>I actually asked Thomas Bangalter to what extent that their strategy was >influenced by UR.
>http://www.juice.net/index.cfm?page=/content/music/features/113/intro.htl Apparently this is no longer on the site, sorry for the confusion. Here are the relevant parts: I read on the Internet that you guys had died and that robots had made this album... "It's not true. There's a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation some times. There was a big explosion in our studio in September '99 and the next thing we remember is we look like robots, but we didn't die and we did our album ourselves. But it's true that now we don't have to wear masks anymore in pictures because we just look like robots." You guys like to have fun with the media. Is that part of it? "Exactly, yeah, yeah. It's a bit like the music we do and the way we do things, it's very light and entertaining and a playful thing and, at the same time, it's maybe a more serious statement about being free to interact and operate and create at every level and, on what could be considered as a promotion level, we always try to transform any kind of emotion into creation." To what extent were you inspired by some of the guys from Detroit, like Underground Resistance or Drexciya, who also have different ways of dealing with the media? Was that ever an influence? "Yeah, I think it's a general approach, but it's true that a lot of our ideals to only do what we want, which is really what we're doing today, comes from this independent underground electronic scene that happened in the late 80s - early 90s, which we emerged from. What we thought, though, and what was maybe the case with the first album we released with a major label, is that we could stick to these ideals and stick to our integrity and do only what we wanted; also it could be done in a possible way, even dealing with the assistance of major labels - which is what we're doing today. So we're only doing what we want and we still have the ability to work with a record company in a wider distribution network."
