Listen: Daft Punk - Drive Unreleased 1994 (Preview)

by soma

On their 20th anniversary compilation (released today), Soma Records include a previously unreleased and recently rediscovered Daft Punk track - ‘Drive’.

‘At the tail end of 2010 we combed through boxes of DATs, pictures and god knows what else to find artefacts of Soma’s early days,” Soma’s Chris Lamb explains. “Imagine our surprise when we discovered a tape simply titled ‘Daft Drive’. We hooked up the DAT machine and inserted the tape with the utmost care, pressing play and praying that for one, the tape contained what we hoped, and two, that it didn’t savage it like a dog chewing on a bone.

‘In amongst the hiss and crackle, a monstrous 909 kick drum began to thud – Daft Punk’s Drive track had been rediscovered. Playing through was live Daft Punk: the freaky vocals, pounding Roland drums & synths and that distinctive DP compression. After standing in awed silence, witnessing this moment, the track faded off and we heard the sounds of French words 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 Frenchmen, to finish and send Da Funk instead and DRIVE was shelved for a later date. Until now.

‘It is our pleasure and honour to welcome Daft Punk back to Soma Records with this track from their past, and we see it as a fitting way to kick off our 20th anniversary compilation.’

For more information, visit somarecords.com.