Daft Punk

"Drive"

BY Brock ThiessenPublished Sep 16, 2011

As we reported a little while back, a previously unreleased Daft Punk track is heading our way courtesy of Soma Records' upcoming comp 20 Years. The collection is set for release on Monday (September 19), but right now we can check out that new-old song from the helmed duo.

"Drive" premiered today (September 16) on BBC Radio 1, and courtesy of 107.7 The End, you can stream this Daft Punk track from 1994 below. The song definitely shows the duo in their primitive stages and only at the halfway mark do elements that really resemble the Daft Punk sound come into play. Still, it's an interesting piece of history, for sure.

Check out "Drive" at the bottom of the page, and here's a bit of history on the track from Soma.

At the tail end of 2010 we trailed boxes of DATs, pictures and god-only-knows what else to find artefacts of Soma's early days. Imagine our surprise when we discovered a tape simply entitled Daft Drive. We hooked up the DAT machine and inserted the tape with the delicacy of a surgeon, pressing play and praying that for one, the tape contained what we hoped, and two, that it didn't chew it like a dog chewing on a bone. In amongst the hiss and crackle, the most monstrous 909 kick drum thudded. Daft Punk's "Drive" track had been rediscovered. Playing through was Live Daft Punk; freaky vocals, pounding Roland drums & synths and that archetypal DP compression. After standing in silence, witnessing this moment, the track faded off and we heard the sound of the French spoken word 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 Frenchman, to finish and send "Da Funk" to accompany "Rollin' and Scratchin'" and "Drive" was shelved for a later date…

UPDATE: The full version of "Drive" has been removed but below you can stream an official preview of the track.

UPDATE 2: Once again, we have the full seven-minute version.

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