Stardust Prep Remastered ‘Music Sounds Better With You’

Stardust – the now-defunct French house music group featuring Daft Punk‘s Thomas Bangalter, producer Alan Braxe and singer Benjamin Diamond – remastered their sole song, 1998’s “Music Sounds Better With You,” for an upcoming reissue. The band has yet to announce a release date.

Braxe told Billboard that the trio aimed to “update” the track sonically while maintaining the original vibe. “A month ago I had a listen to the song and I felt like, ‘Wow, it sounds a bit old now,'” he said, adding that he was “anxious” about the update. “It sounds good, but compared to today it sounds a bit old, and I thought it’s a good thing to try and update it … We did some very subtle compression – it sounds a bit like on the original 12-inch.”

“You don’t know how it’s going to go,” added Diamond. “It’s a special work to do, so I was a bit anxious.”

Stardust originally formed as Braxe’s live vehicle before deciding to write their own material. During their quest to find interesting samples, they plucked the disco guitar riff from Chaka Khan’s 1981 track “Fate” and built it into the foundation of what would become “Music Sounds Better With You.”

The trio originally released the single on Bangalter’s Roulé label, but they signed with Virgin after the song gained steam in France. The single eventually sold over 2 million copies worldwide, and Billboard reports that Virgin offered Bangalter $3 million to record a full album of Stardust material.

Braxe said they wound up with fix or six demos but decided to forego a full LP. He told Billboard those tracks “might be in the archives somewhere,” adding that they aren’t planning on a full-fledged reunion. “It was something totally unexpected when the magic happened,” he said. “It happened once, and we thought, ‘Let’s keep it like that.'”