Lost 1997 Daft Punk mix found on a cassette and released by DJ Ralph Lawson

British DJ Ralph Lawson released a roughly hour-long 1997 Daft Punk mix on SoundCloud on 21 October, rescued from an old, mould-damaged cassette. According to OndaRock, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo sent him the recording while promoting their debut album “Homework”, so he could play it on the radio show he hosted at the time.

Lawson came across the tape in 2024 while going through his archive, but it snapped the first time he tried to play it. He turned to Great Bear, a Bristol company that recovers and digitises audio and video recordings. He had worried it might only be a copy of the duo's well-known Essential Mix for the BBC from the same year, but listening and further research convinced him it was a different recording, with no other release or information he could find.

In an Instagram video, Lawson said he thought it had never been heard before and was probably meant as an exclusive. The crackle of the vinyl used for the mix can be heard on the recording. Lawson said he only raised the volume slightly and added no compression, so as not to alter the sidechain compression that gives the “Homework” tracks their sound.

Daft Punk, the French electronic and house duo formed in Paris in 1993, split in 2021; their newest studio album is “Random Access Memories” (2013). In October mbuzz reported that the duo got a LEGO set recreating the pyramid stage from their 2007 Alive tour.