Neil Frances covers Stardust’s ‘The Music Sounds Better With You’

In midsummer 1998, French musicians Thomas Bangalter, Alan Braxe and vocalist Benjamin Diamond were doing a live DJ / performance set at Paris’ famed Rex Club, and trying out new material. Bangalter was already on fire as half of the global phenomenon Daft Punk, which had released Homework, the previous year. One of the ideas the trio tested on the crowd went over so well they went into the studio the next day to memorialize it. Adding a sample from Chaka Khan’s 1981 song “Fate”, they unleashed the song under the moniker Stardust, as a single through Bangalter’s Roule label – the only track the trio ever released under the Stardust name. “The Music Sounds Better With You” was an instant classic.

Now, LA-based duo Neil Frances (named for familial ties) have offered up an elemental homage to the track, which they say “is a guilty pleasure that exemplifies sampling and the utter joy of finding a hook and repeating it at nauseam.” Pointing to late 90s house and ‘French Touch’ records as a big influence, the duo releases their take on the song today, on the 19th anniversary of the song’s initial release.