Cole Cuchna

Continuing its song-long evolution, our robot gains more and more musical skill, now using the established vocal line as a base to improvise off of.

Rather than rigid, predictable eighth notes, it plays the melody using swung, jazzy syncopation.

It follows this by harmonizing with itself for the first time, playing two notes a fourth apart simultaneously, before launching into a finger-tapping guitar-style flourish.

a robot has clearly learned some new tricks, breaking even further from its rigid, monotone origins.

This part of the solo comes to a pretty definitive resolution and could easily end here.

But like we heard in Digital Love, Daft Punk extends the solo further than we'd ever expect, which only works if you continually outdo yourself.

And after a brief instrumental breakdown, they do exactly that, as we witness the robot growing more and more powerful, expressive, and virtuosic all at once.

Here at the climactic moment of the solo, the robot has abandoned the established melody in favor of virtuosic flourishes in its highest register.

We still hear fragments of the lyrics peeking through, so it's technically still singing, but it's almost totally unintelligible to us mortal humans.

A robot has advanced beyond its creators, performing its task better than humanly possible.

Of course, this is the metaphoric reading of the track.

Toma and Gimon are the creators of this exquisite and totally unique solo, pushing the vocoder into uncharted territory, both sonically and thematically.

I mean, have we ever heard anything like this in the history of music?

A wild vocoder solo over a spliced up disco sampling dance track that simultaneously functions as a philosophical exploration of humanity's relationship to its exponentially evolving technology.

Yeah, I don't think so.

Now to really reinforce just how far the robot has evolved since it first entered, I want to play a condensed version of the vocals I put together.

stitching all the main progression points into a single sequence so we can hear its evolution in one sitting.

Notice how it begins fragmented, almost sputtering, like a child learning to speak, and with each iteration evolves exponentially in complexity, range, speed, dexterity, and expressiveness until it reaches superhuman capabilities.

Work it.

Make it.