FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1997. All Rights Reserved.
DAFT PUNK
Homework
Virgin· Debut album by French house / techno sensations and critical darlings Thomas Bangalter, 21, and Guy-Manuel De Homem-christo, 20.
· Dubbed The Chemical Brothers of dance, their roots lie in rock and pop but they branched out into house, not hip hop
For those of you that heard their track "Musique" on either the SourceLab 2 or Wipeout XL compilations last year or their earlier singles like "Da Funk" (included with three others from 1995), you should already have some idea as to what to expect from this 74-minute rollicking romp through today's underground dance sounds. For those that haven't... well, welcome to the weird and wonderful world of two French filter freaks. These guys have an EQ and they're gonna use it.
Meant to mess with your melon while you get your rocks off, this is dubbed-out disco, deep fried in a technofunk acid bath. Daft Punk bash out beautiful pop-flavored house and techno with a lot of... well, noise. And you don't even realize it. Maybe it's because the hooks are too deep, or the beats too toe tappin' terrific. Maybe it's because you can feel the irrepressible energy barreling out of their music. Maybe it's because you're deaf.
Whatever it is, these kids play for people who want to rock and roll all night and party every day. Think I'm kiddin'? Check the Kiss poster in the teen room nostalgia shot on the inside. They've got song titles like "Rock 'n Roll and lyrics like: "Around the world / around the world / around the world / around the world / etc.".(in fine Herbie Hancock vocoder fashion, no less). On top of it all, they give their respect in the liner notes not only to James Brown, Todd Terry, King Tubby, and Carl Cox but also Urge Overkill, the Black Crowes, Brian Wilson and Ween.
Confused? Good. Pick up this record. It'll help sort you out.
4/5
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