To name an example, consider Human After All, which was Daft Punk’s third studio album. Notably, the album served as the soundtrack to the mind-boggling anime film Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem about a kidnapped alien band - all the music videos are lifted from the movie.Sometimes, the people who make art can have very different opinions from the people who experience that same art. Additionally, the song "Face to Face" topped the Billboard Club chart in 2004. The hits "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" and "One More Time" are to this day the most widely-known tracks by Daft Punk. On it, their sound evolved from the Chicago house style to the unique hybrid of post-disco/synthpop which would come to define the electro-house duo. The 2001 record was the first many international fans had heard from the French group. Additionally, less obvious classics like "Too Long" and "Steam Machine" are manipulated far more interestingly, twisting the original songs' straightforward beats into tempo-changing symphonies.ĭiscovery is Daft Punk's mainstream coming out party. "One More Time," "Around the World" and "Da Funk" all make a requisite appearance, but like the rest of the discography from which they are drawing, these are mere raw materials for the disc's overall tapestry of ass-shaking rhythms. Subsequently, they released a second live album, Alive 2007, which evokes the spirit and creativity of that show and qualifies as one of the great live recordings of all time.
Nonetheless, their uniquely crafted meshing of house, techno, acid and funk on this record was a groundbreaking achievement.ĭaft Punk's landmark live set at Coachella 2006 was a watershed moment in the festival's history - it took electronica performance to new heights. New fans exploring the duo's back-catalog may be surprised that the sound of Homework is quite different from what Daft Punk sound like today. And while a few of the cuts here fail to enthuse, tracks "Revolution 909" and "Burnin'" are also choice. The singles "Around the World" and "Da Funk" are largely credited with generating buzz for the French touch/house subgenre of electronica music.
This is a solid record, but may be a challenging listen, particularly for those who've never seen Daft Punk perform live.ĭaft Punk's debut album, Homework, was released in January 1997. It's apparent to the listener that the stage show was an outrageous spectacle, but it's hard not to feel shafted when only getting the audio portion.
The 45-minute recording prominently features the tracks "Alive," "Da Funk," "Daftendirekt," and "Rollin' & Scratchin'." The 16-minute performance of "Da Funk" is both brilliant and a little bit tedious. Daft Punk handpicked the live performance, recorded at Birmingham's Que Club, as their favorite from the Daftendirektour. "Steam Machine" fizzles out before its downtempo rhythm even begins to pulse, while "The Brainwasher" is a dancefloor four-by-four by rote but before tracks like "Technologic" can purely be dismissed as derivative knockoffs of earlier hits like "Harder Better Faster Stronger," their seeming simplicity is compounded by high-concept context via "Make Love," which sounds like an Air demo too fertile to abandon, and the album closer, "Emotion." This, the group's third full-length album of original material, may not be the best of their career, but it's not bad at all.Īlive 1997 was recorded in - you guessed it - 1997, but it wasn't actually released until 2001. "Robot Rock," is as inspired as any track Daft Punk ever recorded, bouncing along with mid-tempo swagger and a memorable guitar sample unfortunately, not all of the other cuts stand up quite as well.