Paul Williams, session musicians, and a full-on fucking orchestra.

"Jus 1 Kiss" is my favorite gay anthem of all time

What's your second favourite gay anthem of all time.

"Go West"

Soma wrote:What's your second favourite gay anthem of all time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps-G0knhydM

Bruegel wrote:not sure I ever posted these but it seems apt with the Teachers talk

Nice, thank you for posting these.

yancy wrote:I'm not accusing Raj of either of these things, but I can feel a general reevaluation and/or rejection of Daft Punk quietly gaining steam.

I wouldn't be surprised if I was a bit guilty though. I'm not currently really plugged in to serious online music listening such that I know how much this is warranted, but I wouldn't put it past myself to have started this thread because of some vague sense of resentment of communal preference for DP over BJ.

Maybe in 2014 I appreciate DP not so much for the music itself but more for cultural significance and validation of the genre and the collaborators. Particularly the recognition for Rodgers, who has never really gotten his due. Maybe I'm feeling something similar to what Deej said a number of years ago, around the time Kanye started to do really eccentric celebrity stuff, to the effect that he was liking Kanye as a celebrity more and more even as he liked his music less and less.

The most important thing about Daft Punk for me was that when you're devouring hot albums from the '00s something like Discovery is a great reminder of sounds like the ones found in "Night Vision," "Digital Love," "Something About Us," etc.  The lush keyboards and solos and shit, I guess.  As far as I can tell DP are primarily valuable for encouraging that one embraces a steady diet of late '70s and early '80s R&B.  The kinds of sounds that they sample and/or recreate post-Homework. But the real treasure trove is the era that they're indebted to. Or eras, considering that Homework is a little different than the others. Maybe you could say that about any musician to an extent but for some reason that line of thinking sums up my feelings about actually listening to Daft Punk.

And I believe they led me to the Alan Braxe Upper Cuts comp, as well.  I probably played that more than anything by DP or BJ.  I did get really into Kish Kash because it's ridiculous and catchy as hell but it's been a while.

New album might be out right now.

I'd rather hear everyone's loppinion before jumping into this myself, heard a new song from them last year and I really didn't like it.