An If There Is Hell Below Mix... Steely RAM

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No podcast this week, in its place I have put together a love letter to Daft Punk's new album (may have heard about the thing).

There's been a few disappointed faces; there are no 'bangers', it isn't an album of Get Luckys, and others seem to think that the Parisians had promised them Homework or Discovery 2.

We don't really need anything else sounding like Homework or Discovery, that French electro thing flogged that horse and the last thing radio/charts/elevators need is more house music.

Thomas and Guy made an album for themselves and that is all I'd ever ask for an artist; when you start trying to feed your audience what they want you end up with Nickelback or David Guetta - musicians with a formula that keeps music at a stand-still.

Luckily for me, in making an album for themselves they've also made an album, seemingly tailored made for MY tastes.  

To risk sounding like a review or further editorial on the album, I have made a mix, a playlist, a compilation, a sonic scrapbook of songs, artists and genres that Random Access Memories reminds me of.

I've kept to songs and artists that I know have been referenced by the band - either on this album or prior projects. Nothing rare in this one, Daft Punk wanted to emulate bands with huge budgets and time to play in the studio, I'd like to think every song in this mix is a masterclass in glossy big production, a class Daft Punk have aced.

With the track listing I have attempted to emulate the flow of RAM, it picks up and it grooves and then it brings you off the dance floor and gets a little personal.

There's a couple piano ballads, 'yacht rock' standards, jazz funk smoothness, electronic soundtrack atmosphere, prog and a little bit of disco.

The mix is called Steely RAM: their helmets are steel-like, the album's abbreviated is RAM and Steely Dan just because Steely Dan. This is not a Steely Dan vs. Daft Punk mashup, regretting this name already. 

 

Tracklisting

Hall & Oates - Can't Stop the Music (He Played It Much Too Long)

Todd Rundgren - International Feel

Eric Carmen - All By Myself

Goblin - Profondo Rosso

Chic - Everybody Dance

Giorgio Moroder - The Chase

Michael McDonald - Keep Forgetting

Tangerine Dream - Love On A Real Train

Paul Williams - Travelling Boy

Steely Dan - Josie

Christopher Cross - Ride Like the Wind

Fleetwood Mac - Hypnotize

Electric Light Orchestra - The Whale

Steely RAM by If There Is Hell Below Podcast on Mixcloud