Stardust | |
---|---|
Origin | Paris, France |
Genres | French house |
Years active | 1998 |
Labels | Roulé |
Past members |
Thomas Bangalter Alan Braxe Benjamin Diamond |
Stardust is a musical collaborative effort consisting of producers Thomas Bangalter, Alan Braxe, and vocalist Benjamin Diamond. They released their only single, "Music Sounds Better with You", on 20 July 1998.
The project released the popular club track titled "Music Sounds Better with You" in 1998. The song, which is based around a sample from the 1981 song "Fate" by Chaka Khan, was recorded in Paris by Daft House productions, where Bangalter, one half of the popular French house duo Daft Punk, is based. The song was conceived in Rex Club, Paris, where the trio were playing a live set. Bangalter and Braxe created the instrumental, which Diamond instinctively sang the title words over. The next day they laid down the track in the studio, adding the Chaka Khan sample. The song reached #2 in the United Kingdom and spent two weeks at #1 on Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in the United States in August and October 1998 respectively.
The song remains the only release of the trio. Shortly after the release Bangalter was offered 3 million dollars to produce a full Stardust album, but Bangalter, Braxe and Diamond have not worked together since. Diamond and Braxe resumed their ongoing solo careers, and Bangalter, along with his usual partner Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, went on to release the second Daft Punk album, Discovery, as well as releasing other house music tracks solo or with other partners.
The video for "Music Sounds Better with You" was directed by Michel Gondry. It features a boy who has just purchased a toy plane. Back at home, while he builds his plane, he switches channels on his TV to a program which features the top 5 chart songs. Some of the music videos shown have Stardust themselves singing their new song and others, which have a resemblance of 80s music videos including Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love".