Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter’s ‘Riga (Take 5)’ Is a 15-Minute Techno Epic

2018-10-31T10:44:08+00:00October 31st, 2018|News|

Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images – Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk performs at the City Botanic Gardens in Brisbane, Australia.

Any Daft Punk fan who’s listened to Homework knows the robots can ride a repetitive techno line into total existential transcendence, but the duo’s Thomas Bangalter just unleashed his wildest yet. “Riga (Take 5)” is a 14-minute, 41-second epic that clangs modular synth screeches around a stomping, industrial beat.

“Riga” was recorded in one solid take for the soundtrack of Latvian film Riga (Take 1). The song is repetitive, yes, but Bangalter’s maddening use of dynamics and modulators keeps the listener engaged. It’s quite the masterful experiment, as if Bangalter aims to test the very limits of human interest. It flows almost as if in three movement, the final few minutes of each being a glitched-out exploration of tempos.

Bangalter is no stranger to film scores. Daft Punk famously scored Tron: Legacy, while Bangalter has routinely worked with French director Gaspard Noé (Irreversible, Enter The Void).

Check out the monumentual “Riga (Take 5)” below.

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