Author Archives: Michael

Trademarked Masks Return for their Fourth Full-Studio Album

RAM

After a collection of rumors and some teaser videos, the news was out; Daft Punk is back with another fully-fledged album.  With 13 Songs and a lot of funk, it’s hard to stop listening.  I have listened to each song and made a mini-review of it (You can comment if you agree or disagree with any of my personal opinions).

1. Give Life Back to Music:

A rocketing opener that excites and is sure to fill the room with passion for music.  Amazing Riffs and great vocoder work.

Michael’s Rating: 9/10

2. Game of Love:

A laid back track that after GLBTM seems like a let down.  Remember after One More Time how Aerodynamic took you further down an awesome journey?  GoL doesn’t do that.  A whiny/passionate vocoder lyric goes over throwback instruments.  It’s a grower.

Michael’s Rating: 7/10

3. Giorgio by Moroder

Strap in, bros.  Words don’t explain how awesome this track is.  Starting with an exclusive interview with Giorgio, and ending with an up-beat, catchy (and long) synth rhythm.

Michael’s Rating: 10/10

4. Within

What was that?  No, I didn’t need those feelings anyway.  Beautiful piano work and extremely moving lyrics.  Made me cry.

Michael’s Rating: 8/10

5. Instant Crush

Arguably the most “radio ready” track on here other than the instant classic Get Lucky.  Julian Casablanca’s vocals roboticized (is that even a word?) brings you to a danceable beat about moving on.

Michael’s Rating: 8.5/10

6. Lose Yourself to Dance

This guitar riff is catchy!  Teased in the Nile Collaborator video, this is the sound of the West coast that Daft Punk tried so hard to capture.  Over William Pharrell’s amazing vocals and the vocoder telling you to “c’mon”, you’ll probably end up actually losing yourself to dance when this song comes on.

Michael’s Rating: 9.5/10

7. Touch

The most ambitious track on the record.  It’s mighty weird and hard to get into it at first – but then again, I appear to be the only one out of the other fans I know who has issues with it.  If it wasn’t Daft Punk, I wouldn’t give it a second look.

Michael’s Rating: 7.5/10

8. Get Lucky

Instant classic, but everyone already knows that.  Do I even need to explain how good this song is?

Michael’s Rating: 10/10

9. Beyond

The follow up to a a song like Get Lucky is important.  It keeps the flow of the album going and keeps us interested.  This song does not do that, unfortunately.  Fairly boring, but has some nice lyric work.  Meh.

Michael’s Rating: 7.5/10

10. Motherboard

I would say that this song would be a “meh” extension to a “meh” track, it does get me into a groove and I think that the transition between parts of the song fit in nicely.

Michael’s Rating: 8/10

11. Fragments of Time

All of the sudden, there was a twangy track on the Daft Punk album.  Well.  i didn’t see this one coming, to be honest, since Todd Edwards is known for what he doesn’t do on this song.  It’s not necessarily a bad song, just different what people would expect.  Lyrics are neat-o, though, and the strange background vibes start to grow on you.

Michael’s Rating: 8.5/10

12. Doin’ it Right

Funky as ever.  The beautiful vocoder track narrates the song throughout it all, and the song really picks up when Panda Bear’s voice soars in a very Animal Collective-esque fashion.  It’s begging for a remix, and I’d love to see a rap-over.  A personal favorite.

Michael’s Rating: 10/10

13. Contact

This is it.  The song that will be played at the end of every upcoming (rumered) Daft Punk concert and everyone will loose their marbles to.  Theatrical and magnificent, this closer really brings the album up quite a bit.  The ending is very Downward Spiral esque, closing on a static and random noises until eventually, a silence; a wonderful end to one heck of a journey.

Michael’s Rating: 9.5/10

Overall Rating: 9/10

This album may not be for everyone, as there are few elements that remind us of the Discovery- or Homework-era Daft Punk, but we were warned that it was a departure from that scene.  I feel that Daft Punk does a good job of going back to the roots and getting that human touch to dance back.  Without the drops.  Without the headbangers.  Just nice, groovy jams.  Album of the year right here.  Deserves everyone to go check it out and listen to it one time through, and more.

About these ads

Google sends Microsoft a Demanding Letter

Microsoft v. Google

Just yesterday, Microsoft was sent a demanding letter from Google insisting that they remove the YouTube app from Windows Phone platforms.  The letter states:

“We request that you immediately withdraw this application from the Windows Phone Store and disable existing downloads of the application by Wednesday, May 22, 2013.  We were surprised and disappointed that Microsoft chose to launch an application that deliberately deprives content creators of their rightful earnings, especially given that Windows Phone 8 users already have access to a fully-functional YouTube application based upon industry-standard HTML5 through the Web browser.”

The letter stated violations of  YouTube and the YouTube App terms of service, including the blocking of advertisements – which is the way YouTube reaps revenue – allowing video downloads and playing videos that partners have blocked on certain mobile devices.

After Google’s demands became public, earlier today, Microsoft issued a statement:

“YouTube is consistently one of the top apps downloaded by smartphone users on all platforms, but Google has refused to work with us to develop an app on par with other platforms,” Microsoft said via a spokeswoman. “Since we updated the YouTube app to ensure our mutual customers a similar YouTube experience, ratings and feedback have been overwhelmingly positive. We’d be more than happy to include advertising but need Google to provide us access to the necessary APIs.”

The back-and-forth between these two large corporations has not ceased as of now.  Google’s current CEO, Larry Page, spoke out at his company’s I/O developers conference yesterday, threatening Microsoft for all of the “people milking off one company for their own benefit”,as he referred to Microsoft integrating Google Chat into its Outlook.com email service, while at the same time blocking efforts by others to tie into Skype. “We certainly struggle with people like Microsoft,” Page added.

Microsoft yesterday after Page’s bickering said that they looked forward to solving this matter together for Google and Microsoft’s mutual customers.

In fact, the two companies rely on each other more than the public dust-ups indicate. “There’s a lot of contested territory, but for Google to run their fundamental business model, they have to provide support for multiple platforms. So it’s not a zero-sum game. Windows benefits from YouTube on it, and Google benefits from YouTube on Windows,”  said Ezra Gottheil, analyst with Technology Business Research.

More info to come.  Keep posted!

~Michael~

Game Pick of the Week #10: Nimble Quest

Everyone know the classic idea of snake, whatever you may call it. Known as millipede, centipede or countless other bug-related names, this game took the world by a storm. In fact, if your watching a YouTube video on a PC or a Mac, you can play it by pressing the left, up, right, and down keys on your keyboard!

This week’s game pick is:

20130409-224228.jpg

Nimble Quest!

This amazing remix of the snake-style games brings modern medieval warfare into a slicing, shooting, and magical Kongo line. You start this game with only one member of your soon-to-be team, and this player is noted as your team captain.

After adventuring and battling, you will build up your team to face fearsome challenges!

As a simple twist on a simple game, this app is a must-get. Also, it’s free, so if you don’t like it, then there’s something wrong with you (oh yeah, and you can delete it without losing money :D)

Thanks again for checking:
GAME PICK OF THE WEEK

~Michael~