A 1997 Daft Punk mix has turned up: the tape spent almost 30 years in a box and grew mould

British DJ Ralph Lawson has published an hour-long Daft Punk mix that the duo sent him in February 1997 for the radio show Trans Europe Express on KISS FM 105. It was a promo for their debut album Homework. The mix appeared online on 28 October.

The mix is up on Ralph Lawson's SoundCloud, and Mixmag has the details.

The digital DAT tape lay in a box for almost 30 years. Although it was kept somewhere dry, it grew mould and snapped when Lawson tried to play it. The recording was restored at The Great Bear, a studio in Bristol. Lawson himself only raised the level slightly and deliberately added no compression: that is exactly how Daft Punk created the signature sound of Homework.

Not the mix he feared

Lawson worried that the tape held nothing but a copy of the famous Essential Mix that Daft Punk recorded for BBC Radio 1 in March 1997. After restoration it turned out to be a different recording. Mixmag describes it as Chicago house with scratching and the same fizzing groove as on Homework.

The mix was put together on vinyl, so you can hear the crackle. DJ Mag lists among the tracks works by Basement Jaxx, Armand Van Helden, I:Cube, Boris Dlugosch, Daft Punk themselves and solo pieces by Thomas Bangalter. It is not known whether the mix ever aired, and Lawson himself suspects the duo may have sent it to other stations as well.

Still without helmets

The mix cover shows a photo from Daft Punk's performance at the Back to Basics party at The Pleasure Rooms in January 1997, before the helmets. The set lasted four hours, and Lawson regrets that it wasn't recorded: as far as he knows, no recording of that night exists.

There is no comment from Daft Punk themselves: this is Lawson's upload, not an official release by the duo. They are a constant on our air: 40 plays in the past month, most often Something About Us.

This autumn Daft Punk have already been the subject of a Métal Hurlant special issue.