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Stardust
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Stardust was a French house trio with a single song to their name: Music Sounds Better with You, released on 20 July 1998. The group consisted of Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk, the DJ Alan Braxe and the singer Benjamin Diamond. Braxe and Diamond had met at boarding school and bonded there over music. Braxe gave Bangalter a demo of Vertigo, which Bangalter released in 1997 on his label Roulé. For a gig at the Rex Club in Paris, with Bangalter on keyboards and Diamond as singer, they still needed one more track. They wanted to write a song, not a pure club track.
Music and breakthrough
They made the track in six days in Bangalter's home studio, Daft House, with a sampled guitar loop from Chaka Khan's Fate from 1981, a Rhodes piano, a Roland TR-909 and a bass from a Korg Trident. The lyrics, written by all three, are according to Diamond a mantra that anyone can understand. The record first appeared as a vinyl single for DJs. After being handed out at the Winter Music Conference in Miami, demand grew, and Virgin released it. It reached number two in the United Kingdom, number one in Greece and Spain, and the top of Billboard's dance chart. The video, directed by Michel Gondry, shows a boy building a model glider while the group performs on television wearing metal masks. More than two million copies were sold worldwide.
Influence
Stardust performed once more and then split up. Bangalter turned down an offer of three million dollars for an album. The track proves that repetition and simplicity can make a dance record shine: a gliding guitar figure, a warm bass line and a voice that returns like a mantra.
Listening
Music Sounds Better with You · Stardust, 1998Apple Music ↗
Mentioned in other articles
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