14 Daft Punk Tracks You Don't Know

Are you sure you are their biggest fan?

The news that Daft Punk announced their end is all over the place - between the mourning and long eulogies on one hand and the very original social media commentary regarding their inactivity in recent years on the other (“didn’t they break up already? LOL”), as a long time fan I felt that it was right to put together something about the most iconic electronic music duo in history. 


To avoid redundancy and try to offer our readers something different, I want to explore their work that got less spotlight throughout the years, released either as Daft Punk or as projects including Thomas Bangalter or Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. Whether you are a long time fanatic of the duo or the occasional radio hit enjoyer, I hope you will find some interesting music and curious insights in this list:

Daft Punk - The New Wave (1994)

If you are a fan of Daft Punk you are certainly aware that their early work was born out of energetic and crude underground techno with that early 90s touch. Their first-ever release as Daft Punk ‘The New Wave’ EP is the best example of the style they were covering in the early years. Realised in 1993, this will be later finalised into the track ‘Alive’ included in Homework. If you are used to techno, the raw and essential touch of this version can actually come across as very enjoyable.

Darlin’ - Untitled 18 (1995)

Within the printed label of this VA record release under Banana Split, a letter in French cites: "It's been quite a while since Darlin' split, but it seems that they formed a techno group called Daft Punk. No demo available, besides they don't want to talk to anybody”.

Before Daft Punk there was Darlin’, an indie/punk rock band formed by the future duo together with Laurent Brancowitz (who will later form the indie-pop act ‘Phoenix’). I found this particular piece released in 1995 as a part of the compilation ‘De La Viande Pour Le Disco’ to be extremely interesting - it features a big-beat drum part on which a funky guitar sample (wink-wink at what's coming next) and a reggae-dub bassline play around tastefully. Overall a piece of music that doesn’t easily fit in any specific genre, and is certainly something interesting to check out for Daft Punk fans.

Thomas Bangalter - On Da Rocks (1995)

This is probably one of my favourite tunes from this list. A funky groove leads the sound towards what will soon become the iconic Daft Punk sound, but probably the most interesting element is the filtered and deep synth harmony that adds an emotional touch to the groove, a type of stylistic feature which will be partially abandoned in Homework in favour of fewer fundamental components. This is the first record put out by Thomas’ label ‘Roulè’ - the whole 5-tracks release ‘Trax On Da Rocks’ deserves a listen.

Thomas Bangalter - Spinal Scratch (1996)

1996’s Spinal Scratch by Thomas Bangalter also features some classic Daft Punk elements, from the repetitive in-your-face funk sampling to heavy use of the phaser effect. However, you can also hear a lot of scratching and pumping 909 old-school house drums which are elements that will eventually be left out in most of their productions. All in all, this was a ground-breaking tune for its time and still an enjoyable groove today. This EP was released solo by Thomas, however, a text on the printed label of the record cites “Shouts to my co-pilot Guy-Man for his support." The track will also be present in 2002 Gaspar Noé’s movie ‘Irréversible’, where the soundtrack is fully curated by Thomas.

Le Knight Club - Holiday On Ice (1997)

Le Knight Club is a duo formed by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Eric Chedeville. The resemblance of this track to the main loop of ‘Around The World’ is clear to the point that it’s ludicrous, ‘Holiday On Ice’ being perhaps less evolved in a songwriting sense (there’s no mid-song break or vocals), but perhaps is its essentiality that can make it fresher to enjoy for house-heads. Released around the same time as Homework, this song has probably the closest sound to Homework in a non-Daft Punk labelled project and is a fundamental track for the development of late 90s french-house. I highly recommend checking out the other track in the release as well, ‘Santa Claus’, a faster and enthralling house tune.

Bob Sinclar - Gym Tonic (Thomas Bangalter Remix) (1998)

The controversial Bob Sinclair debut ‘Gym Tonic’ counts several different origin stories, the most credited being that Thomas co-produced the original music and didn’t want to release it commercially, ending up in a legal beef with Bob. Being seemingly impossible to know the whole truth, we’ll take as a fact that at least the remix under the name of Thomas is fully realised by him. You can definitely hear his touch in the sampling that recalls the famous hit released in the same year, ‘Music Sounds Better With You' by Stardust (another project by Thomas, with Alan Braxe).

Fun fact: there was another legal fight regarding the track between Bob Sinclair and the American actress Jane Fonda, as the vocal sample you hear was an uncredited sample of “Arms”, a workout recording by Jane.

Scott Grooves - Mothership Reconnection (Daft Punk Mix) (1998)

Mothership Reconnection was a single by the Detroit house mastermind Scott Grooves, featuring Parliament/Funkadelic (Bernard G. Worrell, George Clinton, and Bootsy Collins are all credited as writers). The record release of the single features a rare appearance of the duo on remix duties, with wonderful results, smoothly incorporating the original groove and vocals into a classic Daft Punk loop. The original version of the track also really deserves a listen - an evolving 13-minutes ride through jazzy instrumental solos set on a cool funk vibe.

Thomas Bangalter - Club Soda (1998)

Thomas Bangalter’s Club Soda is simply a great tune. The sampling is on point and the filter work makes it entertaining and fun to hear in a DJ set. The track relived some popularity around 2015/2016 after being played in a Solomun Boiler Room DJ set… You might know it from this (and perhaps despise it) already - but whatever, it's a great track.

Le Knight Club - Boogie Shell (1999)

I need to cite at least another tune by Le Knight Club - Boogie Shell comes from a later release under the Crydamoure label (also run by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Eric Chedeville). The classic filtered disco-house style of the project is even more exemplary in this one - if you are a fan of this style I very much recommend to explore the full catalogue of Le Knight Club - there’s plenty of great pieces to discover.

Together - So Much Love To Give (2002)

Moving to the post-Discovery era, when Daft Punk fully committed to their robot façade and entered a greater area of worldwide mainstream music, the two mostly focused their energies on bigger projects with much more media attention. However, there are still a few undiscovered gems I’d like to include in this list: the 2002 ‘So Much Love To Give’ was produced by Together (which is a duo project by Thomas Bangalter and DJ Falcon). This project also previously released the track ‘Together’, of which you can also find some bits in the Daft Puk live tour album 'Alive 2007'.

I came across this tune for the first time sometime around 2010 as it was played at the closing of an Italian electro-house duo DJ set. I probably wouldn’t enjoy most of the set as I did back then but I still find this track likeable, despite all the unapologetic cheesiness of the endlessly repeated sample of "Love's Such a Wonderful Thing" by The Real Thing.

Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger [The Neptunes Remix] (2003)

This is an exception in the list, as the piece isn’t directly produced by any of the two but it’s packaged by the duo ‘The Neptunes’ (Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo). This was released as a part of the Discovery remix album ‘Daft Club’ - the overall remix album is not the most exciting thing ever, but I find the 00s RnB vibe and Pharrel’s voice mixed with the iconic ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’ vocoder line on this one irresistible. Something different, nonetheless a great piece of music and an interesting finding.

Sébastien Tellier - Divine (2008)

You might have heard this one - 2008’s hit Divine had a widespread success across Europe and even represented France at the Eurovision Song Contest of the year. However, you might not know that this song, as well as the whole ‘Sexuality’ album by Sébastien Tellier where it's included, are fully produced by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. The record features some great productions that are completely outside the realm of dance music, such as the touching ‘L'amour et la violence’. If you like this one we highly recommend listening to the record in full.

-M- - Superchérie (2019)

Staying in the realm of French pop music, the very recent 2019 ‘Superchérie’ by the eclectic singer ‘-M-‘ is also worth a listen. The song is produced by Thomas Bangalter and features a sound resembling the disco vibes of the last Daft Punk album Random Access Memories. A compelling finding for whoever is curious about what the duo has been up to in very recent years, and surely and enjoyable track if you were digging the sound of RAM.

Thomas Bangalter & DJ Falcon - Call On Me (Unreleased)

This track never got an actual release - it was a production Thomas and DJ Falcon used to play during live sets since the late 90s. I am sure you will immediately recognise it, as the sample used is the same one of the famous hit ‘Call On Me’ by Eric Prydz, which was all over the place in 2004. Apparently, Eric heard it and made a track himself featuring the original sampled vocalist Steve Winwood who agreed to re-record the vocals for him. This seems like a low blow from Eric Prydz, but seemingly there were no hard feelings from the two, as you can also hear in this interview with DJ Falcon. Same as it was for Bob Sinclair’s Gym Tonic, this is proof of how the influence of Daft Punk over dance music in the last few decades goes way beyond their single hits and albums.