Daft Punk: Drumless and pointless? Well not quite…

When I first found about the release of a “Drumless Edition” of Daft Punk’s fourth studio album, Random Access Memories, one day before the news officially broke, I wondered if someone had either made a mistake or was pulling my leg. After all, what exactly would be the point of a drum-free version of an album that borders the notably drum-heavy worlds of disco and soft rock?

This was a view that it turns out a lot of Daft Punk fans share, with “Why?” — or words to that effect — being one of the most popular comments on social media around the release announcement. (As one IG user commented: ‘“Less dancing with the Daft Punk please.” — f*cking nobody.’). It didn’t help that Daft Punk had issued a lush (and, if you wanted the vinyl, expensive) 10th anniversary edition of RAM just four months previously.

Sadly, “Why? is a question that is likely to go unanswered, at least in the short term. Thomas Bangalter was all over the news for a brief period at the start of 2023, promoting his solo album Mythologies and, to a lesser extent, RAM’s 10th birthday, but I can’t imagine him coming back for another round of press any time soon, however much he likes talking. (And, as anyone who has ever interviewed Daft Punk will tell you, Thomas Bangalter really likes talking.)

So let me give my ever-so-slightly-informed take on the news. On an artistic level, Drumless sounds like another fascinating curveball in the great line of Daft Punk not giving people what they want. After Homework, a lot of Daft Punk fans wanted more filtered house and techno; they gave us Discovery, a hyper-bright pop explosion of discofied soft rock; after Discovery we got Human After All, a charred black carcass of minimal noise; and after Human After All we got RAM, an LA-smooth funk rock odyssey.

A Drumless version of RAM was very low on pretty much everyone’s wish list of next Daft Punk projects. But could it be a worthwhile and even enlightening release? I’ve only heard the Drumfree version of Within, which was released to streaming with the album announcement, so I am going to speculate wildly. But what I like about a Drumfree RAM is that it ties neatly into my idea that there are, in fact, two RAMs: one, the disco-friendly pop monster of the singles (Get Lucky, Lose Yourself To dance etc.) and one the more brooding, prog-ish monster that lurks beneath, in songs like Within, Touch and Beyond. (I wrote about this for The Guardian, in an article where I called RAM Daft Punk’s Dark Side of the Moon.)

Much as I love Get Lucky, the prog side to RAM is, to me, the album’s darkly beating heart, a remarkable, improbable side to Daft Punk that reveals the nerdish music fans they are, beyond their obvious love of Chicago house and Detroit techno. This proggish shadow to RAM was notably enhanced by the album’s 10th anniversary edition, which included the extremely Pink Floyd, erstwhile Japanese bonus track, Horizon; the bizarre rock number Infinity Repeating and a gorgeously extended take on Give Life Back To Music. And Drumless RAM should give us another glimpse into this world, with the exclusion of percussion forcing fans to sit back and chill with RAM in a very prog rock fashion.

Certainly, the Drumless version of Within is gorgeous in its louche, cosmic lounge, the track stretching out before our ears like a slow sunset in space. I can imagine the same will be true of the The Game Of Love, Touch, Beyond and Motherboard, and I am very much looking forward to the Drumless version of Contact, a song where the rather frantic percussion always feels a little forced and out of character. On Spotify I have my own “Prog Some Access Memories” version of RAM that merges elements of the original RAM and the 10th anniversary edition to wigged out delight and I can image several of the Drumless version of RAM songs fitting in very snugly. Then again, Within didn’t exactly have a lot of drums to start with, beyond vague cymbal wash, and Drumless versions of Get Lucky, Instant Crush, Fragments Of Time and the album’s more driven, rock-ish numbers sound superfluous at best. But we will have to see.

I can understand why Daft Punk fans might feel ripped off. The Drumless vinyl isn’t cheap, retailing at €41.95 on the band’s official store. I assume the album will be on streaming and I for one, won’t be shelling out for it. But this kind of abstention argument doesn’t tend to fly with the band’s most fervent collectors, who will also want to get their hands on the exclusive new slipmat offered in an even more expensive album bundle.

I’d also argue that Daft Punk have something of a communication problem. OK, Thomas did a a lot of interviews earlier this year. But in the long robot years, when the band were notably absent from public life, rumours flew up unaddressed and I don’t think it did the band many favours that, for example, they never officially said that One More Time sampled Eddie Johns’ More Spell on You, even if their publicist eventually confirmed the news. Sure, a bit of rumour and mystique is great for a band; but not when it leaves important questions unanswered and rumours to flourish. (I addressed this in my Daft Punk book — do please buy it.)

A lot of fans of the band on social media are angrily speculating that the Drumfree RAM is the work of Daft Punk’s record company — something that I don’t believe for a second, given the way that Daft Punk have managed their careers — but a word from the band about why they are releasing this strange album would go a long way.

Until then, we only have speculation. And this, for the moment, is mine….

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