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Dance music duo Daft Punk split
One of the era鈥檚 defining dancefloor acts hung up their helmets on Monday, as electronic music stars Daft Punk announced their retirement in typically enigmatic fashion with a video showing one of them exploding in a desert.
The French duo released an eight-minute clip titled 鈥淓pilogue,鈥 using footage from their cult 2006 film 鈥淓lectroma鈥 in which one of the robots sets other to self-destruct mode.
After the explosion, a cutaway reads 鈥1993-2021鈥 with two robot hands making a circle around a sunset.
Their publicist Kathryn Frazier confirmed the news by email, without giving a reason for the split.
From 鈥淒a Funk鈥 in 1995 to 鈥淕et Lucky鈥 in 2013, Daft Punk became the torch-bearers for French house music across the globe, winning six Grammy awards and pioneering the monumental sound-and-light shows that came to characterise the electronic dance movement of recent years.
They did so while almost never revealing their faces 鈥 the ubiquitous helmets became another much-copied trope of EDM stars, but also afforded Thomas Bangalter, 46, and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, 47, freedom from the fame that quickly encircled them.
鈥淲e have daily lives that are a lot more normal ... than the lives of artists who have the same level of fame as us, but who might be attached to being physically recognized,鈥 Bangalter said in a 2015 BBC documentary.
Monday鈥檚 announcement set off a wave of tributes to Daft Punk鈥檚 hit-making influence.
鈥淭hey always cultivated a taste for the paradoxical,鈥 electro pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre said, praising the duo鈥檚 鈥渆xtremely elegant manner of saying goodbye to their fans.鈥
鈥淓ternally grateful,鈥 tweeted Christine and the Queens singer Chris.
Star music producer Marc Ronson also hailed the 鈥済orgeous French robots,鈥 writing on Twitter: 鈥淒aft Punk left the game with a flawless legacy.鈥
Despite endless rumors of an imminent new tour or album, Daft Punk had been quiet for several years.
Their last album, 2013鈥檚 鈥淩andom Access Memories,鈥 was a phenomenal success, winning them four Grammies the following year including record of the year for 鈥淕et Lucky,鈥 the millions-selling lead single featuring Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers.
But the much hoped-for return to touring never took place.
They showed up one more time for the Grammies in 2017.
Despite the Twittersphere erupting in excitement last month amid rumors they would appear alongside The Weeknd for the Super Bowl half-time show, that did not materialize.
Bangalter and Homem-Christo met at school in Paris before an inauspicious start in music with the rock band Darlin鈥, which also featured a future member of the French indie band Phoenix.
One review in the British music press dismissed the band as 鈥渄aft punky thrash鈥 鈥 which struck a chord with them.
Reemerging as an electronic outfit, they met with instant success.
Early singles 鈥淒a Funk鈥 and 鈥淎round the World鈥 became club fixtures, and led to massive sales for their debut album 鈥淗omework鈥 in 1997.
It was in the video for 鈥淎round the World鈥 that they first donned the helmets that would become their signature look.
It mirrored the tight control they exercised over every part of their career, which included ownership of their master recordings.
They followed up with the even more successful 鈥淒iscovery鈥 in 2001, which spawned the hits 鈥淥ne More Time鈥 and 鈥淗arder, Better, Faster, Stronger.鈥
There were some distinctively left-field choices in the years that followed, including producing the 2003 film 鈥淚nterstella 5555鈥 by Japanese anime master Leiji Matsumoto, which featured music from 鈥淒iscovery.鈥
If their next album in 2005, a more sombre 鈥淗uman After All,鈥 received mixed reviews, these were quickly forgotten amid the euphoria of their live shows over the next two years.
This included a headline appearance at US festival Coachella in 2006, performed inside a giant LED pyramid. EDM fans still speak about it with an almost religious reverence.
In 2010, they released a soundtrack to the Disney reboot of Tron, which picked up a Grammy nomination.
But no one predicted the massive success of 鈥淩andom Access Memories,鈥 for which they gave up their usual makeshift home rig for a full commercial studio 鈥 and used entirely live instruments.
The resulting work dominated album-of-the-year lists and helped lift their total worldwide sales to 12 million.
In December, Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas told music website The Needle Drop that he鈥檇 been 鈥渢rying to do something鈥 with Daft Punk after collaborating with them on their 2013 single 鈥淚nstant Crush.鈥 But he was told they were 鈥渘ot doing music right now,鈥 with one of the duo 鈥渇ocused on video stuff鈥 and the other 鈥渙bsessing with ancient aliens or something.鈥
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