Caught in the Net: Daft Punk front a very late sequel
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.I've never seen 80s sci-fi film Tron, nor have I been following the fevered build-up to to its sequel Tron Legacy which is on the way later this year.
My ears did prick up, however, when six tracks from the soundtrack made by Daft Punk were put online. It's their first full-length release since 2005. Hear them at ind.pn/avthuD and ind.pn/9CP vps. It left me a little baffled though: aside from some blasts of noise and the odd synth flourish more familiar to the French duo, these tracks sound rather like a parody of a Hollywood film score. Perhaps that's the point? They've always been fond of pulling a few tricks.
US blues archive comes alive
The work of American ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax has long been lauded by musicians, scholars, cultural theorists and plain old music fans. For years he travelled around America and beyond archiving and documenting indigenous music. For a PBS TV series broadcast in 1991 he travelled through the south and southwest of America shooting 400 hours of footage of local people playing blues and folk. Over the weekend the Alan Lomax Archive and Cultural Equity launched a YouTube channel for this material. There are only a few videos up at the moment but no doubt this will become a fascinating music resource, ind.pn/b7ZsKT.
Seefeel find new Faults for release
Given that everybody who's anybody in the indie world is plucking guitar noises straight out of the shoegaze era, it makes sense that more bands from that time will resurface. Seefeel – who veered towards the electro /ambient end of shoegaze – are the latest to return with their first new material in 14 years. They will put out Faults a four-track EP as a 10in single and digital release through Warp on 20 September. The title track from the EP is available now and it's quite good. They haven't reinvented their template hugely but it manages to sound fresh too. Hear it at warp.net.
Something for the Weakend, sir?
London four-piece Yuck have been getting plenty of attention with their noisey take on indie rock mixing dashes of shoegaze and a dose of Sonic Youth stylings. Their debut LP is due in the autumn. Meanwhile, they release a cassette-only EP Weakend on 6 August, more details at yuckband.blogspot. com. The four tracks here are all stripped-back acoustic numbers – to reflect this change in tone they've altered their name to Yu(c)k for the release. On first listen, I was a bit taken aback: one track sounded a little like Peter Cetera gone soft. But don't let that put you off; the songs are quite beautiful. Hear three of the songs and see videos at ind.pn/anULV7.
l.ryan@independent.co.uk
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments