Though electronic robotic duo Daft Punk officially powered down in 2021, the groundbreaking French pair opened up its vaults for a 10th-anniversary reissue of Random Access Memories. The expanded edition of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo‘s swan song, out now, hears Daft Punk retrieve a trove of demos, early mixes, and other treasures showing how the decade-defining album came to be. Among the 35 minutes of previously unreleased music is a collaboration between Daft Punk and Julian Casablancas (The Strokes), “Infinity Repeating”.
While “Infinity Repeating” was ultimately shelved, The Strokes’ frontman still made it onto Random Access Memories with the global hit “Instant Crush”. Considering the success “Instant Crush” has enjoyed in the decade since its release, it’s hard to stack it up against “Infinity Repeating” but the new challenger certainly carries a distinctly RAM feel as the densely stacked layers of instrumental tracks build behind Casablanca’s modulated hum.
“[The track was] a little stranger and more jazz modern, chord-wise, than the others on the record,” Casablancas said in a statement. “It just cycles up like a pattern. It’s a four half-step cycle moving up on repeat. I wanted Stevie Wonder to sing it. [It] somehow has island summer vibes too… It’s lovely and bizarre. Like a human. And like a human, obsessed with infinity and constantly making the same mistakes and movements.”
Related: Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter Takes Off His Mask For Solo Debut, ‘Mythologies’
Along with the track comes a new music video, which will ostensibly serve as Daft Punk’s last. The 4:20-minute visual accompaniment showcases three distinct animation studios, London’s Picnic Studios and Paris’ H5 Studio and Light Studios, with direction from Daft Punk collaborator Warren Fu. The music video shows the evolution of life forms from aquatic creatures to homo erectus all the way to Daft Punk’s robotkind ancestors.
“This project is especially dear to me not only because I was the mutual friend that introduced Julian to Guy Man and Thomas, but it is also the final music video for Daft Punk,” Fu said at the video’s premiere in Paris’ Centre Pompidou contemporary art museum on Thursday. “Like a lot of the robots’ music, I wanted to create something simple and hypnotic on the surface, that reveals more upon repeat listens and viewings.”
Check out the music video for the Daft Punk and Julian Casablancas collaboration, “Infinity Repeating”. Random Access Memories (10th Anniversary Edition) is available now across streaming platforms.
Daft Punk – “Infinity Repeating” (ft. Julian Casablancas, The Voidz) (Official Video)
Daft Punk – Random Access Memories (10th Anniversary Edition)
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