By Scott T. Sterling

Not since John Williams scored the original Star Wars has there been a more perfect marriage of movie and music than TRON: Legacy. The moment it was announced that French electronic duo Daft Punk would compose the soundtrack to Disney’s big budget sequel to the 1982 science-fiction cult classic TRON, the combined excitement of sci-fi and electronic music fans around the world practically verged upon Beatlemania.
     Daft Punk — Thomas Bangaltier and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo — initially cemented their legend with a now mythically revered live set at Coachella 2006. The band’s electrifying performance, in full robot regalia atop their high-tech “Pyramid,” was the most talked-about show of the festival, resulting in a triumphant world tour throughout 2007. Then, with the demand for Daft Punk at an all-time high, the band promptly disappeared. Beginning in 2008, the pair decamped to the famed AIR Studios in London to start work on the TRON score with the aid of a massive orchestra.
     “This project is by far the most challenging and complex thing we have ever been involved with,” Bangaltier told UK magazine Dazed and Confused in an exclusive interview about the soundtrack. “Coming from our background of making electronic music in a small bedroom, and ending up having our music performed by a 90-piece orchestra, with some of the best musicians in the world…We knew from the start that there was no way we were going to do this film score with two synthesizers and a drum machine.”
     As the band toiled away in England on this ambitious undertaking, the mere fact that it was happening inspired a phenomenon rarely seen in music: a flurry of “leaked” tracks that weren’t by Daft Punk at all, but which were picked up by excitable blogs and touted as real excerpts from Daft Punk’s TRON score.
      “It was something completely unexpected and kind of flattering,” said TRON director Joseph Kosinski of the imposter tracks, in an interview he did with KCRW DJ Jason Bentley just days after finishing the film. “It let me know that we’d chosen the right people to score the film. And some of the tracks were really good. I think it would be great to collect the best of them on a compilation album.”
     The drive to obtain early versions of the actual soundtrack drove more obsessive fans to extreme means. Kosinski told a story about receiving a late-night phone message from a frantic Bangaltier screaming that the band had lost all of the music in a massive server crash, and to send the tracks to an address in France. “I immediately called Thomas to see what had happened, and he had no idea what I was talking about,” Kosinski laughed. “That was an interesting moment.”  
     When an extended TRON trailer was released with an actual Daft Punk song — the high-energy techno track “Derezzed” — unsolicited remixes came fast and furious, many from such high-profile acts as the Glitch Mob and Electrolightz.
     In many ways, Daft Punk’s entire career has been building up to such a significant moment. From their groundbreaking Homework debut back in 1997, they’ve managed to combine a perpetually evolving mystique with a vision as powerful as any sci-fi blockbuster. Their concise, inspired discography reveals a wealth of electronic music that ranges from crowd-pleasing party starters to quiet, cinematic moments that all but predicted their soundtrack future. Here’s a brief rundown of their entire catalog…

HOMEWORK

In the beginning, there was Homework. Daft Punk’s genre-defying 1997 debut stayed true to its title, with sonic tributes to their heroes and influences. Featuring some of the band’s most popular tracks to date like “Around The World” and “Da Funk,” this 5-star collection never flags for a moment. The combination of gritty, underground house beats, futuristic techno synths and a love of American pop culture phenomena like Kiss set the groundwork for the intergalactic blast-off that was soon to follow.

DISCOVERY

This is the moment Daft Punk where went from an underground dance floor sensations to full-fledged pop stars. It was during this era that Bangaltier and de Homem-Christo transformed from a pair of scruffy Frenchmen in jeans and t-shirts into their now-famous man-machine robot guises. “We did not choose to become robots,” is how Bangaltier explained their new look at the time. “There was an accident in our studio. We were working on our sampler, and at exactly 9:09 a.m. on September 9, 1999, it exploded. When we regained consciousness, we discovered that we had become robots.” Boasting mega-hits like “One More Time” and “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger,” the sleek ‘70s undertones and synthesizer-heavy warmth of 2001’s Discovery made it a perennial fan favorite.

DAFT CLUB

This 2003 collection of Daft Punk remixes (mostly from the Discovery album) found the band allowing their tracks to be reworked by some of the finest in the business, including Basement Jaxx and Laidback Luke. The forged an instant mutual admiration for late Detroit hip-hop producer J Dilla on Daft Club, as he remixed their song “Aerodynamic” and they in turn remixed the results. It was also the first time Daft Punk would be connected to production duo the Neptunes, who reworked “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” here.

HUMAN AFTER ALL

Considered by many as the first chink in the band’s robot armor, Human After All remains the most polarizing among their fans. Forgoing the warm synthesizers and uplifting energy of Discovery, this 2005 album was all about hard, machine-like beats and minimal, repetitive loops. The first single “Robot Rock” would go on to become one of the band’s signature songs, and quieter, more intimate moments like “Make Love” and “Emotion” proved they still had some of that cinematic magic.

ALIVE 2007

After their career-defining performance at Coachella 2006 and subsequent world tour, it only made sense to capture Daft Punk’s set on a live CD. It revealed their show to be constructed from a series of Daft Punk mash-ups, wherein they’d juxtapose two of their own songs into one new, multilayered track. Alive 2007 not only captured the energy of those shows, but the contextualization of Human After All tracks like “Television Rules The Nation” and “The Prime Time of Your Life” gave them renewed power (and appreciation) among Daft Punk devotees.

TRON: LEGACY

While fans rejoiced at the news, cinematic purists were far more skeptical about an electronic duo scoring such a major Disney motion picture. But the impressive results prove that Daft Punk is more than just a high-octane dance machine. Effortlessly blending their digital arpeggios with the power of a 90-piece orchestra, Daft Punk created music that fits as naturally with TRON as the special effects and Jeff Bridges. From warm, mournful incidental pieces like “Nocturne” to the big-beat dance floor blast of “TRON Legacy (End Titles),” the soundtrack is a momentous achievement that will only broaden their worldwide appeal.