These days, there is no shortage of masked DJs, from Marshmello to Germany’s Claptone. But perhaps the most influential of the bunch is the sharply dressed French duo Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter—better known as Daft Punk—who started making serious waves in the late 1990s as part of the French house influx. But nearly three decades of appearances, albums, features, and general party-starting is just a long time for anyone, and the duo’s tired. So, they’re calling it an indefinite night: On Monday, Daft Punk confirmed their retirement.
But Instagramming an iOS press release stating as much wouldn’t have been enough of a statement, obviously. Instead, pair released a short film titled “Epilogue.” In the mostly silent clip, the two are seen traversing an unremarkable desert. Suddenly, they stop and one removes their jacket to reveal a simple energy switch. His partner reluctantly pushes a self destruct button. After a resolute walk to a safer standing point, the guy just… explodes. He fucking explodes. No riding off into the sunset. No hanging up the helmet. He just disintegrates, and the scene fades to black with an illustration of their two hands coming together—underneath it, the date span “1993-2021.” You can check out the full announcement below.
The parting song is a version of the track “Touch” from their 2013 Grammy-winning album, Random Access Memories. Since then, they’ve popped up sporadically with their biggest hit being The Weeknd’s “Starboy.” As Variety notes, their rep has not confirmed whether the pair is permanently done or if they plan on releasing music on an irregular basis under different name (or if they’ll work separately as, you know, non-robotic people). After all, they wouldn’t be the first musicians to rescind a retirement announcement. But for now, Daft Punk is done. The silver lining: We’ll always have the 2014 Grammy Awards performance of “Get Lucky,” featuring Pharrell Williams, Stevie Wonder, Nile Rodgers, and one of Daft Punk’s coolest entrances.