GenQ - For the not so straight individual

Daft Punk is comprised of Paris house musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter. The pair is considered one of the most successful electronic music collaborations of all time, both in album sales and in critical acclaim. After Daft Punk reached significant popularity in the late 1990s house movement in France, other artists such as Air, Cassius and Dimitri from Paris began to receive a similar amount of attention. That’s a fair amount of flattery if you ask me.

3 studio albums, 2 remix albums, a compilation album and live album later, Daft Punk bring us Alive 2007. Alive 2007 is a live album by Daft Punk, the second album recorded live by the duo, following Alive 1997. Alive 2007 features their performance at Bercy in Paris on June 14, 2007.

The Alive 2007 set was an amazing array of sound and lighting equipment, in addition to Ableton Live software on high-end computers specifically customized for the show. Daft Punk accessed the hardware remotely with Behringer BCR2000 MIDI controllers within the central pyramid allowing them to work their set freely. Minimoog Voyager units were also implemented for the live performances. According to Thomas Bangalter of the duo, "They're a 30-year old design." Moog synthesizers were used that allowed Daft Punk to "mix, shuffle, trigger loops, filter, distort samples, EQ in and out, transpose or destroy and deconstruct synth lines."



If you think you already own plenty of Daft Punk material and have yourself covered, think again. Showcasing 27 Daft Punk tracks, Alive 2007 is essentially a Daft Punk greatest hits, with a very special distinction. Reviews of the set noted how Daft Punk manipulated and reworked their established material, not to mention the exquisite mixing. The overlapped mixtures of "Television Rules the Nation" with "Crescendolls", "Around the World" with "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" and "Superheroes" with "Human After All" were reported to be well-received by the audience.

Speaking of the audience, although you can’t feel the sweat of many other bodies around you, and the thumping of the bass (well, I suppose that’s up to your speaker system), the audience cheers and reactions to various parts of the recording send chills over your body, and give you that excited feeling you get when a whole stadium of people rise in unison to a particular part of a song/performance. The repeated line "fuck it" was also integrated with the lyrics of "Technologic" and gained quite a crowd response.

The album includes elements of the Busta Rhymes song "Touch It", the original version of which was produced by Swizz Beatz featuring a sample of "Technologic". Also featured are elements of Gabrielle's "Forget About the World", the original version of which was remixed by Daft Punk for her single. The encore of the set features Bangalter's side projects: Stardust's "Music Sounds Better with You" and "Together" by Bangalter and DJ Falcon.

For people such as myself, who have been fans of Daft Punk since they first caught a glimpse of a man with a dog mask on wandering the streets like normal, and have continued to follow Daft Punk through the three different phases of their music, Alive 2007 is a godsend. Just the thing for the lead up to summer - Parties, Dancing, good times, Daft Punk. For those of you just getting a feel for Daft Punk, there is no better time. For a sample of their music, click here. Otherwise, what are you still doing in front of the computer?!

Track listing
"Robot Rock" / "Oh Yeah" - 6:28
"Touch It" / "Technologic" - 5:30
"Television Rules the Nation" / "Crescendolls" - 4:51
"Too Long" / "Steam Machine" - 7:02
"Around the World" / "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" - 5:43
"Burnin'" / "Too Long" - 7:12
"Face to Face" / "Short Circuit" - 4:55
"One More Time" / "Aerodynamic" - 6:11
"Aerodynamic Beats" / "Forget About the World" - 3:32
"The Prime Time of Your Life" / "The Brainwasher" / "Rollin' & Scratchin'" / "Alive" - 10:22
"Da Funk" / "Daftendirekt" - 6:37
"Superheroes" / "Human After All" / "Rock'n Roll" - 5:41