[Listen] Daft Punk - "Drive"

Back in the early 90s, legendary robotic duo Daft Punk were just a couple of young music lovers trying to get noticed. Upon meeting their House idols Slam, Daft gave them a demo tape, which eventually landed them a deal with Soma Records. While under the Soma label, the duo released only two singles, but there were many more track submissions that didn't make the cut. Fast forward to today, and it was announced that one of those tracks has been unearthed. The track, titled "Drive," was made by the French electronic duo in 1994, and, until today, has never been heard by the public. The song was discovered by Soma late last year, and will be included on Soma's 20th anniversary retrospective. You can read the story of their discovery, as well as listen to the song itself, after the jump. Thanks to 107.7 The End for the heads up.

At the tail end of 2010 we trailed boxes of DATs, pictures and god-only-knows what else to find artefacts of Soma’s early days. Imagine our surprise when we discovered a tape simply entitled ‘Daft Drive’. We hooked up the DAT machine and inserted the tape with the delicacy of a surgeon, pressing play and praying that for one, the tape contained what we hoped, and two, that it didn’t chew it like a dog chewing on a bone. In amongst the hiss and crackle, the most monstrous 909 kick drum thudded. Daft Punk’s Drive track had been rediscovered. Playing through was Live Daft Punk; freaky vocals, pounding Roland drums & synths and that archetypal DP compression. After standing in silence, witnessing this moment, the track faded off and we heard the sound of the French spoken word that the recording had been made over; the remnants of their parents audio collection. The tape had originally been sent with Rollin’ and Scratchin’ to be released as Soma25. But Soma asked these two bright-eyed and Techno-bound Frenchman, to finish and send Da Funk to accompany Rollin’ and Scratchin’ and DRIVE was shelved for a later date…”

According to Pitchfork, it was recently announced on the MuchMusic show "The Wedge", that the duo are currently working songwriter Paul Williams, who I will always remember as Swan from Phantom of the Paradise (if you never seen this movie, you better educate yourself very soon) and also is responsible for hit classics like "We've Only Just Begun", "Let Me Be the One" and "The Rainbow Connection" . Fucking. Amazing.