Any readers out there ever bury a time capsule as a child? I did once, I remember preparing it. Unfortunately, already I'm dubious about under which extension or new patio or other minor development of one of my childhood homes it is under. Ah well.

I'm sure some of you may have done this as a child, but an altogether rarer occurrence I imagine is finding a time capsule planted many moons ago. The film Amélie was beautifully crafted around such a discovery.

Something I stumbled across yesterday gave me a feeling which I can only imagine is similar to how Amélie felt upon finding that box of bits and bobs which someone held dear many years in the past.

Via the essential blentwell.com I found hometaping.org has posted a previously uncirculated recording of a 1998 Daft Punk DJ set at legendary New York club Twilo. Twilo shut its doors for the last time in 2001 having been hounded by Rudy Guiliani and city authorities. Its place in the NY music scene's history books seems to grow ever closer to the seminal Studio 54 ever since.

Apparently Daft Punk's less celebrated but equally important compatriots Cassius were spreading the gospel of French Electro-House on that night in Twilo also. Quite a tidy line-up for a night's dancing! It may be difficult for Europeans to fully appreciate but many American's speak of the broadening of the mass market for European electronic music in the States which Daft Punk's huge success over there ushered in.

So this DJ set for me is something of a record of the zeitgeist of the time in the US and its awakening to modern European electronic and dance music. Coincidently, Audion (28) who plays Dublin tonight and is originally from south Texas spoke of Daft Punk in an interview linked from my post yesterday. He mentioned how Daft Punk's influence on the electronic music scene and market in The States was 'monumental' in the late '90s. It's great to see North American artists contributing so much to cutting edge techno and electronic music's development of late, something which Daft Punk's success over there may have played some small part in, however popular their sound.

Of course, besides all that waffle, the mix is serious fun. I hope Amélie herself in her setting in the late 90s got to dance to some of these sounds from her fellow Parisiens. The quality is great and obviously taken from source. Look out for the still amazing Daft Punk mashup white label involving the Beastie Boy's Intergalactic and Alan Braxe's Vertigo.

Lil Louis' ubiquitous (at the time) ode to the vocalisation of female arousal French Kiss rounds out the mix. As the story goes this track was banned at certain venues which may or may not have taken themselves too seriously!

Enjoy the mix quickly before that server it's on goes down!

Once again, big up to hometaping.org whose writer personally sourced this recording.

If anyone is heading along to see Audion tonight, say hello, I'll be the one in the Wasted German Youth Super Raver T-Shirt ;)

tags: music

Published by Paul.