Photo: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty

Sampling is a fine art. Sometimes, not a lot needs to be done—James Brown’s “Funky Drummer” break can be repeated ad infinitum, for example. Other times, the sample can be warped and phased to be indistinguishable from its source, or cut from a tiny snippet that would’ve been unremarkable to less trained ears.

This video placing Daft Punk tracks alongside the music they sampled shows just how good at listening to music the French duo are: able to isolate compelling moments and ride them for a half-dozen minutes or more. The Barry Manilow snippet on “Superheroes” is microscopic but turned by Daft Punk into an in-the-red fever dream, for example, and the Vernon Bunch handclap that becomes the basis of “Too Long” is almost unnoticeable in both tracks until pointed out here. Elsewhere, a large chunk of Breakwater’s “Release The Beat” becomes the basis for “Robot Rock,” showing their ability to shine the spotlight on a great sample when necessary.


It’s a fun new lens to view the duo’s discography through. It’s also interesting in light of 2013’s Random Access Memories, when, bored of the possibilities of sampling music, they just got those same musicians to make new stuff for them.

Is it enough to win avowed enemy of Daft Punk Sean Spicer over? Someone ask him at his next belligerent press conference.


[via Gizmodo, which, like The A.V. Club, is owned by Univision Communications.]