French Music: Daft Punk Giorgio by Moroder 2013

“Giorgio by Moroder'“ by Daft Punk

French electronic duo Daft Punk was one of the most influential bands of recent decades. They were known most for house, funk, and techno, but also for expanding and recombining those genres – and always performing with distinctive robot helmets. No doubt, also influenced by The Droids.

"Giorgio by Moroder" is from Random Access Memories, a tribute to electronic pioneer Giovanni Giorgio Moroder, an Italian producer and composer renowned as the “Father of Disco.”

It starts as Moroder narrates his own musical journey, interspersed with instrumental sections mirroring his story. As he starts telling about his early days, the music shares the narrative, moving from a relaxed restaurant ambiance to the energetic funk of seventies German discotheques and then on from there.

The track is a mini soundtrack to the man’s story of his life as it moves through the evolution of electronic music spanning the length of Moroder’s career. Someone included a breakdown of the styles on the track in the comments on the official video. I love this.

These details define Daft Punk for me. Their obsessive attention to audio production that even obsessive listeners might miss. According to Moroder, they used 3 different microphones from different decades of his life to record the interview. If Moroder didn’t tell anyone, only Daft Punk themselves would ever know the difference.

In the song, Moroder describes a pivotal moment in his career, saying, “I didn’t have any idea what to do but I knew I needed a click so we put a click on the 24-track which then was synced to the Moog modular. I knew that could be a sound of the future, but I didn’t realize how much the impact would be.” As he speaks, the music punctuates his words, using clicks to keep time before diving into a groove that progresses through techno.

The instrumentation features dynamic jazz breaks, synth washes, and complex rhythms evolving with Moroder’s narrative. At one point, he states, “Once you free your mind about a concept of harmony and of music being correct you can do whatever you want. So nobody told me what to do, and there was no preconception of what to do.”

This philosophy is echoed in the song's structure, blending synths, bass, strings, and record scratches in a vibrant, eclectic mix before it eventually strips down to the essentials of a modern house beat, a steady and compelling thump. And then done.

Moroder himself was deeply moved by the final product, saying, "I had no idea what they were going to do with our recording. I went to their studio and they played the song, I was stunned. They did an incredible job, it really became a soundtrack... Eleven minutes of pure art."