Cole Cuchna

Because Daft Punk don't just repeat this same loop over and over.

They do repeat it once, like we just heard, but on the third repetition, they switch to a new loop.

It's very, very similar, but technically, it is different.

In this new loop, the second and third chop stay the same, but chop 1, that main chunk, now comes from take 2, the one without the crash cymbal and a few other minor differences.

This is combined with chops 2 and 3 to create the second loop, which, like the first, is also played twice.

Now, I know this was a bit tedious to break down, but that was kind of the point.

What seems like a simple loop sampled verbatim from a source material actually reveals itself as being much more complex when put under a microscope.

And composing with this level of detail is one of the things that separate Daft Punk from everyone else.

Most producers would have just sampled the loop verbatim and called it good.

And it would have been good.

But as we've witnessed all season so far, Daft Punk is always willing to go the extra mile.

Even if most listeners never consciously notice it, even if it makes the song just 2 or 3% better, they're going to put in that work.

Now that we've broken down the main loop, I do want to return to the song's intro, because the way Daft Punk built it is really cool.

Here's what it sounds like on the record.

Alright, so while most of the main sample loop comes from Cola Bottle Baby's first 20 seconds or so, we have to go all the way to the end of the song to find the sound used in this introduction, because it's around the 4 minute and 49 second mark that we hear this.

Did you catch it?

Yes, Daft Punk seemingly combed through the entire five minute track and honed in on this one second fragment.

And then they looped it.

Next, they take this tiny fragment from the end of the song and combine it with another fragment from its beginning.

It comes from this part of the main sample loop.