A new Daft Punk LP and the big news is they still love that vocoder. The LP opens with two cuts that come on like ‘Harder, Faster etc’ with robot voices and simple, gorgeous, crude, repetitive riffs that work themselves into a frenzy. Which is pretty much what most of the tracks on the LP sound like. The first single ‘Robot Rock’ samples a fat rock riff and comes on like The Who remixed. It’s not bad but there’s a point where perfect minimalism could also be lobotomised simplicity and Daft Punk don’t get always get the balance right. They slow down for ‘Make Love’ which is very intimate for them – a gentle beat-box, quiet piano and distant (un-vocodered) male vocal repeatedly sighing the word ‘love’. It could pass for a rough Bee Gees demo. ‘Technologic’ is a wonder, a sped-up voice mouthing the active verbs of the computer user (unzip it, erase it, update it etc) over a typical Daft funk backing. Also great is acid chugger ‘Steam Machine’ with yet another killer riff and someone whispering the word ‘Steam’ like a drugged-up pervert in a sauna. The LP ends with a hazy electronic ballad and vocoder singing the word ‘Emotion’ again and again and again. Overall it’s wicked (there’s loads to DJ with) and still sounds like a punchy update of Kraftwerk but one day they are going to have to find some new tricks.
5 Out Of 5
Reviewed By: Tony Marcus
