Turns out that one of the few truly monstrous tracks from Daft Punk’s latest, Human After All, almost completely jacks the opening of “Release the Beast, ” a little known electro-funk stomper by 2-and-out late 70s jazz-funk outfit Breakwater. I felt compelled to post the original because although I knew that Thomas Bangalter and Guy Manual de Homem-Christ0 were big on sampling, I was surprised that they’d take something so massive and hardly change it while creating an entire song around it. Call me naive, but I leave that kind of uncreative, lazy production for Diddy and Kanye.

So here it is. For all you DJs out there, you can find this track (and other gargantuan jazz funk cuts) on the second of Breakwater’s two LPs, Splashdown, reissued on vinyl and CD and available at dustygroove.com.

“Release the Beast” and eleven other original tunes sampled by Daft Punk — including Chaka Khan, Sister Sledge, George Duke and more — can also be found on the soon-to-be-released Discovered: A Collection of Daft Funk Samples on Rapster Records. Sure to be a staple of every funk and soul DJ you know. And something that may be an eye-opener to the devout Daft Punkist who thought they were listening to wholly original songwriting.

RIYL: Fatback, Cameo, The Dazz Band, Stone City Band, Mary Jane Girls, Rick James

Links:
www.dustygroove.com
www.rapsterrecords.com