It's turning out to be quite a week in the world of fake music. To clarify, the music itself actually does exist, but who made it has been intentionally misrepresented. Confused? Me too. Read on.
Quick on the heels of a faked "leak" from Daft Punk's soundtrack for the upcoming release of Tron Legacy, a faux Justice track sent out from a seemingly legit Ed Banger Records email address spread across the internet like a bad case of crabs at Eurockéennes.
Why anyone would go to all the trouble to make a piece of music and release it under someone else's name is a little bit beyond me, especially given the way blogs and fans have handled the situation. Things have gone down a little like this:
Both tracks were initially greeted with much fanfare and evaluations ranging from "Oh awesome! I'm totally naming my first kid Guy-Manuel," to "Oh cool, new stuff from a band I was way more into 3-4 years ago but still love." Once the tracks were respectively unmasked, public opinion quickly shifted more towards the "Oh hell no!" and the "Whew good, I hated that track anyway," end of the spectrum. This inevitably lead some to speculate whether the emperor had any clothes to begin with, but for the sake of following Conan's advice about not being cynical, I will leave that sort of analysis for others to deal with.
Regardless of the quality of the tracks, both managed to garner considerable attention (oops) and have certainly whetted fan and media appetites for tracks from the real deal. As for real news, Justice has only released plans for a 2010 album in broad, noncommittal ways, while Daft Punk fans will likely have to wait until closer to Tron Legacy's December release for anything official.
