Daft Punk - Human After All

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This will need its own thread.

Tracklist:
01. Human After All
02. The Prime Time Of Your Life
03. Robot Rock
04. Steam Machine
05. Make Love
06. The Brainwasher
07. On / Off
08. Television Rules The Nation
09. Technologic
10. Emotion

The first track has been leaked. Here's a link, but it won't be up for long.

― Matt Boch (Matt Boch), Friday, 7 January 2005 20:43 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.loveromp.com/dp-humanafterall.mp3

― Matt Boch (Matt Boch), Friday, 7 January 2005 20:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I can only hope these bullshit Franks cover "Something About You" by The Outfield.

It's not so hard
We're only human after all

Now there was a band.

― logged out, Friday, 7 January 2005 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

thanks matt! sorry i missed your show tuesday, hope it went well.

― Nick Sylvester, Friday, 7 January 2005 20:48 (twenty-one years ago)

It went peachy. Galapagos is a nice place.

― Matt Boch (Matt Boch), Friday, 7 January 2005 20:50 (twenty-one years ago)

and then 4 billion lurkers downloaded the same file all at the same time

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Friday, 7 January 2005 20:51 (twenty-one years ago)

sounds fake

― vahid (vahid), Friday, 7 January 2005 20:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey, cool, Daft Punk covered Rocker!

FAKE.

― Xii (Xii), Friday, 7 January 2005 20:54 (twenty-one years ago)

After the fake tracks for the last album, I trust nothing until I actually have a copy in my hands.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 7 January 2005 20:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I hope this is the new Daft Punk because it doesn't sound like what I was expecting from them and I like it.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 7 January 2005 20:55 (twenty-one years ago)

no it's alter ego's "rocker"

― vahid (vahid), Friday, 7 January 2005 20:55 (twenty-one years ago)

matt you bad person you

― vahid (vahid), Friday, 7 January 2005 20:56 (twenty-one years ago)

i like galapagos too. we tried to put up a hipster version of cats starring andy beta, but beta opted out in the end...

― Nick Sylvester, Friday, 7 January 2005 20:56 (twenty-one years ago)

haha "punk rocker" haha

― vahid (vahid), Friday, 7 January 2005 20:56 (twenty-one years ago)

(I mean, the awesomeness of releasing their most mechanistic, robotic track under the title "Human After All" can't be overstated.)

(xpost OH well, at least I've discovered Alter Ego!)

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 7 January 2005 20:56 (twenty-one years ago)

brilliant, boch

― Nick Sylvester, Friday, 7 January 2005 20:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Eeek. Sorry.

It was in an rar that I got off slsk. Never been duped there before. It's taken down all ready so no more damage can be done.

― Matt Boch (Matt Boch), Friday, 7 January 2005 20:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Feeling like a dick/duped in general.

also:

(xpost OH well, at least I've discovered Alter Ego!)

-- The Ghost of Dan Perry (djperr...), January 7th, 2005.

agreed.

― Matt Boch (Matt Boch), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd be intrigued to know the kind of person who would actually make fake Daft Punk music.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:11 (twenty-one years ago)

They like The Outfield. And they should.

― logged out, Friday, 7 January 2005 21:12 (twenty-one years ago)

the concept of fake files actually makes the pursuit slightly more fun i think

it gives me yet another opportunity to say, maybe i should just wait...

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:14 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost

Personally I've always wanted to make a fake album and release it, claiming it is a famous upcoming release, ever since Nick Sylvester was initially convinced that They Were Wrong So We Drowned was fake.

But, yeh, who mislabels songs on purpose?

― Matt Boch (Matt Boch), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:14 (twenty-one years ago)

ever since Nick Sylvester was initially convinced that They Were Wrong So We Drowned was fake.

wait, you mean it ISN'T fake?

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:15 (twenty-one years ago)

and look who's wrong and drowning now!

― Nick Sylvester, Friday, 7 January 2005 21:25 (twenty-one years ago)

nevermind

― Nick Sylvester, Friday, 7 January 2005 21:25 (twenty-one years ago)

hahaha. as i've said, yes there is pie on my face. pie pie pie. face.

also, i have scarlet fever and am somewhat delusional. I blame it all on that.

― Matt Boch (Matt Boch), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I can see the point of mislabelling in a case like this. Someone loves 'Rocker' and want to see get the attention that it would get if someone thought it was by a big name like Daft Punk.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:28 (twenty-one years ago)

terrible joke alert:

I was Daft Punk'd!

― Matt Boch (Matt Boch), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Aw, man. I thought this was gonna be a thread about disproving the theory that Daft Punk were robots.

― martin m. (mushrush), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Hands up who thinks this is going to be the best album ever!

I'm reading the record/song title as bittersweet.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:42 (twenty-one years ago)

you're setting yourself up for disappointment spencer

i am asusming the fred falke / alan braxe influence will reach fatal proportions on this recording. stevem's suggestion re: slap bass (on the other thread) sent chills up my spine.

― vahid (vahid), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:47 (twenty-one years ago)

My prediction? No matter how great it is, the ILX massive will largely hate on it, because we've already done Loving Daft Punk.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I will carry the torch through anything. Vahid, you're too pessimistic.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:51 (twenty-one years ago)

(I will admit if it's bad, but I doubt it will be, quite the opposite in fact)

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:52 (twenty-one years ago)

fake files to throw people off the scent for an upcoming major label album = classic

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:52 (twenty-one years ago)

If they're clearly fake, yes. Otherwise, they create confusion as to whether the act is any good at all. Like it or not, the downloading gets the buzz going. I was put off by those looped bits of the Junior Boys album...

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:54 (twenty-one years ago)

it's all going to sound like "vertigo", oh no

― vahid (vahid), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:54 (twenty-one years ago)

i like 6/10 of the song titles. i can't wait to hear what "steam machine" and "the brainwasher" are going to sound like.

― vahid (vahid), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:56 (twenty-one years ago)

hopefully the hook for steam machine will incorporate an orgasmic train whistle, and sound like the beefed-up main theme from "starlight express".

― vahid (vahid), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:57 (twenty-one years ago)

the brainwasher will be a mashup of "acid trax" and "clonk"

― vahid (vahid), Friday, 7 January 2005 22:00 (twenty-one years ago)

i heard 'rocker' by alter ego for the first time at a club last week and my girlfriend took a picture of me making a fairly disbelieving face. song destroys.

― Rollie Pemberton (Rollie Pemberton), Friday, 7 January 2005 23:42 (twenty-one years ago)

This thread makes me smile:

Alter Ego - RFI, C/D, S/D etc.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 7 January 2005 23:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Ah, Halcyon days...

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Saturday, 8 January 2005 00:03 (twenty-one years ago)

This duping episode is only helping to contribute to this thread reaching 3000 new posts in a couple months.

― major jingleberries (jingleberries), Saturday, 8 January 2005 00:19 (twenty-one years ago)

anyway the first single will not be "human after all" but "robot rock"

― --bruno, Saturday, 8 January 2005 00:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I never want to hear "Rocker" again, thank god the link was gone when I clicked it.

― Ronan (Ronan), Saturday, 8 January 2005 13:35 (twenty-one years ago)

i heard rocker 3 times an hour over new yrs weekend.
everywhere we went, rocker followed. is there a proper download link to the new single then?

― piscesboy, Saturday, 8 January 2005 13:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Do we have an actual release date for the album yet? I heard that it'll be in March but no specifics. Anyone?

― Nick H (Nick H), Saturday, 8 January 2005 22:54 (twenty-one years ago)

HMV has it listed for March 21st.

― Matt Boch (Matt Boch), Saturday, 8 January 2005 23:03 (twenty-one years ago)

yeh that's what the original press release said

― Stevem On X (blueski), Saturday, 8 January 2005 23:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Bring it on then. Ta.

― Nick H (Nick H), Sunday, 9 January 2005 23:14 (twenty-one years ago)

March 21, eh? I can get somebody to buy it for me then.

(Does anyone have the fear from seeing 'Make Love' among the song titles?)

― Barms, Monday, 10 January 2005 00:09 (twenty-one years ago)

they like to party

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 10 January 2005 00:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I wait patiently.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 10 January 2005 00:16 (twenty-one years ago)

The photo of DP in the over-50s sauna is like the extreme reverse of the 'Make Luv' Lynx ad.

x-p

― Captain GRRRios' Giggletits (Barima), Monday, 10 January 2005 00:16 (twenty-one years ago)

fake descriptions based on how i imagine/fantasize about how it will sound:

01. Human After All
almost orchestral intro with strings and fantastic attenuated major piano chords building up into a thunderous crescendo after a minute or two, chaotic 'noise' and fx threaten in the background briefly but the next four minutes are built around a kickdrum only every OTHER beat and only three per bar with a two-chord balearic pad in tandem, tinkling bells, different loops of crowd cheers, children laughing and Bangalter crooning 'we can start again, we're human after all' overdubbed enough so that it sounds like a choir of twenty but curiously unrobotic - HOW DID THEY DO IT? it sounds predictably sunny and almost harks back to 'Fresh' from the first album. an organ outro seals the deal and creates a bridge into...

02. The Prime Time Of Your Life
Prince's 'Dance Music Sex Romance' turbo-charged for c21, making for one great wah-wah funk dance track around the same tempo as 'Da Funk' but not as heavy - and no 303s...hopefully no-one will notice it's similiarity to lenny Kravitz's 'Super Soul Fighter' in addition at points either. halfway through a cheery vocoder starts bleating "P-R-I-M-E-T-I-M-E!" while jumbo jets swoosh overhead. possibly the pinnacle of people fun.

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 10 January 2005 00:34 (twenty-one years ago)

(saddest thing ever there)

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 10 January 2005 00:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I just don't want another USE album 's'all.

― Captain GRRRios' Giggletits (Barima), Monday, 10 January 2005 00:43 (twenty-one years ago)

keep going stevem!! you still have 8 more to go!

― geeta (geeta), Monday, 10 January 2005 00:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I just had a thought/hope that this album is completely acoustic, pretty almost country songs, but the vocals are completely vocodered/autotuned. (don't worry people, there would be remixes).

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 10 January 2005 01:50 (twenty-one years ago)

That would be swank. (Swanker if Air did it.)

― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Monday, 10 January 2005 02:00 (twenty-one years ago)

The only track on this I can even stomach is "Television Rules The Nation," and that's just cuz of the Henry Rollins cameo (can't believe he agreed to the vocoder). And even THAT track goes on a minute too long. What the fuck is wrong with you technoids? You can't actually dance to this. It SUCKS.

― miccio (miccio), Monday, 10 January 2005 02:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Stevem's off the hook cuz he admits he's a progboy.

― miccio (miccio), Monday, 10 January 2005 02:48 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm just following my LEADERS

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 10 January 2005 09:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Miccio is just jealous because Fred dances worse. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 10 January 2005 13:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I WANT TO HEAR THIS. I am hoping against hope that it will be as fantastic as I want it to be, but I've been disappointed by a lot of things lately.

― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Monday, 10 January 2005 14:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, what do you know: Simon Reynolds agrees with me.

― miccio (miccio), Monday, 10 January 2005 16:17 (twenty-one years ago)

ihttp://www.jeffgoode.com/img/spiderman_dance.htm

Peter Parker disagrees!

― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Monday, 10 January 2005 16:22 (twenty-one years ago)

A friend of mine got to hear the whole thing at the big record company's Stockholm office today. Apparently it's all "weird noise, techno with heavy metal guitars and really good 70's disco".

'Robot Rock' is the first single, to be followed by 'Technoid', which my friend claims is one of the best, most catchy, things they've ever done.

― Kornél Kovács (Kornél Kovács), Monday, 10 January 2005 23:43 (twenty-one years ago)

yay.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 10 January 2005 23:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I was about to say, no problem with that description!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 10 January 2005 23:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I love it when bands go heavy metal for their difficult third album.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 10 January 2005 23:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I am happily imagining lots of heavily gated guitars.

― Matt Boch (Matt Boch), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 00:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Is that like a gated community?

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 00:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Gotta keep your riffs safe from them nasty coloured folk.

― Captain GRRRios' Giggletits (Barima), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 00:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Is that like a gated community?

The simmilarities are boundless.

here is an explanitory link about gating, in case you're interested.
http://www.dancetech.com/aa_dt_new/articles/item.cfm?threadid=102&lang=0

― Matt Boch (Matt Boch), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 00:57 (twenty-one years ago)

a little sceptical Kornel, no such track as 'Technoid' quoted - did you mean 'Technologic'?

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 01:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Apparently it's all "weird noise, techno with heavy metal guitars and really good 70's disco".

Not like I was expecting anything a hell of a lot different than that general idea, but YAY!

― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 02:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah I meant "Technologic", sorry about that.

― Kornél Kovács (Kornél Kovács), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 02:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Under the influence of miccio, thou wert.

― Captain GRRRios' Giggletits (Barima), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

woah! u mean people have HEARD it? who on here has? and how?

― piscesboy, Wednesday, 12 January 2005 13:05 (twenty-one years ago)

haven't heard it yet, but there's a playback of it in london tonight

― Chris Houghton (chrish), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 13:20 (twenty-one years ago)

i wonder when Tong will play 'Robot Rock' as the essential new tune, by the end of the month?

― Stevem On X (blueski), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 13:37 (twenty-one years ago)

according to chart singles.net a Basement Jaxx singles compilation is being released on the same day as Human After All!

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 13 January 2005 13:08 (twenty-one years ago)

march 21 is officially ilm day!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 13 January 2005 16:01 (twenty-one years ago)

march 21 is officially ilm day!

http://www.ezthemes.com/previews/g/grumpybearxmas.jpg

(actually I'm all for a Jaxx singles comp)

― miccio (miccio), Thursday, 13 January 2005 16:20 (twenty-one years ago)

There should be kittens and robots in that picture as well.

― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Thursday, 13 January 2005 16:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I wonder if they'll include any pre-Remedy singles.

― Jedmond (Jedmond), Thursday, 13 January 2005 16:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Flylife surely? altho they prob wouldn't put that as first track ahead of Red Alert etc.

― pete b. (pete b.), Thursday, 13 January 2005 16:45 (twenty-one years ago)

A singles comp after three albums normally seems strange to me...but this being Basement Jaxx it'll be pretty damned brilliant. March IS a fine month indeed!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 13 January 2005 16:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Hopefully Basement Jaxx will provide some bonus tracks (a cover of My Perogative).

― Jedmond (Jedmond), Thursday, 13 January 2005 16:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Stranger has occurred.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 13 January 2005 17:00 (twenty-one years ago)

found this on soulseek labelled as "Daft Punk - Human After All (Avanced Promo) World Exclusive By Sqm.mp3"

i am v. skeptical. can anyone identify?

http://s7.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=36375MWCC1QSN0CQZOPUKDXWHH

― mark p (Mark P), Sunday, 16 January 2005 20:56 (twenty-one years ago)

good track though!

― mark p (Mark P), Sunday, 16 January 2005 20:58 (twenty-one years ago)

skepticism is right. this isn't DP

― nick.K (nick.K), Sunday, 16 January 2005 21:04 (twenty-one years ago)

ah, but WHO is it

― mark p (Mark P), Sunday, 16 January 2005 21:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Holy shit, Alter Ego have released new material??! This makes me much happier than a new Daft Punk album! "Decoding the Hacker Myth" is, despite the stupid title, one of my favourite LPs of the nineties.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 16 January 2005 21:55 (twenty-one years ago)

"Rocker" by Alter Ego was probably the most played record of 2004, in clubs.

― Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 16 January 2005 21:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Have they gone all clubby then? The last time I heard of them they were making contemplative electro-trance...

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 16 January 2005 21:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes it's like a rock song done entirely electronically. I was not a total convert but it was absolutely everywhere in 04. For a time it was good!

― Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 16 January 2005 22:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I have to give it a listen once I get somewhere I can download that track. I never would've imagined they'd make a comeback, it's been, what, eight years since their last LP?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 16 January 2005 22:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I think they've always been around, though I'm not certain.

― Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 16 January 2005 22:05 (twenty-one years ago)

According to AMG, between 1996 and 2004 they've released a couple of singles and an EP, but nothing else. Didn't they have some alter egos (hahaha) though, maybe they were hiding behind them?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 16 January 2005 22:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I think the problem with "Rocker" is partly the way that people react to it... the sudden switches in the track, and the way that everyone waits for the synth hook, makes it feel a bit like a singalong rock song where the audience knows the chorus and gears themselves up for it (think "Why Does It Always Rain On Me"). Which is not to say that other big dance tracks don't do this too, but the progression feels less organic in "Rocker" (perhaps owing to its rock song structure). People don't seem interested in dancing to the groove so much as demonstrating their awareness of the track and enjoyment of it - it's one of those hands-in-the-air anthems where you put yr hands in the air partly because it seems like "the thing to do".

The distinction with eg. "Drop The Pressure" is that because everything is anchored on that looped bouncy synth hook the whole thing feels more unified, and like the audience is enjoying it as a dance track.

I still like "Rocker" BTW, but I think it's particularly susceptible to becoming irritating through over-familiarity for those reasons.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 16 January 2005 22:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Who is that yousendit track by?

― Alba (Alba), Sunday, 16 January 2005 23:26 (twenty-one years ago)

sounds like galleon

― :| (....), Sunday, 16 January 2005 23:41 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.man-and-man.com/lre/daft_robot_rock.MPG

― injektilo*, Sunday, 16 January 2005 23:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Gosh.

― Alba (Alba), Sunday, 16 January 2005 23:57 (twenty-one years ago)

That is such a funny way to hear a new tune!

― JoB (JoB), Monday, 17 January 2005 00:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh jeez, they've become such U.S.E. wannabes...

*dodges rocks*

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 17 January 2005 00:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah! Droney like "Fresh", funky like Discovery. I like.

― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Monday, 17 January 2005 02:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh jeez, they've become such U.S.E. wannabes...

i realize i'm in the minority here, but i really hope this isn't true.

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 17 January 2005 02:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Pretty cool tune. It would be great if Daft Punk toured w/Justus Kohncke, and I had to kneel in submission to a plastic dance-rock revolution. That probably won't happen, but it's fun to think about.

― Dominique (dleone), Monday, 17 January 2005 02:29 (twenty-one years ago)

if this track sounds this good from a distance-mike recording of a PA, it's going to sound amazing on CD.

― vahid (vahid), Monday, 17 January 2005 02:38 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm with ya mark

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 17 January 2005 03:49 (twenty-one years ago)

haha i KNEW i'd heard that guitar sample from the new daft punk track somewhere. check murs & 9th wonder's "intro"!

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 17 January 2005 04:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Ooh this song is awesome. I don't hear any USE-ness really.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Monday, 17 January 2005 06:21 (twenty-one years ago)

(um guys, I was being facetious)

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 17 January 2005 06:22 (twenty-one years ago)

yes but your joke made us THINK!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 17 January 2005 06:35 (twenty-one years ago)

think awful things.

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 17 January 2005 06:38 (twenty-one years ago)

united hate of funtronica

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 17 January 2005 06:50 (twenty-one years ago)

what the...

Is that an mpg from a club or something? i am so not understanding...

― piscesboy, Monday, 17 January 2005 12:05 (twenty-one years ago)

yeh it's from a club where someone had a promo i guess. it's a little frustrating (that it doesn't do more) but still infectious (in what it does do, and clearly works best LOUD).

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 17 January 2005 12:33 (twenty-one years ago)

i KNEW i'd heard that guitar sample from the new daft punk track somewhere. check murs & 9th wonder's "intro"!

Good call! Any idea what the source sample is?

― JoB (JoB), Monday, 17 January 2005 13:48 (twenty-one years ago)

May as well be Ulysses 31 - GOOD THING. Sorta Ulysses/Cornelius - 'Drop' + 'Another View Point'/Discovery. That shit is absolutely fantastic and hearing that makes me actually anticipate my b-day.

― March 21 is B4RIM4 DAY, FOOLS (Barima), Monday, 17 January 2005 15:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm in an immense pickle over whether to totally save it until it comes out (probably more satisfying in the long run), or cling onto every new little bit of whatever that's leaked (bit of instant grat)!

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Monday, 17 January 2005 15:53 (twenty-one years ago)

what's 'U.S.E.'

― nick.K (nick.K), Monday, 17 January 2005 16:15 (twenty-one years ago)

"united states of electronica"

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 17 January 2005 16:15 (twenty-one years ago)

oooh. it sounds (maybe it's the mic and the crowd noise) like it should be the imagined futuristic dance music from the club scene in "Space Mutiny" starring John Phillip Law and, uh, Reb Brown. yes!

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Monday, 17 January 2005 16:23 (twenty-one years ago)

is that really them?

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 17 January 2005 18:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I am going to listen again, cos on first listen that sounded fairly boring.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 17 January 2005 19:10 (twenty-one years ago)

and I really really have faith for this album as being the one that keeps the youth part of me which liked album-dance alive.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 17 January 2005 19:12 (twenty-one years ago)

it sounds like Daft Punk doing a cover version of Rage Against The Machine. fucking shit!

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 17 January 2005 19:15 (twenty-one years ago)

this is tragic, I am trying so hard to like it

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 17 January 2005 19:16 (twenty-one years ago)

maybe it's not them! don't panic yet!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 17 January 2005 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I hope it's not them! But it sounds like them enough to be them!

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 17 January 2005 19:21 (twenty-one years ago)

GUITARS.. OMG!

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean, did the total guitar-cum-synth wank solos on "Aerodynamic" and "Digital Love" just pass over you? Or are you just not into rhythm guitar stabs?

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:14 (twenty-one years ago)

thousands of dance records have guitars in them. there is nothing to this except the guitar, it actually does sound like WWF intro music.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:16 (twenty-one years ago)

And the problem here is....?

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:18 (twenty-one years ago)

(i really like the track, and want to acquire this.. whether it's Daft Punk or not.)

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I am willing to wait to hear a proper version cos I would expect the drums to be a bit more interesting in that.

This sounds like something off that fucking Prodigy album. The only saving grace is a distant reminder and faraway scent of Daft Punk on the breeze.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:20 (twenty-one years ago)

And the problem here is...?

THAT WE DON'T HAVE THE TRUE GUITARIST OF OUR TIME ON THIS ALBUM

http://www.marcweb.de/yngwie.jpg

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, the track is supposedly called "Robot Rock".

I'm just mystified by the horror here, that's all. (haha, "Rage Against The Machine" cover? anything with lots of guitar = RATM I guess.)

And yeah, those two Discovery singles sounded like they had emulated Yngwie solos, totally!

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Donut this is stupid, I just told you the guitars thing is not a problem, not least cos as I said there are guitars on loads of dance tracks.

And I have heard Rage Against The Machine, many songs, like most young people probably have. The tempo and the way the guitar is looped over an almost hiphop beat sounds so like RATM! I was rooting around my brain for "what does this sound like" and I first thought "WWF music" then "Rage Against The Machine".

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:27 (twenty-one years ago)

also, clearly you know I do like "Aerodynamic" and "Digital Love", so am I supposed to be pretending not to like this even though in actual scientific fact it is as good?

It's a fucking loop! It's only barely electronic in the dance sense, it's got no pop sensibility and it's too calm to be techno.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:29 (twenty-one years ago)

and as I said, it actually mentally fucking hurts me to have to write this and I keep thinking "oh let me just listen again", but this track is shit! I think alot of ILMers will agree too.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:30 (twenty-one years ago)

It's the "WWF Music" = "RATM" thing I disagree with.. RATM without the vocals would sound like a gazillion other rock bands. I was confused by your comparison because I was like "there's not shouting about Communist guerilla groups getting the power back here", which to me defines RATM far more than their guitar sound. Also, this is too choppy for RATM, even sans vocals. Usually there's a continuity to RATM's rock, where this just stabs a lot.. more like Prodigy, granted. I was mainly questioning the RATM mention, mainly.

You guys do know that the new Daft Punk features two songs with Dennis DeYoung on vocals, right?

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:31 (twenty-one years ago)

It's a fucking loop! It's only barely electronic in the dance sense, it's got no pop sensibility and it's too calm to be techno.

Except for the 'too calm' part, that describes a good chunk of Homework and many songs after the first four on Discovery, like "Crescendolls" and others. Are you a fan of Daft Punk albums, or just the singles, then?

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I heard the album the other day at the record company. That is definitely the real Robot Rock.
As for the rest of the album think very basic production and drum programming, lots of Tone Loc-guitars, lots of monotony and lots of vocoders. Theoretically it is great: when the whole world is on this Daft Punk revival trip with stuff like "Drop The Pressure", "Call On Me" and "Yeah" they make their least "pop", least accessible, least "disco" record yet (although one of those rock guitars is similar to Donna Summers "Hot Stuff"). And theory is what really matters, riiiight?
Last track "Emotion" is pretty, you could sing Maria McKees "Show Me Heaven" to it.

― Essdot, Monday, 17 January 2005 20:35 (twenty-one years ago)

So, Daft Punk are now the 200X edition of Two Men, A Drum Machine, And A Trumpet!!

"I'm tired of gettin' pushed around..... *GUITAR STAB*"

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I love both albums, but that description does not in my opinion describe anything on Discovery, and not much on Homework either cos of the "too calm" part.

Discovery is pop through and through. This is middlebrow Prodigy style bad dance/hiphop.

And this is the single, jesus this is the band who did "One More Time", "Digital Love", Bangalter did "Music Sounds Better With You". There is NO EMOTIONAL CONTENT WHATSOEVER in Robot Rock and no physical connection either.

I just feel bad, cos I am sure 90 percent of the Discovery fans are gonna be gutted when they hear this track, I really hope the album is better.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Ess is some of it actually far out or weird?

Cos to me "Robot Rock" is extremely accessible, just boring.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Brilliant! I wonder if Simon Harris, Pascal Gabriel, Ivan Ivan, Shep Pettibone or Age Of Chance are going to be around to do remixes for the singles.

well, i wouldn't expect anything "EMOTIONAL" from a song called "Robot Rock" necessarily, but no physical connection? Please. I was nodding my head even to this camcorder bootleg video of the song.. I'm sure a good remix here and there would make this roolz the skoolz (as long as it doesn't follow in the tradition of the quality of remixers they had recently.)

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:42 (twenty-one years ago)

it's just slow bad hiphop, they did the exact same thing a thousand times better with "Da Funk"

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Discovery is pop through and through.

It was for the first four songs. Not the entire album though, by ANY means.

This is middlebrow Prodigy style bad dance/hiphop.

I'm not going to comment on this... where to start.

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, ok then, Discovery is disco through and through.

Comment away, but Daft Punk doing a "serious" record is waking up from the dream as far as I'm concerned.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Ronan, have to say I think your damnation is premature!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not claiming the new Daft Punk is going to be their best album by any means.. it could be their worst by a country mile.. or it could blow the previous two away. We are, so far, basing this on a bootleg of one song here so far... let's be fair and not overreact just yet.

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I hope you're right Spencer! But it's been a long wait and this song is very disappointing. To me it feels like the kind of single that all the people who thought Discovery was ironic or too pop will absolutely love.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't even really hear what the bassline is doing in that clip.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Although, if "Robot Rock" is a sign of what the rest of the album is going to be like, they might actually have a chance to break big-time in the U.S. moreso than ever before.. haha. (*the sound of the rest of the world puking*)

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Comment away, but Daft Punk doing a "serious" record is waking up from the dream as far as I'm concerned.

I guess you didn't think much of Homework then? I like the first album, but it does sound more like it fits the more "serious" traditional electronic/house/techno album niche moreso than Discovery.

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:51 (twenty-one years ago)

O ye of little faith!!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:52 (twenty-one years ago)

based on that sample, i am inclined to agree with ronan here. my one saving grace is the hope that there's all sorts of stuff happening above and below the guitar sample in the mix that a shitty digital camera couldn't hope to pick up.

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 17 January 2005 20:56 (twenty-one years ago)

that's a given!! considering we're hearing it OFF A CAMERA that song sounds amazing. also i'm not forgetting that the first track released from "homework" was not "da funk" or "around the world" but "alive".

― vahid (vahid), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:01 (twenty-one years ago)

At this point, I'm more excited as to how the Daft Punk logo will look on the new album cover front...

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:02 (twenty-one years ago)

No I like Homework alot.

I was thinking about this just now, as Mark said, if there was a decent drum beat and other stuff maybe this could be good, dance music production is a subtle thing, god knows, but I am not feeling that sample anyway.

magnify the bass drum to the point where it really sounds like getting smacked in the face and maybe the record would begin to sound kind of "wacky", in a good way.

yes of course we have to wait but for now let's ARGUE ABOUT THE SAMPLE WE HAVE.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:04 (twenty-one years ago)

if human after all = discoverys textures (nasal guitars, vocoders) + homeworks structure (ultra repetitive, BASS (which robot rock mihgt have in spades, as noted above)) then its just fine by me.

― :| (....), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:04 (twenty-one years ago)

anyway you can't expect a "windowlicker" every time.

― vahid (vahid), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:08 (twenty-one years ago)

who wants a "windowlicker"!

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:08 (twenty-one years ago)

"harder, better, faster, stronger"?

― vahid (vahid), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:10 (twenty-one years ago)

look i was inclined to agree with you that this song is disappointing, but on the other hand i just watched that clip like five times in a row.

― vahid (vahid), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:13 (twenty-one years ago)

i think the thing i dislike most about it is how clunky it feels, especially those fat guitar chord fragments between refrains. daft punk normally make such nimble tunes - this seems almost below them.

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey, I just got an advanced look at the album art for Human After All!

http://www.mackron.com/random/daftpunk_humanafterall.jpg

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I watched it about ten times in a row. I might watch it again soon. I want to believe!

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Ronan, you're killing yourself. :) Cast away your all too human curiosity and join us at the Church of The Pure Daft Punk Experience. No sneak-a-peaks allowed. We wait till March 21st for the Total Experience with an empty mind and we wear cool robot helmets too.

― Omar (Omar), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:21 (twenty-one years ago)

haha!

I am listening to the Black Strobe E-mix now, very calming.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:22 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost
I hope that they wear human masks this time!!!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:22 (twenty-one years ago)

OVER the robot masks!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:26 (twenty-one years ago)

ooooooooooooooh.

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:29 (twenty-one years ago)

01. Human After All
02. The Prime Time Of Your Life
03. Robot Rock
04. Steam Machine
05. Make Love
06. The Brainwasher
07. On / Off
08. Television Rules The Nation
09. Technologic
10. Emotion

This tracklisting does kinda look like Blue Oyster Cult song titles.. kinda?

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Ooooooh, how amazing would it be if they covered "Don't Fear the Reaper"????!!!! MORE 808 COWBELL!!!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:34 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah this clip is fucking awful.

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:37 (twenty-one years ago)

i watched the clip several times as well, as i said upthread, it's infectious despite the monotony and apparent lack of imagination in it. one thing that struck me instantly was the funky riff, i'm not sure what it is but it sounds so FRESH. they may have spent six weeks recording it but something about that sound makes me think it could've taken eight years to ferment and tweak...i figure the album is half about song and half about sound, again occupying a platform between the two previous proper albums.

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:41 (twenty-one years ago)

problem is, murs' "intro" uses the exact same sample.

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:42 (twenty-one years ago)

how is that a problem??

― vahid (vahid), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:46 (twenty-one years ago)

that'll teach you to stay off the murs.

― vahid (vahid), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:46 (twenty-one years ago)

?????

Just because Renegade Soundwave sampled that Mandrill lick on "Blue Eyed Boy" from Soundclash years before Public Enemy based "By The Time I Get To Arizona" on it on Apocalypse 91.., doesn't make me like the PE song any less!

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:48 (twenty-one years ago)

all i meant was that it's hard to pretend they spent eons tweaking the sound when the same sample was used elsewhere. that's all.

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:49 (twenty-one years ago)

advance word from a friend: "on/off is ace. best best. makes me cry. more emotional than one more time."

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:50 (twenty-one years ago)

It's hard for me to pretend that length in recording has anything to do with the quality of a song, in general. Maybe "Robot Rock" was done in 7 minutes. Does it make a difference either way?

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:51 (twenty-one years ago)

no!

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 17 January 2005 21:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Ronan: "Ess is some of it actually far out or weird?"

(spoiler alert, obv)

"The Prime Time Of Your Life" has these shaffel-y drums that sort of sneak up on you, until the tempo starts increasing to the point where some crazy dutch gabber would feel like DJ Screw in comparison.
"Steam Machine" is not much more than a distorted voice whispering "steam machine" like it was a chorus out of that Primal Scream-Xterminator-cd. And it sounds like a steam machine.
"Make Love" is an instrumental, sort of a cousin to "La Ritournelle" by Seb Tellier, you'd imagine Bryan Ferry singing over it.
"Brainwasher" has a robot voice saying "i am the brain washer" over a very mechanical riff. The voice gets very stretched out and fucked with like in some forgotten jungle 12" from 93. "On/Off" is just a skit, some noisy channel surfing which I guess fits in to the TV theme for the supposed album cover (which I haven't seen but heard about).
If the first album was Dr Dre and the second was ELO then this one is Huey Lewis (in a crazy loop stuck inside of P Batemans head).

― Essdot, Monday, 17 January 2005 22:07 (twenty-one years ago)

If the first album was Dr Dre and the second was ELO then this one is Huey Lewis

Spoiled indeed.

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 17 January 2005 22:11 (twenty-one years ago)

"La Ritournelle" is one of my favorite tracks from last year. The video is very odd (Tellier is in general, but in a great way).

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 17 January 2005 22:22 (twenty-one years ago)

saying huey lewis keeps away the riff raff.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Monday, 17 January 2005 22:26 (twenty-one years ago)

i am loving this:

advance word from a friend: "on/off is ace. best best. makes me cry. more emotional than one more time."

-- mark p (mark.p****...), January 17th, 2005 4:50 PM. (Mark P)

vs this:

"On/Off" is just a skit, some noisy channel surfing which I guess fits in to the TV theme for the supposed album cover (which I haven't seen but heard about).

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

ba dum bum ba ba i'm loving it.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

haha yeah i was wondering about that too. my source is a good friend, and he specifically said it was track seven, "on/off", that got him all wobbly in the knees, so i dunno...

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 02:22 (twenty-one years ago)

i'd chalk it up to bad knees.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 02:23 (twenty-one years ago)

holy shit. you guys we not kidding about THE GUITARS.

Thanks for sharing. I'm not sure what I think yet, but this has certainly got my attention.

When will the whole thing leak?

― ben welsh (benwelsh), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 03:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I found this on the bluebird...it appears to be the opening 2:45 of some song (its not the same on on the camcorder video, is it?)

Daft Punk - Human After All (Sample)

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 05:42 (twenty-one years ago)

well, whatever that sample was.. it threatened to build and threatened and threatened and threatened and then just... fizzled out.

worst
tease
ever

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 06:06 (twenty-one years ago)

It would be really funny if all these elements in the hype campaign.. "robot rock", this sample, the Ess character here, and all were just making all this shit up, and then we got the real deal.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 06:07 (twenty-one years ago)

i wasn't talking about the guitar sample here btw

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 09:54 (twenty-one years ago)

djdee2005: different track, i'm sure that TB sample Steve Winwood YET AGAIN tho

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 10:01 (twenty-one years ago)

WOULDN'T sample i mean

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 10:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Soulwax has remixed "Robot Rock", according to my friend Kevin, who knows these things.

― JoB (JoB), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 12:51 (twenty-one years ago)

not listening to leakey things, decided

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 14:42 (twenty-one years ago)

im wondering if i could hold out for two months. it'd be an interesting experiment, i guess.

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 14:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, I waited for A Grand Don't Come For Free, and the excitement built up to such a pitch that when I finally got the record I could barely hear it, if that makes any sense.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 14:52 (twenty-one years ago)

http://rapidshare.de/files-de/39755 5/Daft_Punk_-_Robot_Rock__Yes_Real_ .mp3.html

Really really real?

― JakeWithBrain!, Thursday, 20 January 2005 20:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh robot Christ, these two months are going to take forever. (wonder if we're going to beat that Dave Matthews thread though. :)

― Omar (Omar), Thursday, 20 January 2005 20:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Broken link

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 20 January 2005 21:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Jake: really really real!

Has anybody figured out what the sample is?

― Essdot, Thursday, 20 January 2005 21:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Would anyone like to reassemble that into a working link for me?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 20 January 2005 21:13 (twenty-one years ago)

the file is now gone. jake, do you mind yousending it please?

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 20 January 2005 21:25 (twenty-one years ago)

What kind of limit is 46???

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 20 January 2005 21:25 (twenty-one years ago)

http://rapidshare.de/files-de/397555/Daft_Punk_-_Robot_Rock__Yes_Real_.mp3.html

You have to wait a few seconds for it to download - that's what the 46 is. I still can't decide if I like the song...

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Thursday, 20 January 2005 21:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually I remember having similar thoughts about "Aerodynamic" when I first heard it. Just too simple. But now I really love that song so we will see.

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Thursday, 20 January 2005 21:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Me neither. Is the quality (rather) bad or is it just my speakers?

― JakeWithBrain!, Thursday, 20 January 2005 21:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Quality sounded fine to me but I can't listen to it that loudly at the moment.

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Thursday, 20 January 2005 21:35 (twenty-one years ago)

is it just me or does this song suck ass?

― wercheki, Thursday, 20 January 2005 21:38 (twenty-one years ago)

it's a little samey, innit.

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 20 January 2005 21:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Quality is not all there. A good track, but nothing mind-blowing.

Also, a lot of there records are a little "samey".

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 20 January 2005 21:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Quality of the mp3 is poor I should say. (apart from track quality)

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 20 January 2005 21:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually, I just found myself dancing in my chair.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 20 January 2005 21:46 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't mean samey as in repetitive, spencer, i just mean they don't seem to *do* much with the refrain over the course of the song, do they? give me some filter sweeps, some volume pans, something!

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 20 January 2005 21:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Ah, right, but I do like how the "robot rock" vocal starts to meld with the "guitar".

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 20 January 2005 21:50 (twenty-one years ago)

haha there's a vocal?! fuck office speakers!!

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 20 January 2005 21:51 (twenty-one years ago)

this would be ok as a filler track. there are vocals?

― bnw (bnw), Thursday, 20 January 2005 21:53 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't know if it's me or my computer or the link or what, but i still can't get it to d/l... anyone else using safari have a problem?

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Thursday, 20 January 2005 21:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha, yeah, I think this track will definitely sound better at full CD quality.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 20 January 2005 21:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahaha I was confused for similar reasons mark p!

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Thursday, 20 January 2005 21:58 (twenty-one years ago)

OMG, I think I love this.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 20 January 2005 22:02 (twenty-one years ago)

can't download, I think.

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 20 January 2005 22:05 (twenty-one years ago)

spencer otm, it's growing on me exponentially too. i wish i was at home so i could blare it.

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 20 January 2005 22:08 (twenty-one years ago)

yes. download help please. or email? please thanks yes. great.

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Thursday, 20 January 2005 22:08 (twenty-one years ago)

just click the link and wait for about 46 seconds.

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 20 January 2005 22:09 (twenty-one years ago)

it isn't always that simple, I think, but I got it.

I can e-mail it. where to?

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 20 January 2005 22:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I understand Ronan's concern about this being a Prodigy regurge, but really, it's MUCH MORE than that. I f*cking love it. One thing to note is how well an unknown track seemed to go down at that party video above.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 20 January 2005 22:11 (twenty-one years ago)

i would love it if you emailed it to the address i have here... i clicked the link and waited 2 minutes 3 times and nothing happened...

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Thursday, 20 January 2005 22:20 (twenty-one years ago)

here you go dudes:

http://s24.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2MGRO4UNT95MX10KR4FBUAH6ZF

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 20 January 2005 22:24 (twenty-one years ago)

thank you ever so much!

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Thursday, 20 January 2005 22:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Is that still 128 kbps?

― JoB (JoB), Thursday, 20 January 2005 22:27 (twenty-one years ago)

aye.

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 20 January 2005 22:27 (twenty-one years ago)

mark rules

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 20 January 2005 22:27 (twenty-one years ago)

sounds good if it did not immediately grab me!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 20 January 2005 22:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Rock!
Robot Rock!

― Magic City (ano ano), Thursday, 20 January 2005 22:47 (twenty-one years ago)

shit this song is going to be awesome REALLY loud in a good quality rip.

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Or, you know, a proper 12"...

― JoB (JoB), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:20 (twenty-one years ago)

it's them fer-sure

― nick.K (nick.K), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Like, totally.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Still not feelin' it, dawgs.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:30 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.ishkur.com/Daft_Punk_-_Robot_Rock.mp3

This is so fucking good!

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:35 (twenty-one years ago)

this is the first 4 bars of Breakwater's "release the beast" repeted about 20 times. Totally pathetic.

― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Pathetically awesome!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:42 (twenty-one years ago)

DOOT! dooo do dododododo!
DOOT! dooo do dododododo!
DOOT! dooo do dododododo!
DOOT!! DOOT!!! DOOT!!! dodododododo....

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:47 (twenty-one years ago)

ok this is good! drum fills! jesus this is so much better than the shitty mpeg.

it's like the old Scott Grooves remix, total psychosis

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:48 (twenty-one years ago)

ittp://humanafterall.free.fr/images/cover_robotrock.jpg

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:48 (twenty-one years ago)

oops:

http://humanafterall.free.fr/images/cover_robotrock.jpg

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:49 (twenty-one years ago)

hopefully finishing the album will free up time for mr. de homem-christo to bombard us with le knight club 12s.

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:50 (twenty-one years ago)

i wonder if they listen to RATATAT??

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:50 (twenty-one years ago)

HERETIC DIE DIE DIE

― donut christ (donut), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:51 (twenty-one years ago)

(that was actually an Emo Philips quote meant as a joke.. but still.. the idea of Daft Punk emulating those 'tards... sigh)

― donut christ (donut), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:52 (twenty-one years ago)

ts: gallic dance guitars vs gallo-alike NY tards

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Sounds pretty good to me! And rather better than RATATAT. ;-)

Sorta reminds of an ECC track gone full-on dance instead of being art-project.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahahaha I love this. I've just heard it 5 times in a row!

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:57 (twenty-one years ago)

well, "Robot Rock" doesn't have that vapid proggy feel that all those Ratatat songs seemed to have.. live at least. And I'd assume Daft Punk doesn't hit blinding floor lights 10 times a song and do "rock out faces" live.

― donut christ (donut), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Of course they don't do rock out faces, they're ROBOTS!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:58 (twenty-one years ago)

lol

and xpost
lol

ratatat are so lame.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:59 (twenty-one years ago)

hahaha i didn't like RATATAT until i saw them on that tour!

but seriously the parisian underground is sort of dominated right now by, um, let's call it the "gooom disques" sound, and i know ratatat is really popular with that crowd, and daft punk aren't auteurs working in a vacuum, and so...

― vahid (vahid), Friday, 21 January 2005 00:00 (twenty-one years ago)

i guess compared to "aerodynamic" this is a step away from that sound ... hey, i'll bet RATATAT are into daft punk!!

― vahid (vahid), Friday, 21 January 2005 00:02 (twenty-one years ago)

There is absolutely nothing about "Robot Rock" that reminds me of Ratatat, now RATT is another story!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 21 January 2005 00:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't stop playing this song! ROCK! ROBOT ROCK!!! Aargh!

― JoB (JoB), Friday, 21 January 2005 00:45 (twenty-one years ago)

After one listen I was humming it to myself all the way back home on the bus. A GOOD SIGN.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 January 2005 00:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Doing the lead single as something similarly inclined to "One More Time" would have been a wrong move, I think. This is more, how you say if you are 808 State, inyerface.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 January 2005 00:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah it's great but I definitely think its been chosen as an unexpected lead-in to the album. It sounds like a number 3 track (not a bad thing - "Digital Love" is a number 3 track!). Much more continuity with the Discovery sound than I was expecting; I don't think any of us would have batted an eyelid had it been on that album (again, not a bad thing!).

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 21 January 2005 00:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Some sort of official preview:

http://humanafterall.free.fr/videos/dp.mp4

(no music though)

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 21 January 2005 01:03 (twenty-one years ago)

(play with Quicktime)

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 21 January 2005 01:03 (twenty-one years ago)

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B0007DAZW8.08.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 21 January 2005 01:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Someone make the CafePress shirts. (Alternately, put an ILXor.com in there in that font.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 January 2005 01:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm quite upset they didn't go for my front cover draft above. I thought mine was far more passionate and cut to the bone regarding the album title.

― donut christ (donut), Friday, 21 January 2005 01:10 (twenty-one years ago)

YOU THINK YOU ARE SO ROCK. I unleash the fury fucking on thee. Maybe.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 January 2005 01:12 (twenty-one years ago)

"ROCK"

*squelchy synth funk*

"I'M
SO
ROCK"

*squelchy synth funk excelsior*

― donut christ (donut), Friday, 21 January 2005 01:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Brian, yesterday:

http://www.dailyvault.com/queen_news.jpg

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 January 2005 01:15 (twenty-one years ago)

the cover of the single is nice

― Magic City (ano ano), Friday, 21 January 2005 01:22 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm going to place this 'robot rock' at my grandmothers funeral.

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Friday, 21 January 2005 01:27 (twenty-one years ago)

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B0007DAZW8.08.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
http://www.annrich.com/rich/acdc/blow_up_your_video.jpg

― donut christ (donut), Friday, 21 January 2005 01:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Needs one of those covers that changes depening on which angle you look at it, so that when you tilt it the two robots burst through the screen like Angus is doing.

― haitch™ (haitch), Friday, 21 January 2005 02:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Lenticular images, they're called. Good point. Personally I'd settle for Angus himself bursting through the Daft Punk logo.

So long as that nasty staticky hiss isn't present on the actual CD, "Robot Rock" is pretty damn promising...

― telephonething, Friday, 21 January 2005 07:39 (twenty-one years ago)

love the handclaps

― adam west (adamwest), Friday, 21 January 2005 08:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Argh I'm not going to be able to listen to this for another EIGHT HOURS!

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 21 January 2005 09:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Still sounds good right now! Best heavy metal single of the year so far.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 January 2005 15:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I knew they wouldn't let me down.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 21 January 2005 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually this is fucking awesome. Best 'dance act go rock' tune I've heard since Orbital's Satan. In fact its better than that.

The Prodigy circa 1997 were never this good. I think what stands this above all other similar tracks is that when most other dance acts bring in the guitars they try and rock out but fundamentally miss the point of rock. Daft Punk hit the nail right on the head. One big stupid insanely catchy riff and everything else takes care of itself.

If people don't go mental when this follows AC/DC tonight then I have lost all faith in our youth.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 21 January 2005 19:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't wait to dance to this in a club. I almost took my CD-R out of my car to give to a DJ last night, but I got sidetracked.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 21 January 2005 19:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I predict Stevem's brian exploding as 17,000 mashup ideas all pop into his head at once.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 21 January 2005 19:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't wait to dance to this in a club. I almost took my CD-R out of my car to give to a DJ last night, but I got sidetracked.

-- Spencer Chow (spencercho...), January 21st, 2005.

It was my DJ pal's birthday yesterday, he was SUPER crushed that I didn't have any blank CDs to burn it. He'll get his tonight, no doubt.

― Rollie Pemberton (Rollie Pemberton), Friday, 21 January 2005 20:48 (twenty-one years ago)

i wish i had this in my pocket last night when i went out to a friends club SO BAD IT STINGS.

― glenny g2003 (glenny g2003), Friday, 21 January 2005 22:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Ouch!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 21 January 2005 23:57 (twenty-one years ago)

All this amazing new music is making me quite ecstatic. I'm over-posting today.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 21 January 2005 23:57 (twenty-one years ago)

All this amazing new music is making me quite ecstatic.

Yeah, I was thinking about this myself. 2005 seems to have hit the ground running on that front.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 22 January 2005 00:44 (twenty-one years ago)

you are all stupid cunts

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 22 January 2005 01:14 (twenty-one years ago)

daft cunts i meant.

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 22 January 2005 01:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Is that like being in the KISS Army?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Saturday, 22 January 2005 02:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Photoshop away.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 22 January 2005 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

i think it's being really over-rated on this thread considering what it actually amounts to. not awful but just not all that, putting it for me in the same class as Prodigy's 'Girls' (*Ronan explodes*) neither higher nor lower.

― Stevem On X (blueski), Saturday, 22 January 2005 16:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Stevem in 'meh' reaction to group favourite shocker ;)

Yeah its not up to One More Time/Digital Love standard but still pretty great as far as I'm concerned. This cleared the dancefloor last night, incidentally. I fucking hate people.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Saturday, 22 January 2005 18:15 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, i'm not too hot on this. it's nice enough. as tim f said, it sounds like an album track, and might make more sense in context.

SFJ sez the album sounds like a fax machine. tho i'm not sure he's the authority on this kinda thing. house music, that is.

― m. (mitchlnw), Saturday, 22 January 2005 18:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Breakwaters - "Release The Beast" if you havent already heard it....

― zappi (joni), Saturday, 22 January 2005 18:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Much more continuity with the Discovery sound than I was expecting

Praise Robot Jesus for that! Still on my no-preview crusade but this humming, can't get it out of (reliable) heads, business sure is wonderful news.

― Omar (Omar), Saturday, 22 January 2005 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

daft punk = god

― tron, Saturday, 22 January 2005 20:30 (twenty-one years ago)

wtf! it would take me about 60 minutes and a copy of soundforge to get from that breakwater track to "robot rock". i'm not really sure how i feel about that.

― mark p (Mark P), Saturday, 22 January 2005 20:41 (twenty-one years ago)

"Robot Rock" = the motherhugging bomb. Just the timbre of that guitar sound, the way it's been processed or edited or whatever. Hmmm, Homework tracks produced like Discovery ones, anybody?

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Saturday, 22 January 2005 20:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I think that "human after all" sample up there is bullshit. even on computer speakers it doesn't sound like them. I have another version that's AMAZING, like a combination of homeworky beats/bass with discovery-ish phasored synths over top (so much so that it could just be a really good imitation...) i'll put it up if I can figure out how to use usendit.com

― Elliot (Elliot), Saturday, 22 January 2005 21:33 (twenty-one years ago)

ok, this might work:

http://s19.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=32RW9Y5W16H1N1UMI46CIV6GFE

― Elliot (Elliot), Saturday, 22 January 2005 21:37 (twenty-one years ago)

It sounds like Daft Punk, but it certainly doesn't sound like an album-opening track.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Saturday, 22 January 2005 23:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha, the Breakwater track is illuminating...

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Sunday, 23 January 2005 02:42 (twenty-one years ago)

hearing the breakwaters track reminded me of hearing george duke's "i love you more" for the first time a couple years ago.

― mark p (Mark P), Sunday, 23 January 2005 03:39 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't know if i was just too excited, but i'm just not that impressed with 'robot rock'... it sounds not bad as an album track, but kind of disappointing as a single.

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Sunday, 23 January 2005 03:42 (twenty-one years ago)

it was cool to hear it at The End last night, even better tho was Erol Alkan opening his set with The Prime Time Of Your Life - OMG the vocoder sounded so good and it's like E.L.O. gone electro-schaffel muthafuckas

― Stevem On X (blueski), Sunday, 23 January 2005 11:52 (twenty-one years ago)

cues for Daft Punk's new look...

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd700/d733/d733520vw5d.jpg

― JoB (JoB), Sunday, 23 January 2005 12:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Robot Rock, eh?

http://www.cobraislandtoys.com/gobot/rocklords.jpg

That was Erol Alkan playing 'Prime Time'? Wasn't looking, I was too caught up in the moment after an excellent moment of song ID'ing. Everyone loved it, even when it shredded itself into tiny molecule rending shrapnel and we had to stop dancing.

― Captain GRRRios' Giggletits (Barima), Sunday, 23 January 2005 18:09 (twenty-one years ago)

yeh i'm assuming the track really does just accelerate to 2000bpm and that wasn't just Alkan arsing around

― Stevem On X (blueski), Sunday, 23 January 2005 22:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Its place in the tracklist makes sense (1st or 2nd track easy). See dude, there is one album I'm not doubting on right now ;-).

Think that was a Vitalic remix of 'Robot Rock' this morning?

― Captain GRRRios' Giggletits (Barima), Sunday, 23 January 2005 22:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I have another version that's AMAZING,

It's the same track that MarkP linked to earlier on. Still, nice track - but thw fact the second half is exactly the same as the first half kind of makes it seem like a fake.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Sunday, 23 January 2005 22:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah I somehow missed it til later.

― Elliot (Elliot), Monday, 24 January 2005 00:58 (twenty-one years ago)

OMG EARLY DEMO

http://s27.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3VWLT89R56XU42UQIQ6VJ3LXPF

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 24 January 2005 03:04 (twenty-one years ago)

What is this "sampling" I've been hearing about?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 24 January 2005 03:37 (twenty-one years ago)

it's this thing

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 24 January 2005 03:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Interesting.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 24 January 2005 03:39 (twenty-one years ago)

"HUMAN AFTER ALL"

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 24 January 2005 08:12 (twenty-one years ago)

"THEPRIMETIMEOFYRLIFE"

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 24 January 2005 08:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I AM THE BRAINWASHAAAAA

― stomp (+dancefloor), Monday, 24 January 2005 08:16 (twenty-one years ago)

The whole television obsession is ironic/anachronistic?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 24 January 2005 09:00 (twenty-one years ago)

"they're heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere"

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 24 January 2005 09:03 (twenty-one years ago)

So, every one knows it's on Soulseek now?

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Monday, 24 January 2005 10:44 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah it leaked

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Monday, 24 January 2005 10:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Damn, this robot bird flies by my window and starts singing the whole album before I can kill it (...well had to listen to it just one time, can't stand you guys going on about it for 2 months.)

[Enters wanna-be jaded mode] nah fuck that, tears of joy when they sing "prime time of your life" for the first time (that's one strange track btw.)

― Omar (Omar), Monday, 24 January 2005 11:48 (twenty-one years ago)

damn 56k i want more than anything to hear this.

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Monday, 24 January 2005 11:50 (twenty-one years ago)

'Make Love' (sort of lover's motorik innit?) is so sweet, my teeth fell out.

[exits chanting footie style: "Three Classics In A Row! Three Classics In A Row!"]

― Omar (Omar), Monday, 24 January 2005 12:01 (twenty-one years ago)

oddly, daft punk albums always get release/leaked just as i either break up with or get a new girlfriend.

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Monday, 24 January 2005 12:07 (twenty-one years ago)

which one was it this time?

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Monday, 24 January 2005 12:09 (twenty-one years ago)

got a new one (last friday)

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Monday, 24 January 2005 12:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I AM THE BRAINWASHAAAAA

ha! That's one cool moment.

Very much robotic I'm glad to report [deletes it from HD]

― Omar (Omar), Monday, 24 January 2005 12:28 (twenty-one years ago)

the first two tracks are great - i expect the rest is too - i am about to find out :)

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 24 January 2005 12:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I love it. Steam Machine is such a funny song, it's as if an actual steam machine is singing his crazy little song to seduce the mangler. I love it.

― JakeWithBrain!, Monday, 24 January 2005 14:21 (twenty-one years ago)

this.

album.

is.

so.

fucking.

amazing.

― Nic de Teardrop (Nicholas), Monday, 24 January 2005 14:31 (twenty-one years ago)

After one listen, I'm disappointed. I only really like the single, "The Prime Time of Your Life" and "The Brainwasher". It sounds like an electronic novelty pop album, and those three tracks work great in that context. The others didn't excite me. It took me a while to get into Discovery, unlike a lot of people who loved it right away, and the warmth of emotion of that album is certainly not here. The tracks I mentioned have a sort of rocking dance pulse I can relate to.

― JoB (JoB), Monday, 24 January 2005 14:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, "Steam Machine" as well. Anyway, the remixes will be something to look forward to.

― JoB (JoB), Monday, 24 January 2005 14:59 (twenty-one years ago)

First, I haven’t read the entire thread so advance apologies if my points have already been made.

Non-pop dance music is a multi multi billion euro business in Europe, don’t underestimate that even though it may lack in crossover radio hits.

I don’t think there’s any good reason why non-pop dance music couldn’t be as popular in the States as it is in Europe. It is American music, bascially, after all.

The reason it’s not may also have to do with media and politics.

a) Before* commercial media took over, underground electronic dance music was played on National public pop radio (which has a big influence in Europe) as part of their musically unformatted programming. *It still is of course.

b) most young Americans are probably a lot more likely to be Christian and politically conservative than their European counterparts and this may partially responsible form them not to embrace drugs & “abstract” electronic music is such a massive way. This may be nonsense, though, I don’t know. However, it may take a bit of a metropolitan worldview to get into it, something that may be lacking outside of California and New York.

― JoB (JoB), Monday, 24 January 2005 15:08 (twenty-one years ago)

SORRY, WRONG THREAD!

― JoB (JoB), Monday, 24 January 2005 15:08 (twenty-one years ago)

the warmth of emotion of that album is certainly not here

Err...'Make Love'. Basically Discovery melted into one track.
With those last three tracks they really seem to go for the 21st century Kraftwerk crown.

― Omar (Omar), Monday, 24 January 2005 15:08 (twenty-one years ago)

they use the same sounds too much for my liking - great as the sounds are! (the vocoder esp.). i was hoping for MORE, DP continue to frustrate me by not taking the bells and whistles/kitchen sink approach of Basement Jaxx but in spite of that this is still a pretty strong record for dancefloors - The Brainwasher and Technologic should go down well.

One advantage is that this album is much more feasible live than Discovery. But if they tour it, would they play Discovery songs? That would almost be cruel after denying us for so long, but how could they ever play live again and not play anything from Discovery? The alternative is that they never play live again, which may or may not be worse, hmm.

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 24 January 2005 15:32 (twenty-one years ago)

haha saying that 'Emotion' has a bassline and general plod not unlike 'Feels Like Home' from Kish Kash!

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 24 January 2005 15:33 (twenty-one years ago)

i just can't quite agree with how they feel about progression vs/via monotony. i mean WHY does more not happen in 'Emotion'? WHY do they seem to favour this 'progression via monotony' approach? i'm not satisfied by a 'because it doesn't NEED anything else' response, i think it would be better with something more. 'six week albums' is a neat concept but i'd rather they'd spent at least six months on this if they're going to do it at all. i think time IS a factor. not that this sounds 'bashed out quickly' completely (tho it does to an extent). there are moments on 'Homework' I did find boring because the monotony was too much, other times it was okay. It's not a problem on 'Discovery' because half of it is song-based and the tracks are brief (with the exception of 'Too Long' which i'm not really a fan of either!). Here they've stretched them again and it's stretching it maybe too far for me, tho I'd give this album 7 out of 10 overall and the good bits are VERY VERY GOOD INDEED.

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 24 January 2005 15:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Omar's comment re Kraftwerk rings true for me as I still cannot really stand to listen to their most repetetive, nagging stuff, however sweet it can be sonically (as is the case with 'Emotion' which has lovely vocoder, that frog-like blurping bass and the major pads and the trusted 'one step up at a time' progression)

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 24 January 2005 15:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Goddammit. "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" is based largely on an Edwin Byrdsong sample but it fucks with it mightily after a minute. "Robot Rock" is the first few seconds of that Breakwater track, and nothing more. Thanks for telling me there's no motherfucking Santa Claus, Jed. Hope you're pleased with yourself.

― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Monday, 24 January 2005 15:53 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm also wondering if there will be an unofficial remix version available on the same day HAA is released to follow the recent unofficial Prodigy and Chemical brothers remix editions. i may ask mr cryonmyconsole about this...

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 24 January 2005 15:58 (twenty-one years ago)

after listening to this five times through, i'm inclined to say it's a bit disappointing overall, with the caveat being that, as steve says, the good parts are very very good.

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 24 January 2005 16:05 (twenty-one years ago)

http://felt.planetaclix.pt/Discography/images/denim.gif
Back in Denim

― Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Monday, 24 January 2005 16:09 (twenty-one years ago)

yeh i just listened to the opening title track again and i really do love it, once it really gets going.

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 24 January 2005 16:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Steve M, I think you are on the mark. I would hesistate to say they phoned it in, but I do think the 6 week recording time hurt them. Although it's only been two listens, I don't know how much depth there is to these songs. It's certainly very catchy and well-produced, but I was hoping DP would give us more than just a series of tracks that rely on one or two big riffs throughout the entire song. After waiting 4 years to get an album with 9 straight-forward tracks (and one interlude,) I feel a bit cheated.

"Technologic" is the one that really upsets me. It's such a pale retread of "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger," right down to the lyrics, which go: "buy it / use it / break it / fix it / trash it / change it / now upgrade it."

Still, "Human After All" and "Robot Rock" and "Make Love" (which strangely reminds me of the intro to "Little Red Corvette") are all g-r-e-a-t.

After writing this I am wondering if some of the cuts are looped versions of the real tracks.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Monday, 24 January 2005 16:17 (twenty-one years ago)

advance word from a friend: "on/off is ace. best best. makes me cry. more emotional than one more time."

-- mark p (mark.p****...), January 17th, 2005 9:50 PM

lol

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 24 January 2005 16:23 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, that is pretty classic

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Monday, 24 January 2005 16:24 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah wtf!!

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 24 January 2005 16:48 (twenty-one years ago)

that track is a cow's heart, he was tryna make a monkey out of you!

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 24 January 2005 16:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I am happy with 'disappointing over all but the good parts are very good indeed' because that's exactly how I felt about Discovery (the second half in particular).

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 24 January 2005 17:04 (twenty-one years ago)

i look forward to inevitable your 'this is great you mentalists!' post ;)

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 24 January 2005 17:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm wondering if this IS a loop leak.
I'm buying the final in any case; if this is just looped beats, it's the best loop I've heard.
Still getting comfortable with this suckah but oh so excited. It just gloms on with the first listen, moreso than anything I can remember since Katamari.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Monday, 24 January 2005 17:13 (twenty-one years ago)

i wish 'Human After All' was the single, not that it would really do any better

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 24 January 2005 17:15 (twenty-one years ago)

sigh. i like it, but i don't love it. i think it will take a few more listens to settle in. i agree with stevem -- the good parts are really good, but it is a little disappointing.

― geeta (geeta), Monday, 24 January 2005 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)

the first song sounds like trans am.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 24 January 2005 17:53 (twenty-one years ago)

"Human After All" is my new favorite song - it's really beautiful. The rest is amazing, if not brain-bending like my first run through of Discovery.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 24 January 2005 18:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, yeah, certainly not as oh-my-god-what-is-this-my-brain-is-melting instant fun of Discovery, but still a really good molding of Homework and Discovery. The short time spent on the album only works wonders on the music; it feels so fresh, spontaneous and fun in a equally stressed-out/mellow way. I just can't stop listening to it.

― JakeWithBrain!, Monday, 24 January 2005 19:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Brilliant idea: make the video for "Human After All" as the iTunes visualization of same.
Save a LOT of money.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Monday, 24 January 2005 19:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Um OK this album is pretty fucking great. It's not the SAME as discovery which is apparently what some of you were hoping but I love how the opening track is like Felix's "Neon Human" except way better, and I loved "neon human"!!!

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Monday, 24 January 2005 19:27 (twenty-one years ago)

you guys are all secret trans am fans.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 24 January 2005 19:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Not yet, but I'm probably gonna go check em out if they sound like this!

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Monday, 24 January 2005 19:28 (twenty-one years ago)

You might be disappointed.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 24 January 2005 19:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I love how abrasive this album is compared to the last one!

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Monday, 24 January 2005 19:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I like it but have to say, I hope the next one is less abrasive!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 24 January 2005 19:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Would it be wrong to say this is a more chicago house-style album?

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Monday, 24 January 2005 19:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, maybe just steam machine.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Monday, 24 January 2005 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

My original post was a long ass affair, in which I think the words "great" and "mentalists" were employed.

The USE-ness of the title track aside, I'm generally feeling the 5 other tracks I heard ('Make Love' must be a fake-out looper tho').

― Captain GRRRios' Giggletits (Barima), Monday, 24 January 2005 19:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Why does the title track wait until the final minute to interest me more?

― Captain GRRRios' Giggletits (Barima), Monday, 24 January 2005 19:44 (twenty-one years ago)

this very easily could have been a ten-track, 65 minute album. i wonder if it would have been better for it?

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 24 January 2005 19:45 (twenty-one years ago)

err...no, the actual length is perfect. Totally in tune with the abrasive quality of the music.

Jackwithbrain OTM in re. freshness, etc.

― Omar (Omar), Monday, 24 January 2005 19:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't believe ppl were hating on "Technologic." Its time for the percolator.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Monday, 24 January 2005 19:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahahah this is gonna be just like discovery where everyone hates on it them comes around in the end, I can tell.

Oh man the synths on the last track are so wonderful.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Monday, 24 January 2005 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Shall I'll take the honours then and proclaim it my album of the year? :) (I mean I did say Discovery was one of the best album ever, after a couple of listens IIRC. ;)

― Omar (Omar), Monday, 24 January 2005 20:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I hope it sounds like Surrender to the Night!
many xposts

― Magic City (ano ano), Monday, 24 January 2005 20:23 (twenty-one years ago)

i hope this isn't like devin dazzle where i hate on it and then later hate on it even more

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 24 January 2005 20:25 (twenty-one years ago)

It is very lonely being the only person on ILM who doesn't think Daft Punk are dance messiahs.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 24 January 2005 20:26 (twenty-one years ago)

(AKA "Dan is very predicatably unmoved by Daft Punk the further they get from 'Revolution 909'" redux.)

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 24 January 2005 20:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think they're dance messiahs, m'friend, but I have to say so far it all sounds really great. Then again I'm only a couple of songs in.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 January 2005 20:49 (twenty-one years ago)

they're indie messiahs!

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 24 January 2005 20:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, Stereolab did release a song or two by Darlin' back in 1993, so there ya go.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 January 2005 20:51 (twenty-one years ago)

The last track is making me euphoric.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Monday, 24 January 2005 20:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Then again I'm only a couple of songs in.

ha, exactly what i thought. incidentally, as much as i love the idea of 'Discovery' being the best album in years on paper (apart from Kid A and Loveless obviously), it never was for me. i will probably love Human After All as much as Discovery seeing as how my reaction to Discovery the first time is pretty similar to how i'm feeling about HAA now.

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 24 January 2005 20:55 (twenty-one years ago)

steam machine reminds me of NIN!

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 24 January 2005 20:59 (twenty-one years ago)

haha!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:08 (twenty-one years ago)

she's right

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Woah, okay maybe I will reconsider my reaction to the single if there's a NIN pastiche on the album.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:11 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost: yep

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:11 (twenty-one years ago)

It also reminded me of Junior Boys "Under the Sun" for some reason.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Steam Machine is not as good as The Tosser's Song by Lacquer which does the same 'repetetive riff that will sound brain elasticating when fucked in a club thing', but not as good, and without the vocals.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahah, good call Teeny! I just finished listening to that.

Five songs now and frankly this is a really good Depeche Mode-style album. No problems with it at all! Dan I suspect you will like this very much. Think of it this way -- if "Da Funk" is actually a rewrite of "Never Let Me Down Again" not scaled for arenas...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:24 (twenty-one years ago)

My reaction right now is confined solely to "Robot Rock"; I may change my mind once I hear the rest of it (especially if there's a NIN song on it, wow!).

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Not as good as being not as good as something? What am I talking about?

Make Love is gorgeous but why are the beats so weedy? With a proper chunky 4/4 kick behind it that track could've been a proper summer Glasto-style let it all wash over you think like Love Story.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:28 (twenty-one years ago)

remix it!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Now what we were talking about on the New Beat thread and elsewhere about industrial? IT'S ALL COMING BACK, SCOFFERS!

Holy hell! Actually "The Brainwasher" is even MORE industrial! Like if Front Line Assembly didn't keep rewriting the same song over again.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Ned, be fair; FLA wrote a different song for every album.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:31 (twenty-one years ago)

The Brainwasher = fucking hell this rules. This deserves to be on the 2005 electrohouse thread. And it has a great demonic voice half way through. It also veers closer to techno than anything on Discovery.

(Dan you will definitely like this one)

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Ned, be fair; FLA wrote a different song for every album.

I stand abashed.

Matt DC is right. "Television," meanwhile, mixes a bit of the industrial atmosphere with other things...fuck, this IS the album that answers Donut Christ's lament on this very subject. A good thing too, now I get to see everyone finally admit you were all rivetheads to start with. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I am liking Television Rules The Nation as well. Reminds me of the Karl Bartos album from last year.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:36 (twenty-one years ago)

"the brainwasher" is my favorite, i think.

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Television Rules The Nation sounds like a Gary Numan/Kraftwerk mash-up...

― stephen morris, Monday, 24 January 2005 21:37 (twenty-one years ago)

And what on earth is wrong with that?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:37 (twenty-one years ago)

NOT ONE THING

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Nothing is wrong with that!

(x-post)

― stephen morris, Monday, 24 January 2005 21:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Technologic uses exactly the same sound as Television only with a better bassline and incessant chipmunk vocals! This is grebt.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:40 (twenty-one years ago)

On first listen I think Technologic might eat me.

― stephen morris, Monday, 24 January 2005 21:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I keep expecting it to go "I wanna sit on your face" any minute now.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I was wondering how long before the tide would turn on initial "this is underwhelming" interpretations.

So yes - this is great.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:42 (twenty-one years ago)

OMG GUYS STOP GETTING ME EXCITED ABOUT DAFT PUNK IT ALWAYS ENDS IN TEARS (where by "tears" I mean "irritating 'mehs' exaggerated for self-comedic effect")

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:42 (twenty-one years ago)

would it be overly precious for me to compare brainwasher to neubauten's 'headcleaner'?

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Compared to the 'big' atmosphere of Discovery this is a simpler album in general -- less immediately reminiscent of an anime cartoon soundtrack, let's put it that way! But really it's quite enjoyable and I will have a fine time listening to this sucker again (and again!).

It would not be precious at all, Teeny. It would merely show correct judgment.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I still am completely blah about "Robot Rock", djdee!

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I think the disappointment hinges on the fact that there is no One More Time/Digital Love classic pop song on here, but fuck, the moment when the bass appears on Emotion doing EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED IT TO DO is marvellous. Steve was OTM about the Feels Like Home Comparison.

It also has exactly the same chords as the middle section of Guilty In Love by Mylo, only with nice filtered pads instead of plinky Super NES noises.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:49 (twenty-one years ago)

It is more electro than industrial I think, they've jumped on the electrohouse bandwagon a little I think (which is fair because they kind of helped kickstart it anyway) but with their own twist to them. Its certainly a more consistent listen than Discovery, I think. Not the same peaks but fewer tracks I want to skip.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:51 (twenty-one years ago)

It is more electro than industrial I think

Yay another genre war! ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:52 (twenty-one years ago)

ILM Daft Punk love-ins rule!

You're all OTM. :)

― Omar (Omar), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:53 (twenty-one years ago)

fuck, the moment when the bass appears on Emotion doing EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED IT TO DO is marvellous.

YES! Euphoric.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I would say that the title track is Discovery single quality.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:54 (twenty-one years ago)

10 tracks is such a great amount for an album

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I am just trying to stop building up Dan's expectations and lowering Ronan's, Ned.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I think what I love most is how radically different this is from Discovery in many ways. Obviously its similar too, but I came into this expecting Discovery II at best or Discovery b-sides at worst and instead got an entirely new perspective, really.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:55 (twenty-one years ago)

There is nothing remotely like Robot Rock elsewhere on here. Prime Time Of Your Life is kinda schaffel, isn't it?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 24 January 2005 21:57 (twenty-one years ago)

i want someone to address my monotony/progression point. long ago i tried to describe Music Sounds Better With You as like an Escher staircase within a rising elevator. Emotion is similar, but why is so much removed and could it not be better with more lyrics/changes/density, as you would expect Basement Jaxx to do (and they do, on Feels Like Home. is it because DP just aren't as interested in that, they feel like BJ and others cover that well enough or this album only took 6 weeks and they just didn't have the patience? ;)

'schaffel bandwagon' accusation liable with 'The Primetime Of Your life' but who would care? it could well be the best shuffley track of all time!

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I really love when Prime Time of Your Life begins spinning hopelessly out of control and then that robo-Keith Moon drum fill comes in to save you from your own madness. Brilliant!

― stephen morris, Monday, 24 January 2005 22:04 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost
Haha, my extremely rockist friend who actually likes a lot of dance music just said he loves the textures but that it's too repetitive and that he wishes they would "innovate" more. He's my friend and that may have saved his life.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:05 (twenty-one years ago)

does it not seem a bit pointless tho?

also i don't think anyone will think of this as actually a BAD album and hope that stays in perspective as we argue the toss over the next hours, days, weeks...

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:06 (twenty-one years ago)

(xpost)

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:06 (twenty-one years ago)

i agree with stevem.

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:07 (twenty-one years ago)

so this is robot rock instead of the robot(disco-)pop on discovery?

― Lovelace, Monday, 24 January 2005 22:08 (twenty-one years ago)

(patiently waiting for d/l... still waiting... sigh)

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:10 (twenty-one years ago)

donut, maybe sample the new dido while you're waiting?

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:10 (twenty-one years ago)

(I hope Matt Boch, the thread starter who turned on e-mail notifications, appreciates the e-mail dump from this entire thread.)

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, Donut, the new Dido. Yup.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:13 (twenty-one years ago)

i can send it to anyone if they mail me

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I think I should sample job openings or go to the gym instead. At least when I come back to see all my track downloads failed or got me banned, I will know at least one person who has it. sigh.

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:14 (twenty-one years ago)

i wouldn't mind sampling the new a-frames, though.

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:15 (twenty-one years ago)

the title of this is making me think of Level 42 over and over again.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:30 (twenty-one years ago)

― robot_by_the_river (robot_by_the_river), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:32 (twenty-one years ago)

isochronal120 (2:39:01 PM): they did this with discovery too..they released shit w/o the voacl and main braks it was birlliant

isochronal120 (2:37:15 PM): "human after all" = purposeful bad leak
isochronal120 (2:37:20 PM): just liek they did b4
gregoryexists (2:37:31 PM): what sound quality are your files at?
isochronal120 (2:37:54 PM): 192
gregoryexists (2:37:59 PM): mine too
isochronal120 (2:38:01 PM): i only have that one song tho
gregoryexists (2:38:12 PM): i don't have speakers sufficient to tell any difference between 192 and up though
gregoryexists (2:38:19 PM): i have the whole thing
gregoryexists (2:38:23 PM): which song do you have?
isochronal120 (2:38:23 PM): no one does
isochronal120 (2:38:29 PM): that one
gregoryexists (2:38:31 PM): there's tons of fakes out there
isochronal120 (2:38:37 PM): only the title trakk
isochronal120 (2:38:46 PM): whihc io know for a fact is missing all the good parts of it
gregoryexists (2:39:03 PM): how do you know?
isochronal120 (2:39:03 PM): ya
gregoryexists (2:39:11 PM): hmm
gregoryexists (2:39:16 PM): weird
gregoryexists (2:39:17 PM): i hope so
gregoryexists (2:39:22 PM): because i'm pretty disappointed
isochronal120 (2:39:23 PM): yeah....i read it in a mag

can anyone address the veracity of this?

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not sure progression is necessary. Most of the grooves here are strong enough to make it enjoyable just to ride them for four or five minutes without them overegging the pudding.

Firstworldman - I reckon this is a new version of "oh, the leaked version is unmixed", which usually turns out to be bollocks.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:47 (twenty-one years ago)

this leaked version is quite obviously the final version.

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Let's put it this way -- if there's still a 'real' version coming, fine! I like this version perfectly well.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:50 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm up to emotion and so far i'm counting at 3 or 4 songs i like a lot... the rest is great club music, but as has previously been stated, a pop album this ain't. which i guess is what i was expecting. not disappointed so much as feeling somehow deceived, oddly.

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:54 (twenty-one years ago)

at any rate, i'll be playing tracks from this at kitsch tomorrow night if any oc peeps feel like coming out

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmmm!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:56 (twenty-one years ago)

*shrug*

I freely admit that I don't care for Daft Punk at all, but I gave it a shot and I gotta admit that half of this album could be used as the background music for Sunday night sports clip shows.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:07 (twenty-one years ago)

You mean like any instrumental house or techno?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:08 (twenty-one years ago)

You mean like any instrumental house or techno?

Well if you put it that way... But whatever, nothing pulling me in with this.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, one thing no one has touched upon (or if he or she did, I missed it) is that this seems to be the first short-form Daft Punk album yet. The first two were long-formers.. or at least spanned two LPs. I'm not sure if this will be a double-LP..(then again, I haven't been able to tell if we're dealing with 10 REALLY long songs, or not, but I doubt it).

I only mention this because the dissatisfaction may stem from the rather abridged nature of this album compared to the previous two, where you could always find enough to chew on.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:23 (twenty-one years ago)

my first thought is that while i love this album on first listen i think there will be a lot to get into as well.

the sequencing has struck me as being very good, also.

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:27 (twenty-one years ago)

donut christ! new dido album, NOW!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:28 (twenty-one years ago)

SLSK NEW ANNE MURRAY IMMEDIATELY!

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:37 (twenty-one years ago)

HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN AFTER ALL.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:37 (twenty-one years ago)

at least check out what people have been saying about it on ilm, dc! for your own good

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Somebody mentioned the vocodered humming (maybe on the other thread). That is my favorite part of the whole thing.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:44 (twenty-one years ago)

i like it, but i always like the things the ilm dance nazis hate.

― amanda lear (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:45 (twenty-one years ago)

But the dance Nazis aren't Nazis! And they're not hating it here if they are the Nazis which I think they aren't. Hmm. "WHO MAKES THE NAZIS!" < / M E Smith >

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:46 (twenty-one years ago)

also, i've missed andrew wk and i'm glad to see he's had a beautiful robot baby.

― amanda lear (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:46 (twenty-one years ago)

There is a real and beautiful expression of love in the title track.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:49 (twenty-one years ago)

it still sweats a lot though.

(malfunctioning armpits)

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:51 (twenty-one years ago)

also, i've missed andrew wk and i'm glad to see he's had a beautiful robot baby.

I like this statement.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Who are these "dance nazis"??

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:55 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm just having a bit of fun, let's be cool

― amanda lear (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:10 (twenty-one years ago)

That's what the nazis said!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I appreciate the journey they have made so far, from a revolutionary first album to managing very well the anxiety of the second album by successfully exploring their expressivity and as jakewithbrain mentionned "the short time spent on the album only works wonders on the music; it feels so fresh, spontaneous and fun in a equally stressed-out/mellow way": it's a concept that works when it comes at engaging with how they are percieved and what is expected from them, it feels like this stylistic exercice sort of addressed/reset the daft punk ultimate foundation.

― Sébastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha Sébastien, are you trying to get in the definitive Human After All quote for the best of 2005 year end poll results (i.e. OTM).

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I really feel this way, I wrote that in 2 minutes thank you :-)

― Sébastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I know this is gonna suffer in crit polls, particularly on this board, for its early release date. Although Kanye didn't really have that problem so maybe (hopefully) I'm wrong.

But yeah I was very depressed and then I woke up today and someone told me Daft Punk had leaked...the best thing that could have happened, really!

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:21 (twenty-one years ago)

(has "the anxiety of the second album" been addressed as a concept, on ILM?)

― Sébastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:25 (twenty-one years ago)

So i guess this is a prog-house album about a robot who finally discovers he has emotions and is somewhat 'human after all'?

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:25 (twenty-one years ago)

couldn't they just call it short circuit?

― amanda lear (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm so so so happy that this album didn't disappoint me.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:26 (twenty-one years ago)

You guys seem to be forgetting something: 9/11.

― mayahee, mayahoo, mayaha, mayahaha (deangulberry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:26 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.aleut4u.com/NEVER%20FORGET%20WTC%20T-SHIRT.jpg

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Where's the smurf?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:31 (twenty-one years ago)

i can't wait until 2 live jews do their parody album, humid after all.

― amanda lear (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:31 (twenty-one years ago)

You guys seem to be forgetting something: 9/11.

I'll ask again here, is this in reference to my comments on the Simon Reynolds thread?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Chicago house, NIN comparisons both OTM, and not just on Steam Machine. Make love is my favorite, but it's also the one the most nudges me in the direction of the crippled leak conspiracy theorists.

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, I gave the album a full uninterrupted listen... and basically:

If Homework sounded like a group that had 10 weeks to write, record, and finalize an album, and if Discovery sounded like a group that had 10 months to write, record, and finalize an album, Human After All sounds like a group that had 10 DAYS to write, record, and finalize an album.

In other words: "eh. decided to do a bunt instead of a glam slam I see."

It also sounds like Daft Punk somehow immersed themselves into a lot of older stoner/classic rock before they went into this project. Also, did no one else note the "The Brainwasher"/Sabbath "Iron Man" parallel? These aren't criticisms.. just musings and observations.

Most strikingly, with the exception of "Robot Rock" and "Technologic" (and I never thought I'd be making this exception for "Robot Rock"), this is a rather dance-less album. A lot of humming, bass, and pulsing, and dark vocoding, but nothing that matches the previous two albums as a source of providing dance floor anthems. Again, not necessarily a criticism, just an observation.

I don't see the New Beat/industrial comparisons though. "The Brainwasher" sounds dark, indeed, but at least the former genre implies some sort of beat and drive, and this song scurries and plods along very creepily, but doesn't, you know, hit it.

The most disappointing elements are the sameyness in the heavily phased low frequency square wave synths used in almost every song, and that these tracks were done live. That last part is purely an opinion.. sure, it's cool that Human After All sounds like the most reproduceable album live and all (rockists celebrate!), but I was hoping for something that would elevate even higher than Discovery for the followup, like Nirvana or something.. (yup, I was stung by high expectations, and I admit it.)

I can already smell the ending sentence paraphrased in EVERY goddamned review that's going to slag this album in the next month:

"Daft Punk has destroyed the dream that Discovery promised, proving they are, indeed, Human After All -- if only for the better"

That said, this isn't a bad album in the larger scope of things. Just bad for Daft Punk.

But I'll also say that I bet the A-Frames' Black Forest album is going to stimulate the "robot rock" vibe, albeit in a much different way, far more effectively than this album seems to (try to) do.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:42 (twenty-one years ago)

come on Spencer admit the only reason you like the title track is because of the double-note guitar riff being a complete rip-off of COMMON PEOPLE ;)

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:45 (twenty-one years ago)

dc, yr nuts.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd be a good boy and expound further but I have to run :-)

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:46 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost.
Nope, there is actual love in the humming. I can feel it!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:46 (twenty-one years ago)

very brave of you, djddrake.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:46 (twenty-one years ago)

i think donut's criticism is the most negative so far (and by far!)

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Having heard both, Donut, I must disagree. The A-Frames album is enjoyable enough but the Daft Punk is what I'm actually replaying a lot.

Also, I'm noting this:

I was hoping for something that would elevate even higher than Discovery for the followup, like Nirvana or something.. (yup, I was stung by high expectations, and I admit it.)

I sorta find this an interesting conflation -- namely, a hint that the album needed to be even more, for lack of a better phrase, detailed and/or grandiose than before in order to succeed. Am I however reading that wrong? It seems like a strange expectation to place on a band -- heck, any band.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:47 (twenty-one years ago)

HAHAHAHAHAHA...

Kevin Shields to thread.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I have to agree with donut on that point. While this album may be one of the best that will be released this year, it is in no way another Discovery, not even close.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Nice try, Donut, but no dice. Whatever I felt for hoping for a follow-up to Loveless didn't involve an expectation for what the detail of sound should be.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:50 (twenty-one years ago)

S Chow, I don't think it's quite as good, but I think it's easily in the same ballpark.

I really do have to go now...laterz

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually I'm in the camp that feels Discovery sorta folds after five songs -- great songs, admittedly. This actually feels like a more complete experience.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:52 (twenty-one years ago)

i find i get more pleasure out of 'Make Love' if i imagine Felix Da Housecat crooning "MY LIFE IS MUSIC AND MUSIC IS MY LIFE, SWEET SOUNDS TO HELP YOU TAKE FLIGHT" (and the rest of the lyrics from that track he did) over it

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, I didn't expect specific details in Human After All, I was just hoping that they'd at least TRY as hard as they did on Homework at least, maybe as much Discovery. Subconsciously, I was hoping it would tbe album that would surpass Discovery true.

Maybe Daft Punk decided to just nip that expectation in the bud, instead of following Axl Roses' and Kevin Shields' retreat into hermitdom... probably a wiser move than nothing at all.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:54 (twenty-one years ago)

the best tracks on HAA are absolutely as good as the harder Dance tracks on Discovery

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:54 (twenty-one years ago)

It's really just a "too little too late" thing for me with this album. I'm sure the album will grow on me a little, but there just doesn't seem to be as much hard work on this record as the previous two. They don't HAVE to work hard for each album, but I think all of people expected that, including myself.

I think the wiser move would have been to pair down this album into a single two-track AA single.. "Robot Rock"/"Technologic"... (granted, the two really dancey tracks)

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:57 (twenty-one years ago)

But I wanted more "Digital Love" (obviously, it's one of my 3 favorite songs of all time) and more "Face to Face" and more "Voyager" - oh never mind, I'm just going to list them all...

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:58 (twenty-one years ago)

hell no, 'Robot rock' is my least favourite track on this bitch!

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 01:59 (twenty-one years ago)

every track seems to make me think of a different act or other track. when i hear 'Television Rules The Nation' i think of Can. i just wish they hadn't used that 'vomiting robot frog' sound on EVERY track!

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I still find "Technologic" a horrible exerice in self-parody.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:02 (twenty-one years ago)

They don't HAVE to work hard for each album, but I think all of people expected that, including myself.

Eh, but you could say that about any number of people, the idea of fan expectation vs. whatever the hell the musicians felt like doing. Not all, mind you, which calls to mind an interesting question of what musicians do things you mentally feel create a comfort zone for you that you don't need more of in the way of 'change' versus those you invest some sorta sense of 'progress' from -- when it's more likely that you'll get the latter quality out of nowhere or from an unexpected source instead of whoever or whatever you've burdened your expectations with.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:03 (twenty-one years ago)

It's funny how the two songs most people hate here are the only two tracks I'll actually replay! ("Robot Rock" and "Technologic")

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Ned, very good points, indeed. However, I'm going to have to sit out the next decade and hear the next two Daft Punk albums (if they will exist by then), and then look back at Human After All and reappreciate it in that context.

No doubt! I've been disappointed by albums only to come back to them later and discover their good points after hearing the artist(s)' subsequent work, whether that work was better or worse.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Did the "vomiting robot frog" make his first appearance at the end of New Order's "Perfect Kiss"???

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:08 (twenty-one years ago)

But this album still sounds, to me, like a band that decided to bunt, fearing that everyone expected the greatest grand slam of them all. Sure, it's "good for the fans and builds character" and all that. But keep in mind, I JUST heard this now, and just experience the initial downer. I doubt I'll feel more negative than I feel now.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:09 (twenty-one years ago)

What Does

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

~~God~~Harvell Say?

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

You won't find it posted here.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually, hstencil was totally OTM about the Trans Am comment.. this is about as exciting (read: kinda dull with exceptions) as a Trans Am album.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:16 (twenty-one years ago)

OOH SNAP

(XPOST)

― mayahee, mayahoo, mayaha, mayahaha (deangulberry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, damn, I wanna hear the FAKE Human After All now.

*setup for anti-U.S.E. joke incoming in 20... 19... 18... *

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:22 (twenty-one years ago)

actually im quite interested to hear what ronan thinks of this.

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Wheeeeeeeeeeeee! What good music!

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, all that said, it is really excellent. A 9 if Discovery is an 11.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not sure I understand any insistence that a band (or artist) shouldn't have to work hard to produce something. I mean, the effort one invests or the difficulty one has honing or articulating an idea doesn't necessarily have to involve painstaking protools edits or geeked out patch tweaking-- but I do think that the act of creation should involve some challenge. Granted, if you assess it on the basis that working within a limited amount of time is enough of a challenge to warrant attention being paid to it, then I could see how we could disagree on this point. I think it's a bit silly though to make a piece of art (or music or whatever) with those kinds of restrictions if the art (or music or whatever) isn't at least a bit more conceptual or doesn't demand those strictures.

In my opinion the heavily loop oriented nature of the music actually is a standin for songcraft. When I hear these songs I hear what they might have done had they spent more time on them. I'm actually left wondering if they know they can trade in on their name for at least one album to buy them time making an album they might have been more likely to make (given their trajectory).

I say this as a person who has spent a lot of time making electronic music (lately mostly dancey things), and it might sound a bit pretentious... but i could have made this album. I never would have, because at the end of the day it does sound like Daft Punk, but it has no magic. Their machines sound a bit emptier than they used to, a little less haunted.

The rock costumes they're working seem like touchstones meant to put the listener in a place that the music couldn't have ever put them into on its own. A few too many signposts telling you where to go... and that somewhere doesn't seem like some fantastic place that they invented like the previous two albums did.

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:26 (twenty-one years ago)

"daft punk without the magic" = otm

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I'm going to have to agree. Although Daft Punk resting on their laurels still = very good.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I feel they have at least another album in them, and now they have even more freedom to make it.

― Sébastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:34 (twenty-one years ago)

If I had made an album like this, I would be jolly pleased with myself.

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:36 (twenty-one years ago)

"Human After All" - This is so much better than "Robot Rock" it isn't funny. I don't see how this track isn't dancy!

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I already like this one song more than every song on Discovery.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:40 (twenty-one years ago)

again, i think this is great but AGAIN, I don't think this is the final cut.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:45 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Prime Time Of Your Life" - Is this the most annoying beginning to a song ever recorded? It's possible; for fuck's sake get to the track and stop fucking around with the sequencer! Oh, there it goes... um, did they forget to turn up the drum track on this? Oh no, I see, they just decided to fuck around in an irritating manner for half the song. I get it now.

I do like the droney bit. Oh wait, it's speeding up! Awesome! Oh, but there's less than a minute left; what a butcher of an edit!

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:46 (twenty-one years ago)

"Robot Rock" - Annoying. I don't like the patch on that synth riff, otherwise I think I would like this a lot. It sounds like a boring Fatboy Slim castoff to me.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think they're using a sequencer on "Prime Time".. sounds all live to me.. all that background noise sounds like a lot of swaggering about the studio hitting mic stands and what not, but just put through a lot of effects.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:49 (twenty-one years ago)

"Steam Machine" - This is dirty! Total robot sex music! I hear a sex offender sneaking up behind a doe-eyed blonde with a lead pipe and a rubber maid outfit lurking in this song; I hope a remixer brings him out into the open and makes him jig.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:55 (twenty-one years ago)

"Make Love" - Aw, sweet. This should have been called "Hold Hands And Snuggle".

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Your experiences of this album are so vanilla!

xpost

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 02:58 (twenty-one years ago)

If I had made an album like this, I would be jolly pleased with myself.

Damning with faint praise!!! I think it's an amazing accomplishment, and while I'm not so down on Discovery as Ned is, I think he's right that this is a more complete experience (or whatever his wording was).

As for the stuff "firstworldman" said - I think it comes off as (sorry) rockism.

― deej., Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Damning with faint praise!!!

You don't know me, fool!

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:03 (twenty-one years ago)

As for the stuff "firstworldman" said - I think it comes off as (sorry) rockism.

?????

Elaborate, please?

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:04 (twenty-one years ago)

actually, forget I asked. Please don't elaborate.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:05 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Brainwasher" - CHANNEL X IS BACK! So far this is easily my favorite! It's also very ironic considering the new beat thread that started earlier today.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not sure I understand any insistence that a band (or artist) shouldn't have to work hard to produce something

Do you need me to expound further?

― deej., Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:07 (twenty-one years ago)

xspot to Dan on "The Brainwasher": Not ironic.. IronManic!

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:08 (twenty-one years ago)

"Television Rules The Nation" - Not without a fat bass line it doesn't. Oh, there it is... okay this isn't so much ruling the nation as much as it is posing in front of a mirror muttering "YOU SEXY BEAST oh shit is that mum?"

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:08 (twenty-one years ago)

As for the two notable dahnce fan ILMers who have yet to weigh in, I predict that both Tim Finney and Ronan will like this new album, particularly Tim (although I only say that bcuz lately I've paid more attention to his writing.)

― deej., Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:09 (twenty-one years ago)

firstworldman sed: "I'm not sure I understand any insistence that a band (or artist) shouldn't have to work hard to produce something"

deej claiming the above is rockist then saying: "Do you need me to expound further?"

Me responding: "deej, can you please look up what 'rockist' means before you just toss it around aimlessly? or at least just argue on the point above made DIRECTLY, instead of using the 'r' word for reasons you obviously don't understand?"

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:11 (twenty-one years ago)

"Technologic" - FANTASTIC OPENING!!!!!!! Oh my God, this is outstanding!!!!!!! Oh my God, oh my God, best track on the album!!!!!!!!!!

(More after RW/RR BOTS II ends)

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Donut christ, apparently I'm too stupid, could you please break down for me how that isn't rockist? Inferring that someone has to work hard to create good music sounds pretty explicitely rockist to me.

― deej., Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Sure.

Rockists: Synthesizers = bad

Anybody in this thread with any interest in Daft Punk is not a rockist. End of case.

There's no expectation on how hard one must work on a piece of art in the rockism tenets. In fact, lack of hard work is often PRAISED in certain rockist circles.. praised in the name of spontaneity and inventiveness.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I think maybe you should take a look at a few rockism threads before you continue this discussion.

― deej., Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:19 (twenty-one years ago)

you mean the ones that completely misrepresent the term, and hence waste my time? No thanks.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:20 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.maelstromgrafx.com/logos/smurf.gif

― deej., Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:21 (twenty-one years ago)

However, I'm all for ending this discussion.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:21 (twenty-one years ago)

haha i don't know if i agree with EITHER of you guys. surely it's possible to be rockist about dance music? and deej, firstworldman supported his opinion pretty explicitly in his argument, i don't think its unreasonable to demand some craft from music, it's not like he burst into the thread and said "dance music is shit it's all loops anyway"

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, then deej should have used the term "purist" then.

And mark p is right..

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:23 (twenty-one years ago)

"rockism" = instance of "purism", specifically stating the superiority of guitar/organic based musicians over those who use electronics, with emphasis on the 60s and 70s as being the true eras of inspiration of good music, stating that the album form is a superior one than the pop single, and more.

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:26 (twenty-one years ago)

HAH HAH MEN RULE

Okay, so "Technologic" is fucking awesome. I also notice that I completely missed "On/Off" so I'm not saying shit about it.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not getting pulled into another ILM rockist argument but suffice it to say that I don't think one has to put effort into music for the music to be good. If Daft Punk pulled this shit out of their asses, I couldn't give less of a fuck, because it's rocking my world.

Thank you and good night.

― deej., Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Dan it's just a weirdo interlude.

― deej., Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Thank you and good night.

Fine! Why didn't you say this the first time?

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:29 (twenty-one years ago)

whatever dude, on/off is ace! best best. makes me cry. more emotional than one more time.

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:29 (twenty-one years ago)

well... it's a bit vague to counter, but i'd like it to be known that i am not and have not ever been a rockist and have never endorsed, been party to or ever been affiliated with rockism. i find it contemptible, mr. mcarthy. purely and utterly. however, if it would please the court, i will etc. etc. etc.

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:30 (twenty-one years ago)

YOU'RE RED AS THE BLOOD THAT IS BOILING DEEP IN MY BONES!

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:32 (twenty-one years ago)

"Emotion" - This reminds me of a fuzzier version of the song in the credits to New Order's "Substance" video collection, only not as engaging. Pleasant enough.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:33 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.wootang.net/communism.jpg

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Woah, why am I hovering over that kid???

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:35 (twenty-one years ago)

that poster was so much better when i thought it was real for an 1/8th of a second.

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay, final verdict: LIGHT YEARS BETTER THAN DISCOVERY.

Go ahead and scoff.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Yay! I knew Dan would love it! :-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:39 (twenty-one years ago)

2005 is being too good to us.

― deej., Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Fine! Why didn't you say this the first time?

Because ONE WORD (you know the one) should have sufficed.

― deej., Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Of the three albums, I find this one the most consistent and listenable.

Having said that, the singles on Homework are superior to everything on the new one except maybe "Technologic".

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:43 (twenty-one years ago)

(Also deej., speaking as someone who likkes to play the semantics game and redefine words so that he can use controversial language to make innocuous statements, no matter how much you protest you're not going to change DC's interpretation of the word "rockist"; furthermore, looking for hard work from a band doesn't strike me as particularly "rockist" in the sense that most rockists I know don't really privilege rehearsal and effort.)

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:47 (twenty-one years ago)

ROCK :)
ROBOT ROCK :O
ROCK :)))
ROBOT ROCK :(
ROCK :D
ROBOT ROCK :/
ROCK :>
ROBOT ROCK ]:-)

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Dan is, generally speaking, entirely crazy but he is right about "Technologic" and to the haters who call it "self-parody," I don't see it.

xp to Dan - if this is the case, then the word rockist is useless. If we use it as a word to define any and all logical fallacies related to music appreciation, it is actually a very useful word.

― deej., Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:48 (twenty-one years ago)

if this is the case, then the word rockist is useless.

YES IT IS.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I have downloaded it and I will listen to it tomorrow if it is a nice day.

Your discussions scare me.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Matos will be mad, Dan.

― deej., Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Dan, you should listen to Discovery again and review it here!!!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Can somebody please just take their compression plugins away from them? And all these square waves are seriously annoying. Not very impressed at all. Mediocre songwriting and bland production. Big fucking deal.

― Andrew (enneff), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 04:02 (twenty-one years ago)

grumble fume etc

I am patiently waiting for my DL to finish. Meanwhile, I'm still coming to terms with "Robot Rock" as alleged total ripoff of that Breakwater track -- and also why said ripoff is not actually that big a deal.

― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 04:29 (twenty-one years ago)

i actually think it is a big deal, and i alluded to as much on another thread, but once "robot rock" (a song i was previously only lukewarm on) revealed itself to be one of the best on the record, it felt like less of an issue.

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 04:32 (twenty-one years ago)

"intertextuality vs Plagiarism is necessary; progress implies it"

― Sébastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 04:33 (twenty-one years ago)

whats that from, sebastien?

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 04:35 (twenty-one years ago)

part of it is from a couple of people; Debord, Lautréamont ...& me on the "copier/coller" thread I made on the net art board. In the present context, I mean what daft punk are guilty of, exactly? They haven't followed the rules of proper "intertextuality" by failing to id their reference on that album that is yet to be released or what (I go with "or what" because progress= friend of daft punk logic)

― Sébastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 04:44 (twenty-one years ago)

can someone type out the lyrics to technologie? thanks.

― cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 04:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, not a big deal to its detriment, maybe. (xp)

― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 04:51 (twenty-one years ago)

well, fwiw i don't think they're 'guilty' of anything, especially not for leaning on samples, and i'm certainly not interested in finger-pointing, but i do think it's relevant to the extent that they have a reputation (whether rightful or not) for being gymnasts in the studio and that reputation informs people's expectations of their work (see: this thread). so if knowledge of their source material (and the extent to which they've copped it) is a big deal, then maybe it's because i think it could lead to a critical re-evaluation of the whole daft punk as tapehead musos thing. i mean i understand that this knowledge doesn't change the end result one lick but i am interested in process, if for no other reason than because it helps with forecasting..

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 04:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Point made, though when I first heard the singles from Homework I didn't hear so much muso gymnastics as I did the phenomenal ability to pick the best 5-to-10-second loop to ride and subtly tweak for 7 minutes.

(More thoughts on the context of the Breakwater track here.)

― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 05:01 (twenty-one years ago)

but he is right about "Technologic" and to the haters who call it "self-parody," I don't see it.

I think I am the only "hater", but surely you can see how redundant it is compared with "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", especially in the lyric department.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 05:11 (twenty-one years ago)

i cant help but listen to "technologic" without thinking it was purposely made to soundtrack tomorrow's electronics and it commercials

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 05:14 (twenty-one years ago)

so, i still stand by a lot of my criticisms upthread... but listens 5 and 6 make a lot more sense than listens 1 and 2 did. i'll play this out a lot more than i will at home though.

and mark p. completely otm about how this song is made for apple's 'rip mix burn' campaign.

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 05:14 (twenty-one years ago)

and not to rub it in or anything but i feel really sorry for the people receiving notification emails from this thread...

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 05:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, imagine how long this thread will be by the time the album is released.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 05:17 (twenty-one years ago)

i am interested in process, if for no other reason than because it helps with forecasting..

I have no problem w/ this.

― deej., Tuesday, 25 January 2005 05:21 (twenty-one years ago)

ROCK ROCK ROBOT ROCK....DON'T STOP

― tylero (tylero), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 05:34 (twenty-one years ago)

can someone type out the lyrics to technologie? thanks.

Buy it, use it, break it, fix it,
trash it, change it, melt - upgrade it,
charge it, pawn it, zoom it, press it,
snap it, work it, quick - erase it,
write it, get it, paste it, save it,
load it, check it, quick - rewrite it,
plug it, play it, burn it, rip it,
drag and drop it, zip - unzip it,
lock it, fill it, curl it, find it,
view it, curl it, jam - unlock it,
surf it, scroll it, pose it, click it,
cross it, crack it, twitch - update it,
name it, read it, tune it, print it,
scan it, send it, fax - rename it,
touch it, bring it, obey it, watch it,
turn it, leave it, stop - format it.

Technologic, technologic, technologic, technologic.

― Andrew (enneff), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 05:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Technologic is great, lighten up people. And the Brainwasher *totally* hits it, dancefloor wise, more than Robot Rock anyway.

I think now that the excitement of "Wow! I'm listening to the new Daft Punk album!" has worn off, I basically agree with Stevem. This isn't as good an album as Discovery but the best tracks are very good indeed. Its all about Human After All, The Brainwasher, Technologic and Emotion. I don't like Steam Machine at all.

Human After All is basically a joke on Kraftwerk's The Robots, isn't it?

I fear my first listen to Kish Kash has permanently coloured my reaction to every album I've heard since. I've never recaptured that "OMG THIS IS SO, SO FUCKING GOOD!" feeling ever since.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 09:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I've never recaptured that "OMG THIS IS SO, SO FUCKING GOOD!" feeling ever since.

Not even with Rex The Dog's "Frequency," Matt?

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 10:17 (twenty-one years ago)

(albeit that was a single, not an album)

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 10:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I have just listened to the first three tracks on the way to work.

Initial impressions:

'Human After All' - hmmm... nothing surprising here. Scene-setting kind of track #1, rather than a mind-blower?

'The Prime Time Of Your Life' - this is more like it. I think the "prime time of your life" line is exactly what I want to hear right now. I am officially shaking off post-weekend blues. Doesn't open out into the track I expected, but I think that's OK.

'Robot Rock' - heard this before and was a bit underwhelmed. Apparently also heard it at the End on Saturday, but I have sketchy memories of much of that evening. Now it sounds ferocious. I love life.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 10:27 (twenty-one years ago)

It's OK... just not that inspired to me. I mean, its not that a group has to do new shit on every album but I have dozens of 12-inches from the mid 90's that sound like any of these songs. They basically have one filter setting they've used for their entire careers...

― DougD, Tuesday, 25 January 2005 11:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I gather you live pretty close to work, Alba.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 11:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Err yeah - 15 mins walk. I did actually catch the first minute or so of the next track but felt it unfair to comment.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 11:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Alba do you remember hearing '...Primetime...' at The End? it was a great moment

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 13:45 (twenty-one years ago)

seriously people you need to hear these tracks in a club LOUD with people everywhere, then come back here

i'd like to take the good tracks on HAA and the good tracks on Discovery and have The Greatest Album Of All Time

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 13:46 (twenty-one years ago)

They sound so completely different though! This works so much better this way.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 13:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Alba do you remember hearing '...Primetime...' at The End? it was a great moment

I would like to do Saturday again, differently.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 13:55 (twenty-one years ago)

They sound so completely different though! This works so much better this way.

If you think about the themes of Discovery, and the videos, many of the tracks on HAA would fit into that reasonably well e.g. 'The Brainwasher' being the bit where they have their memories erased, 'Human After All' would become 'Alien After All' haha. But yes I5555 has such romance and fantasy whereas HAA is an overly darker work.

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 14:05 (twenty-one years ago)

'Emotion' is just begging to sound track the most glamourous 'Emulsion' advert ever.

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 14:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I think I am the only "hater", but surely you can see how redundant it is compared with "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", especially in the lyric department.

"Technologic" pisses all over "HBFS" (which itself is an inferior reworking of "Around The World" anyway).

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 14:37 (twenty-one years ago)

If you think HBFS is like Around The World you're a complete spazzer.

Sorry, just joining in the general antsy vibe.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 15:13 (twenty-one years ago)

"Technologic" pisses all over "HBFS" (which itself is an inferior reworking of "Around The World" anyway).

Ah well, I think exactly the opposite, Dan. But we Boston folk must stick together! Otherwise we'll never get rid of the stench of Aerosmith.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 15:15 (twenty-one years ago)

"HBFS" has a great chorus...but I remember nothing else about it, generally.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 15:20 (twenty-one years ago)

that's YOUR error, carbon-based unit

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 15:29 (twenty-one years ago)

RobotM has his data straight.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 15:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I like this part:

04. Steam Machine - hotttttttttxxxxxxxxxxx
05. Make Love - afterglowmeltdown

― bnw (bnw), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 15:43 (twenty-one years ago)

you forgot

06. PISTONPUMPINGASLIIDILSALJFLEIFJE!!!!!!

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 15:45 (twenty-one years ago)

And, very important:

I AM THE BRAINWASHAAAAA!!!

― Omar (Omar), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 15:53 (twenty-one years ago)

has anyone got a fresh link to this?

I was in Barcelona all weekend and although Mark P was kind enough to mail me a link I couldn't download anything obviously.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 16:12 (twenty-one years ago)

ronan, check the dido thread.

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 16:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I was going to download this last night, but when I got home I had to break up a fight between my dog and my cat and completely forgot about it! With any luck this situation will be rectified tonight.

― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 16:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Were they posting to the Reynolds thread, too?

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 16:22 (twenty-one years ago)

some of it harks back to the first album, but i love the new sounds too. i have loved these guys forever and they have not dispointed me yet. robot rock is so fucking catchy!

― Brad Seethe, Tuesday, 25 January 2005 16:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Were they posting to the Reynolds thread, too?

The vision of her cat and dog being named "Ronan" and "Blount" terrifies my soul.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 16:39 (twenty-one years ago)

The prospect of ilx posters as pets is a frightening one. I don't suppose spaying and neutering would help in most cases.

― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 16:41 (twenty-one years ago)

And yet depending on what name you give the pet it could provide a certain grim satisfaction.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 16:43 (twenty-one years ago)

groups that are better at doing what daft punk does than daft punk:

1. ural 13 diktators
2. kitbuilders
3. bangkok impact

i'm sure vahid and stirmonster and finney and ronan and others can add more. this is not a dis, just a shout out for all the poor alter egos of this world who don't get 680-post threads about them!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 16:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Why don't you play the game?

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 16:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think anyone is better at doing what Daft Punk do than Daft Punk! The reason I don't feel the same way about them as I would the Chemical Brothers etc is that they are a pop act as much as a dance one. More than really.

I am only listening to the new record for the first time now, btw.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 16:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Major major xpost..

Mind you, it took me several years to appreciate Lil' Louis's "French Kiss" when it first came out in 1989. Some of the tracks here might fall under that category.

..ok, sorry. carry on...

― donut christ (donut), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 17:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I took this to the gym last night. When "Robot Rock" came on, I wanted to go run a four-minute mile, bench press 500lbs, do ten sets of fifty pull-ups, climb mt. everest...

Today, however, cranking it up at work, I get the feeling these songs are all riff. The kind of stuff that should be used take to the stage in concert to hype up the crowd. They don't go anywhere after the initial adrenaline rush.

Maybe context is all and I need to experience it in a crowd.

― john'n'chicago, Tuesday, 25 January 2005 17:08 (twenty-one years ago)

"Steam Machine" is amazing!

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 17:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I can totally imagine Ivan Smagghe playing it, slow and menacing!

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 17:12 (twenty-one years ago)

but yeah Tracer none of those acts could ever do a 'Digital Love' which constitutes what Daft Punk are about just as much as 'Da Funk' and 'The Brainwasher' (SO Acid Trax!) do.

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 17:19 (twenty-one years ago)

argh PROPER DANCE MUSIC etc etc zzzzzzzzz

i guess the weird thing for me is that DP are proper dance music. yet people who wouldn't go within 10 feet of proper dance music love them. i.e. if alter ego's "rocker" gets mislabelled as a daft punk song it might find a home in the tottering stacks of student CDs but not until then!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

'Rocker' has crossed over well tho thanks to use on TV. Bangkok Impact et al just aren't interested in image or shaping pop culture as an individual force unlike DP.

― Stevem On X (blueski), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 17:44 (twenty-one years ago)

'Rocker' is all over the place, Tracer! It's a total indie disco staple these days. And it was on the telly advertising Radio 1.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 17:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I haven't heard it at all out in L.A.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 17:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't necessarily disagree with Tracer (I don't know enough to be sure, really) - I just think that in the UK at least, 'Rocker' is a bad example with which to prove his point.

I have just come home and listened to three more tracks on the way.

'Steam Machine' is better than 'Steam' by East 17 and by Peter Gabriel and is possibly equal to or better than 'Love Machine' by Girls Aloud.

The opening strains of 'Make Love' made my eyes wet. I wasn't expecting this, and then I thought it would change and go all kitschy or something, but it didn't. Lovely.

'The Brainwasher' is high octane adrenaline rush again, yes. I like it when Daft Punk go all rock. I was not that enthralled when big beat drew on rock, because it was all a bit 'rooarrr' beery jump around for me. There's something meaner and dirtier about the way DP do it. Like the best of later Prodigy I guess, but less ridiculous.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Tracer disliking Daft Punk was what originally made me think he was a wizened old biker. I'm not sure why.

― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 18:29 (twenty-one years ago)

anyone else think the second half of primetime sounds more like lightning bolt than daft punk?

― Felonious Drunk (Felcher), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 19:13 (twenty-one years ago)

"Technologic" is amazing! That vocal is so quirky!

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 19:18 (twenty-one years ago)

TIP!

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

haha!

I think it's a far better vocal than "Harder Better Faster Stronger", partly cos I sense there's a bit of smirking there. I mean I don't know how many layers of irony are there, possibly several!

I don't know if it's just "Emotion" (unintentional pun) but I've just listened to this for the second time and am really loving it, plus I get the feeling it's going to yield alot more on repeated listens.

I don't like to say "it's not as good as Homework or Discovery" because I can't even group those two albums together in my head. There's a unique charm to Daft Punk that no matter what they do seems to shine through.

This record is alot darker than the others, and yet at the same time I can't listen without a lop-sided grin appearing every few seconds, like for example when the bass drum and the sort of steam-whistle come in in "Emotion".

I guess in summary, and this is a very early stage still, this album still leaves me feeling that the way in which Daft Punk see the world or make it appear, has this real magic to it.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 19:27 (twenty-one years ago)

As for the two notable dahnce fan ILMers who have yet to weigh in, I predict that both Tim Finney and Ronan will like this new album

Me upthread :)

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 19:29 (twenty-one years ago)

"Steam Machine" is amazing!
-- Ronan (ronan.fitzgerald6NOSPA...), January 25th, 2005.

OTM!!!

I can totally imagine Ivan Smagghe playing it, slow and menacing!
-- Ronan (ronan.fitzgerald6NOSPA...), January 25th, 2005.

OTM!!

I love Bangkok Impact.

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 19:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Ok listening again now, this is BY NO MEANS a disappointing record! : )

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 19:34 (twenty-one years ago)

"ROCK :)
ROBOT ROCK :O
ROCK :)))
ROBOT ROCK :(
ROCK :D
ROBOT ROCK :/
ROCK :>
ROBOT ROCK ]:-)

-- teeny (teen...) (webmail), January 25th, 2005 10:48 PM. (teeny)"

otm!!! But you forgot :3

― ade (Adrian Langston), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 19:43 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Brainwasher" is very very like Bangalter's stuff on Roulé

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 19:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I would like to do Saturday again, differently.

That's not what it looked like...

Mind you, I feel the same way. Less time in the main room, more time with PsychoPab, getting my toes stepped on, more Pro Plus, not being late, feeling better.

I need the last 4 tracks - this is still fun and 'Robot Rock' is essential bounce.

― Captain GRRRios' Giggletits (Barima), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 20:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Anyone think there's a "Make Love"/Mike Love joke at work?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 23:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I think Make Love may be my favorite track. It's like the Bjork "All is Full of Love" video... only it's a song! And the right one this time! And not by Bjork!

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 23:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I suppose that thin sliver btwn proper tracky dance track and catchy pop tune is where that seam of dafty punky gold is, and props to them for inventing it cos I'm not sure it was there before. The Jaxx don't even attempt that balancing act anymore (tho they once did with that Samba stuff, it seems like).

A bit the way Trans-Am found that overlap between Lightning Bolt and techno.

I am going to get it for that aren't it.

(ps yeah Rocker is a bad example in the UK (but it's a fine one for the US where this stuff doesn't get played outside specialist places, the occasional tv-ad backing track, and gyms or retail outlets where one of the managers has a european boyfriend))

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 00:06 (twenty-one years ago)

i think the HBFS vocal beats 'Technicolour', if only for the way they separate it all and then re-assemble it one thread

any disappointment i have about this album is not as strong as the delight i feel that it's HERE and NOW, tho i will probably be taking the 'more sounds, less loops' complaint to my grave

― Stevem On X (blueski), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 00:14 (twenty-one years ago)

retail outlets where one of the managers has a european boyfriend
:')

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 00:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I just realized by my description there's no daylight btwn them and Norman Cook! Well I will give this a listen anyhow, sure enough.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 00:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I just realized by my description there's no daylight btwn them and Norman Cook!

This is very apt considering what "Robot Rock" sounds like.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 00:25 (twenty-one years ago)

(but it's a fine one for the US where this stuff doesn't get played outside specialist places

I misread this as 'socialist places'. "We'll keep the Rocker flying".

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 00:28 (twenty-one years ago)

this album still leaves me feeling that the way in which Daft Punk see the world or make it appear, has this real magic to it.

Never have truer words been spoken on ILM. :) That's why those "what about 99 Shaolin Techno Monks, they do this better" style comments puzzle me. I mean that may be true on a technical level, but obviously none of them have this...touch, charisma even? that Daft Punk have.

Good to see 'Make Love' getting...uhm...some love.

― Omar (Omar), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 08:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I quite enjoyed listening to this on the train this morning, but I still consider Daft Punk to be the most overrated-by-ILM artists there is.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 09:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't believe nobody is with me on the perfection of the title track. I can't get over it and listen to it almost hourly.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 10:25 (twenty-one years ago)

is this up on the web somewhere?

― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 10:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean, besides slsk.

― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 10:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Spencer, I'm with you on the perfection! Every time I finish the album, I have to jump two times out of joy; the first jump because of the overall goodness, the second because it's Human After All-time!

― JakeWithBrain!, Wednesday, 26 January 2005 10:38 (twenty-one years ago)

http://s22.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3O4IK5GXESTQK2XT3QHYQXRSFE

Cop it while it's hot

― Stevem On X (blueski), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 10:49 (twenty-one years ago)

yeh Spencer i've been praising the title track plenty!

― Stevem On X (blueski), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 10:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Ronan's Ivan Smagghe comment on Steam Machine has almost undone the damage caused by all those NIN comparisons.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 11:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought the Jaxx crossed the line between themselves and DP when they remixed 'Automatic' For The Pointer Sisters.

― Captain GRRRios' Giggletits (Barima), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 11:43 (twenty-one years ago)

that was just a little bootleg thing tho right? i need to get a copy back actually. i get the impression DP are quite snobby about bootlegs, maybe even seeing it as 'beneath them'

― Stevem On X (blueski), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 11:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh fuck - 'Make Love' has just come on my iPod as I sit having my lunch at my office desk and there are tears down my cheeks again. This is ridiculous! What is it that this track is doing to me?

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 14:00 (twenty-one years ago)

oh yes! I've only ever heard like two daft punk songs ever anyway (maybe I'm one of the dudes tracer ws talking about) (hi tracer!) so this is like candy covered gamecubes to me!

― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 14:05 (twenty-one years ago)

daft punk!

― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 14:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I have now giving up trying to work out if I heard, or remember hearing 'Robot Rock' and 'The Prime Time Of Your Life' at Bugged Out on Saturday, but both tracks make me think of that night, and weird happiness, in some sense-memory way, be it false sense-memory syndrome or not.

I absolutely love this album up to 'The Brainwasher' and then it peters out for me, at the moment, anyway.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 14:07 (twenty-one years ago)

is this what the other albums sound like?!

― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 14:10 (twenty-one years ago)

a little, in parts, at times.

― Stevem On X (blueski), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 14:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Human After All - for dance fans who like looking at pictures of guitars but haven't figured out why.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 14:33 (twenty-one years ago)

that's Dance with a capital D you silly

― Stevem On X (blueski), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 14:37 (twenty-one years ago)

i think that this album is great. it's actually easier to listen to the whole way through than Discovery. however i do like that the album allegedly made by robots was the one with all the restlessness and eccentric songwriting and huge range of sonic ideas, and the one made by humans is the one built entirely out of loops and the exact same sounds. i will believe that this is daft punk's ironic intention. a good robot would never spend as little as 6 weeks on something as important as a new daft punk album.

as for danceability, on the whole this album defintely seems much better designed for clubs than Discovery.

― pete b. (pete b.), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 14:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Beh. This album is a Dance album like Hey Ya is a Hiphop song. And it's a pop album like I am Marie of Rumania. Now if it was half the length, with all of the songs abandonded exactly at the halfway mark, then we'd be talking..

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 14:57 (twenty-one years ago)

i admit that i am very hopeful for some huge remixes

― pete b. (pete b.), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 14:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Andrew, I agree that the tracks may be a little overlong considering what they are/do - nothing unbearably long tho. a big part of Discovery's success for me was keeping everything short and sweet with the exception of 'Too Long' which takes 'le peess'. It is mostly very good dance music tho (as well as good Dance Music).

― Stevem On X (blueski), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 15:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Title track is great but what does it MEAN?

Are the robots playing cool, still thinking they're humans trying to fit in and saying it like "well, we are human, after all"

or have the robots discovered that they have actually been humans all along AND is this a good or bad thing?

― jsk baby (jsk baby), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 15:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I blame 9/11

― Stevem On X (blueski), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 15:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I'll take your word for what goes down on the dance floor, I just can;t imagine any of these moving a crowd unmixed, and isn't that what dance music is all about in the end (cut to Ronan mailing me a stick of dynamite)

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 15:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I just listened to this (thanks for the download, Stevem). "Technologic" and "Make Love" are decent. "Robot Rock" kind of misses the dynamic pipes of Kurtis Blow but will make the backdrop of a great mash-up. "Emotion" would be great as the extended intro to a disco version of "Tracks Of My Tears."

Anybody who doesn't hear ten albums they enjoy more than this this year is a sucker.

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 15:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I just can;t imagine any of these moving a crowd unmixed

i can assure you 'Primetime...' went down well enough at The End as an opening track in Alkan's set. The unmixed criticism would apply to a huge amount of tracks but I'm not convinced it's a solid criticism - unless you're saying clubs other than house/techno/electro/etc. nights should leave it alone? hmm.

Miccio i guarantee i will enjoy Human After All more than your ten favourite albums of this year ;)

― Stevem On X (blueski), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 15:53 (twenty-one years ago)

If I had a capella mix of Ozzy's vocal I'd try to make a mash-up of "Make Love" and "Crazy Train." For some reason I think it would work (might be wrong about the key).

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 15:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Miccio i guarantee i will enjoy Human After All more than your ten favourite albums of this year ;)

Compare to Nellie McKay: No contest :-)

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 15:56 (twenty-one years ago)

an a capella mix

i got your emoticon right here, bitchez

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 15:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I will say this album has given me the strength to say that I Am A Basement Jaxx Fan. I may think entire albums are overrated, but individual tracks off all three albums turn everything on this wafer to cinder.

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 16:02 (twenty-one years ago)

daft punk has been my favorite band ever since I saw the video to da funk at 13-14 years of age. never have I anticipated an album more than this one so it saddens me when I have to say it's a complete let down for me. what I've always liked about dp is that their albums have both these cold, "dark" and unpleasant songs AND the opposite of that. but this album only consists of the latter. take me to the fucking disco cause that's where I want to be. and where's the pop? where's the naiveness? the romanticism? the beauty? this album is all cold and lifeless. I'm crying as I'm writing this. I feel so lost.

now I put all my faith in the coming avalanches album.

― Lovelace, Wednesday, 26 January 2005 16:27 (twenty-one years ago)

'Make Love' and 'Emotion' seem quite the opposite of cold, dark and unpleasant.

Where's the pop? the title track, Robot Rock

where's the naiveness? Television Rules The Nation, the use of the same sounds throughout, the monotony?

Where's the romanticism? Make Love, Emotion

The beauty? All around

― Stevem On X (blueski), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 16:32 (twenty-one years ago)

OTM. please don't cry.

― pete b. (pete b.), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 16:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm crying as I'm writing this. I feel so lost.

Please don't cry over an album.

― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 16:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay, I'll give you Emotion as being the opposite of cold dark and unpleasant but it's not a good song.

Robot Rock is a really boring rock song.

I guess I want cutesy naiveness (as in Digital Love for example) which Television Rules the Nation is not.

Meh. This album just doesnt make me feel anything. I guess that's the worst criticism you can give and I'm sorry to say it.

― Lovelace, Wednesday, 26 January 2005 16:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I have now giving up trying to work out if I heard, or remember hearing 'Robot Rock' and 'The Prime Time Of Your Life' at Bugged Out on Saturday

Remember, when Alkan came on, I grabbed you and Steve and screamed "DAFT PUNK, MOTHERFUCKERS" and you both smiled and started grooving robotically.

― Captain GRRRios' Giggletits (Barima), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 16:40 (twenty-one years ago)

The video for 'Robot Rock' MUST feature Thomas as Larry Blackmon and Guy-Thomas as Roger from Xapp!.

― Captain GRRRios' Giggletits (Barima), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 16:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Or Guy-Man. Or Guy from Neighbours.

― Captain GRRRios' Giggletits (Barima), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 16:43 (twenty-one years ago)

wait, I meant to say that make love is a boring song. emotion is quite alright actually.

― Lovelace, Wednesday, 26 January 2005 16:43 (twenty-one years ago)

FIVE
FIVE OH ONE

― donut christ (donut), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 17:24 (twenty-one years ago)

my friend and I are doing a shoegazery cover of "emotion" friday night. we're totally keeping the simple-yet-completely-tear-jerking beat.

Lovelace, how many times have you listened to the album? because i felt a lot like you do on the first 2 listens or so, but goddamn if HAA hasn't completely grown on me.

― Felonious Drunk (Felcher), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 20:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't believe nobody is with me on the perfection of the title track. I can't get over it and listen to it almost hourly.

It's really lovely, I agree. Grand way to start it out.

my friend and I are doing a shoegazery cover of "emotion" friday night. we're totally keeping the simple-yet-completely-tear-jerking beat.

Share an mp3, plz, I'd be intrigued.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 20:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't believe nobody is with me on the perfection of the title track. I can't get over it and listen to it almost hourly.

Oh, but I agree. It's been on replay in my head all day. The last two minutes, as the voices go ever higher, is just exquisite. Sigh.

― stevo (stevo), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 20:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Anybody who doesn't hear ten albums they enjoy more than this this year is a sucker.

anybody with such a facile conception of "enjoyment" is an idiot.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 20:59 (twenty-one years ago)

my friend and I are doing a shoegazery cover of "emotion" friday night. we're totally keeping the simple-yet-completely-tear-jerking beat.

FD, where are you playing? I'd totally go see that.

― adam (adam), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 21:08 (twenty-one years ago)

The title track is like the best fucking thing ever.

― deej., Wednesday, 26 January 2005 21:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I agree with ronan. I am human after all!

― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 21:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I think "Emotion" is already shoegaze! The "mo" part of "emotion" has a weird MBV-esque pitch bend.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 21:17 (twenty-one years ago)

sooo...i can't even find this on soulseek, whats up with that!

― Rizz (Rizz), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 22:42 (twenty-one years ago)

slsk's search function is just totally useless, there's probably a million copies on slsk that the search is not showing. Probably your best bet is to ask someone in the ilm chatroom on slsk.

― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 22:47 (twenty-one years ago)

YES

i was thinking 'Emotion' = shoegaze all today.

it has this weird sound after every bit too.

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 22:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes! Actually I was thinking how much it reminds me of MBV's "Glider" track!

as for slsk:
I've found it helpful to open multiple search windows searching for the same thing. They often display different results. Also, refresh the s
searches by clicking stop and start a few times.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 22:55 (twenty-one years ago)

or go to the ILM room and beg
That'll probably work.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 23:31 (twenty-one years ago)

it occurred to me this morning that i would be totally alright with never hearing this again.

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 23:40 (twenty-one years ago)

got it

― Rizz (Rizz), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 23:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I give up.

I have learned to love "Robot Rock", Breakwater or no Breakwater. But please, I beg of you, no more Dalek flatulence. It's fine on the title track (which is the closest they get to Discovery euphoria), it's near-tolerable on "Prime Time of Your Life" because I know the thing's going to go into some lunatic hyperspeed Bad Brains convulsion, but hearing it again in "Technologic" and (albeit toned down) "Emotion" is completely ridiculous. I'm kind of let down that "Make Love" isn't nearly as instant-high gorgeous as "Nightvision" is (now that's a track I'd like to hear a 5-minute version of). "Steam Machine" is a boring, funkless downer. "Television Rules the Nation" is Colecovision AC/DC on Quaaludes.

I'll spot 'em the title track, "Robot Rock" and "Brainwasher", and the rest can get tossed out the window. I'm hoping Cut Copy's Bright Like Neon Love gets a wide release this year so I can vote for it instead of this.

― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Thursday, 27 January 2005 00:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Any British/Europeans not feeling it? ;)

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 01:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Another thing that may offer perspective. If they really did record this in just six weeks, what's to stop them recording ANOTHER album before the year is out, or at least next year? This might remedy any feelings of disappointment soured further by the assumption that it will be another four years until the next album. I mean it's not as if they're really that busy generally is it (or so it would seem) - they hardly ever DJ or remix anyone else. pull your fingers out lads, the Jaxx are pulling ahead by more than a length...

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 01:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't seem to find it very easily.

I like what I've heard, though.

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 27 January 2005 01:42 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost
Yeah, I'm only looking forward to the next one even more!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 27 January 2005 01:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Daft Punk - Human After All
Dear God no. This is so desultory and off the cuff it's almost insulting. Is it supposed to be some parody of "dance rock"? They weren't kidding with that title. I'm trying to pretend I'm not gutted, but...yeah.
# posted by Jess : 4:12 PM

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 27 January 2005 03:53 (twenty-one years ago)

As long as he didn't cry, that's cool.

― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Thursday, 27 January 2005 03:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Crying, that's nothing. I've mentioned this before, but I know someone who hated "One More Time" so much that when it came on, on some "party mix" CD a friend of hers had made, she dragged the tall kitchen trash can over, did a handstand on it, and let herself fall into it headfirst. Her feet were wiggling in the air. (Admittedly she had just broken up with her boyfriend and it was 5 in the morning.)

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 27 January 2005 04:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I've played it for ppl here at school and everyone's had a (surprisingly) strong reaction.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Thursday, 27 January 2005 04:21 (twenty-one years ago)

in a positive sense, i mean.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Thursday, 27 January 2005 04:22 (twenty-one years ago)

To quote the Replacements: FUCK SCHOOL

― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Thursday, 27 January 2005 05:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Am I the only one waiting until March 21 to hear this? I want to document that entire day in my memory banks so I'm choosing to wait until the official CD comes out. I like the anticipation, it makes the whole experience that more enjoyable (despite the already too long 5 year wait).

― kevin says relax (daddy warbuxx), Thursday, 27 January 2005 07:48 (twenty-one years ago)

ok i broke down and am d/l'ing this right now. i am sort of scared to listen to it. =(

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 27 January 2005 08:05 (twenty-one years ago)

emotion, emotion, emotion, e-motion.

― cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 27 January 2005 09:00 (twenty-one years ago)

"****1/2"

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 27 January 2005 09:09 (twenty-one years ago)

well, after half a dozen listens i think i'm finally ready to comment: it's fantastic! i don't get the haters at all. definitely benefits from being listened to at a decent volume, though.

― toby (tsg20), Thursday, 27 January 2005 10:08 (twenty-one years ago)

ihttp://www.firsttvdrama.com/pbs/scifi/cyber.jpg

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 27 January 2005 10:16 (twenty-one years ago)

ooops

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 27 January 2005 10:16 (twenty-one years ago)

what!

this is a good album. If you stop comparing it to past glories long enough to listen to it properly you might find that you enjoy it.

my thoughts:

Human After All - This strikes me as a pure Daft Punk single. I love the subtle guitars here and in a way i wish they had used that guitar tone from the left channel a lot more on the rest of the record. I smile everytime that riff comes in and the vocoderised vocals kind of gurgle 'we are human after all'. The notion of such a robotic voice repeating 'we are human after all' for so long before going nuts at the end is so simple but it works; and that is the 'Daft Punk magic'.

Prime Time Of Your Life - Abrasive is the word that has been tossed around by some about this album. A feeling definately captured in this. Such a slow awkward build up until the vocal dualing just collapses into a drone and the track is destroyed. It's almost as if they are toying with us.

Robot Rock - Ha, i love that intro. It's even better with the knowledge that it's the first single back. The guitars seem to be singing 'rock robot rock' even before the vocals come in. It just makes so much sense.

Steam Machine - INDUSTIAL! woah. I like the repetativeness (here and the rest of the album). The riff is so strong that the subtle changes throughout bring all the momentum crashing back in when the motif finally returns in its original guise. The track is too long though. But...

Make Love - After the assualt of 'Steam Machine' here is Daft Punk effortlessly pouring a billion emotions into what appears to be a very repetative (why can't i spell that word right now?) song. Get out a pen and some paper and just write down what emotions are here. It's bittersweet, it's wistful, it's celebratory almost. Yes, My Bloody Valentine did the same trick in places and i don't think for a minute Daft Punk are trying to emulate that band but they are tapping into the same vein in a different era and a different genre. And what's more it comes across as being produced with such effortless ease.

The Brainwasher - This track was built to destroy the dancefloor.

On/off - I think this is just here to make up the '10 tracks' for an album.

Television Rules The Nation - This is actually one of my favourites, the kick drum has a slight squeak in it and it sounds great set against those guitars. And i know they use the same sound everywhere but when that bass finally comes in it makes me happy. Happy to be alive and listening to Daft Punk.

Technologic - That vocal is so hot. And funny. I can't wait to learn this by heart. If they were teasing us at the start of the album they are laughing with us now. They are extending their hands - "come on, join the Daft Punk party!"

Emotion - Parts of this album do seem inhuman. It's like all of it has been pulled aside and emotion is what reigns above all. It's so hypnotising and shoegaze. I can hear so many different sounds in here. And that bassline, simple as it is, is fucking killer.

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Thursday, 27 January 2005 10:37 (twenty-one years ago)

every word is true!

― pete b. (pete b.), Thursday, 27 January 2005 10:41 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't get the haters at all

Well yes and no. I was thinking about this the other day and for me Daft Punk (having reached this Kraftwerkian level) demand total affirmation. It's religious music in a way. Why even bother criticizing it? It's like criticizing the sky.

― Omar (Omar), Thursday, 27 January 2005 11:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Prime Time Of Your Life is an absolutely amazing record, I don't even know how to describe it.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 27 January 2005 12:13 (twenty-one years ago)

It's like criticizing the sky.

Omar, I truly agree with you. Was thinking all day what to write about this LP and how to explain why i am givin it 10/10 and didn't found any reasonable arguments :) Thanks God, there is plenty of time until the end of March, when it is out officially.

― karl76 (karl76), Thursday, 27 January 2005 12:20 (twenty-one years ago)

i played it last night, and, i think, i dont like it that much! make love, and emotion are quite good, i like those two best, but i was rather underwhelmed with the whole thing on first listen...

― charltonlido (gareth), Thursday, 27 January 2005 12:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I think 'Make Love' is the one that suffers from 'countless other dance tracks do this better or at least have more going on' - it harks everything from 'Promised Land' to 'Let The Music Use You' to 'My Life Muzik' to 'Love Lost', it sort of captures that whole sect of melancholic dancefloor classics with anthemic status...but it ends up not being as good as any of them by not going more for that anthem status. It occurred to me 'but why NOT do a new 'Promised Land' sort of thing?' but perhaps that's too cliched. Either they feel like they don't have to say much or they just don't have much to say. The former is fine but they shouldn't be praised to the high heavens for this 'oh they manage to say so much by saying nothing at all' thing cos i don't really buy it.

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 13:13 (twenty-one years ago)

This kind of thing is so wordlessly in the ear and heart of the beholder. When someone above compared 'Make Love' unfavourably to 'Nightvision' I just couldn't get it at all. 'Nightvision' is a nice enough lush Air-esque filler track (not to knock Air). The melody of 'Make Love' touches something much deeper in me.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 27 January 2005 13:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I played Make Love through a pair of really shitty portable speakers last night and it sounded like Superpitcher.

I'm firmly on the Toby side of things like this. Even Steam Machine has clicked with me now - I think its the bit half way through where the loop sounds like its being turned inside out that does it for me.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 27 January 2005 13:22 (twenty-one years ago)

(above, Hari said it was bittersweet, wistful and celebratory. I'd sort of go along with that, but above all, it is a kind of confident, happy, strong sensuality that it evokes for me. Luxuriating in its capture of a moment. The title helps.)

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 27 January 2005 13:23 (twenty-one years ago)

but it's just a drop in the ocean for that sort of thing

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 13:27 (twenty-one years ago)

This argument is useless, as I said.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 27 January 2005 13:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think "Make Love" is like a "Promised Land", it's not even a house record really. I think of it as "Make Love" in the sexual sense rather than the "spread love" sense.

The way the piano goes for when the voice comes in going "looooove" is really amazing, like kind of romantic and sad and uplifting all at once.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 27 January 2005 13:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think I even know the "spread love" sense of making love. I possibly say this as a boast.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 27 January 2005 13:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Tonite let's all make love to robots.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 27 January 2005 13:40 (twenty-one years ago)

well, the "make love not war" thing, is what I was getting at.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 27 January 2005 13:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought that was about having sex instead of going to war.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 27 January 2005 13:44 (twenty-one years ago)

those hippies were having sex?

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 27 January 2005 13:47 (twenty-one years ago)

it's not even a house record really.

it's as much a house record as 'Love Lost' tho...so yes and no! it reminds me a lot of the soulful Chicago house of old, an echo, without actually saying it is that, or saying anything really. and it doesn't do anything a whole bunch of other records like that don't. i still like it tho!

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 13:47 (twenty-one years ago)

No "Love Lost" has a far more pronounced kick to it. I don't think you could play "Make Love" in a club really.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 27 January 2005 13:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe in a ...sex club?

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 27 January 2005 13:49 (twenty-one years ago)

ok i'm listening again and yes there's an obvious difference in sound between 'make love' and these other 4/4 tracks obv. designed more with dancing in mind. 'make love' wouldn't really work on the dancefloor, but it's still channelling vibe of aforementioned tracks I feel.

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 13:49 (twenty-one years ago)

On the surface, it's a bit similar to some 'A Grand Love Story' tracks, but as I say, for whatever reason, it does something different to me.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 27 January 2005 13:52 (twenty-one years ago)

it's odd because altho i make that connection 'make love' sounds a lot bleaker to me. there's no definitive air of hope in the line, the piano...and the way it fades in and out like an interlude makes it seem like something at the back of their minds since 9/11 (uh oh) or just a memory from another place and time that's dropped in amongst the electro filth, for reasons i'm unsure about.

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 13:53 (twenty-one years ago)

it's VERY Felix in that respect too

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 13:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I agree it is very like Braxe.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 27 January 2005 13:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Its unfamiliar surroundings are part of what gives it its uncanny, precious air.

makes it seem like something at the back of their minds since 9/11

It is about having TERROR SEX.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 27 January 2005 13:56 (twenty-one years ago)

it's about going to see Fahrenheit 9/11 and having self righteous sex afterwards.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 27 January 2005 13:58 (twenty-one years ago)

you may laugh

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 14:00 (twenty-one years ago)

i know i am!

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 14:00 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm glad you love 'Primetime' anyway. i mean really, hearing that last weekend - that was my first Major Musical Moment Of 2005

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 14:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I get "THE PRIMETIME OF YOUR LIFE" rushing through my mind quite a lot at the moment and yes, it is quite uplifting. Ridiculous, for a 31-year-old, you might say. But look at Jean Brodie.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 27 January 2005 14:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't fathom what it is about that song! or how to interpret it. It's extremely Kompakt when it goes schaffel.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 27 January 2005 14:14 (twenty-one years ago)

it almost becomes 'Gratis'

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 14:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Alba I thought you were younger. You should be proud.

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 14:27 (twenty-one years ago)

It's such a great opening double - definitely as strong as Homework and Discovery's and the three Jaxx albums

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 14:29 (twenty-one years ago)

The album is OK. But like others say, Daft Punk have surely been overtaken by many others making more sparkling, interesting, fun dance music (actually this happened before Discovery). Names? I dunno, Martin Solveig, Joakim, Tiefschwarz, Ewan Pearson, Tiga, Soul Makenik) But again, it's OK. Just couldn't imagine wanting to hear it more than 5 times.

― paulhw (paulhw), Thursday, 27 January 2005 14:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Daft Punk have something all these other cutting edge dance producers tho. Is it a 'personality' thing? Character? More warmth? More fun? More familiarity? All/none of the above?

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 14:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Lots of people like Daft Punk as a Pop act as opposed to or alongside a Dance act - as in they don't care about DP's status as one of a Big Five or whatever. I like that they want to be a bit of both.

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 14:51 (twenty-one years ago)

"Primetime Of Your Life" is very Andrew Lloyd Webber, innit?

― miccio (miccio), Thursday, 27 January 2005 15:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean the first part

― miccio (miccio), Thursday, 27 January 2005 15:05 (twenty-one years ago)

i've been saying ELO

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 15:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Horace Wimp this is the primetime of your life mash-up not required plz.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 27 January 2005 15:32 (twenty-one years ago)

BLORP BLOOP BRAWWWWWP
BLORP BLOOP BRAWWWWWP
BLORP BLOOP BRAWWWWWP
BLORP BLOOP BRAWWWWWP
BLORP BLOOP BRAWWWWWP

― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Thursday, 27 January 2005 15:41 (twenty-one years ago)

innit

We'll make a proper Anglophile out of you yet. Um, guv'nor, gorblimey etc.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 27 January 2005 15:48 (twenty-one years ago)

ow do you say, beezer?

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 15:50 (twenty-one years ago)

The secret to Daft Punk's success is that they are a duo like Carter USM, which warms the cockles of many an indie kid.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 27 January 2005 15:51 (twenty-one years ago)

The secret to Daft Punk's failure (in this case) is that they forgot what funk was.

God. This album is such a fucking plod. Anyone who calls this a top ten album gets a confused shake of the head, anyone who calls this the best album of the year gets my derision, and anyone who calls this better than Discovery is my eternal enemy.

― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Thursday, 27 January 2005 15:58 (twenty-one years ago)

It isn't twee = It is a better Daft Punk album than Discovery.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I guess Dan and I are your eternal enemies?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Good lord, we ARE the same brain.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah. You go enjoy the house equivalent of Sea Change, OK?

― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:02 (twenty-one years ago)

It isn't twee = It is a better Daft Punk album than Discovery.

um, no.

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd understand someone saying its better than Discovery if they think Discovery is a poo hat.

― miccio (miccio), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I prefer Discovery because it had some nifty singles

― miccio (miccio), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah. You go enjoy the house equivalent of Sea Change, OK?

OOOH BURN! (nb I never heard Sea Change)

Discovery didn't move me at all. It struck me as overly precious and cutesy.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I find you over precious and cutesy.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:16 (twenty-one years ago)

You go enjoy the house equivalent of Sea Change, OK?

I actually kinda liked Sea Change!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:17 (twenty-one years ago)

i like Nate's 'Sea Change' comparison! he may be on the euros

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:20 (twenty-one years ago)

OK, let me put it this way:

It's 1996. Kevin Shields has announced a new MBV album. You get all lathered up over the tracklisting and a good first single, and then it turns out the rest of the album sounds like Ween.

I'm sorry if I'm getting all ill here (the exact opposite of me in the Push the Button thread, actually -- and THAT ALBUM IS BETTER THAN HUMAN AFTER ALL BY THE WAY), but when my favorite album of the last 7 years is followed up by a record that almost completely negates everything I liked about the previous one, I get all Hulk Smash.

― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:24 (twenty-one years ago)

It's 1996. Kevin Shields has announced a new MBV album. You get all lathered up over the tracklisting and a good first single, and then it turns out the rest of the album sounds like Ween.

Hahah! But I LOVE Ween!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I actually kinda liked Sea Change!

Me too. But that's beside the point, good sir. Are we noticing some European daytime, almost all posts full of praise, nighttime falls and eurotrash wanna-be's like Ned and Dan are left alone fighting the vampires, sorta divide? ;) (Stevem on X suggested something like this upthread.)

― Omar (Omar), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I totally understand your problem with the precious and cutesy, Dan (I am NOT a Daft Punk fan), though I don't see how those elements aren't in Human After All, just in a more lifeless state.

― miccio (miccio), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually you know what suggestions about this album being lifeless etc. remind me of -- all the complaints almost five years back when Kid A came out and many people were "Ew! A cold heartless album!" When it was actually one of the warmest things they'd ever done to my ears! (Thus in this case the title track, "Make Love," "Emotion"...)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah. You go enjoy the house equivalent of Sea Change, OK?

Nate, if you're at all making an analogy between this album and Sea Change, that's quite a gruesome insult of Sea Change.. and I'm hardly a Beck apologist, in fact quite the opposite. At least Sea Change was a concerted effort to reproduce Dan Fogelberg.. and i stress the word "concerted". Human After All isn't concerted. It's just sounds so tossed off and "aw fuck it, we don't give a fuck what are fans think. some will love it anyway, and some will hate it, but fuck it."

Damn, I thought even a little time would warm me towards Human After All, but I'm feeling more cheated and pissed off that this seemingly tossed off collection of dark synth gargle and second rate vocoding hiss was anything I had higher expectations for.

I think Daft Punk should have renamed themselves something else before releasing this... (like Ratatat.. haha) this is like the equivalent of hearing Echo and the Bunnymen's Reverberation, except all the original members (as far as we know) are still here. It's just... not right. fuck! why?

I can find the worst 10 New Beat tracks ever made, and I'd still enjoy that more than this album.

― donut christ (donut), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:31 (twenty-one years ago)

"Share an mp3, plz, I'd be intrigued."
we might be taping it on a handheld tape recorder, in which case I'll do what I can.

"FD, where are you playing? I'd totally go see that."
It's just a Neutral Ground set. We haven't even practiced it yet (or even programmed the drums/bass), so I can't promise that it won't suck, but we've talked about it a lot over email, so we know exactly what we want to do. we're billed as scottie day and the nonpareils, though it's looking like all the other band members bailed out, so I am effectively the nonpareils. The rest of the songs are mainly just gonna be my friend playing his fun songs on acoustic guitar and me playing everything I own but my theremin. it's for 11pm if you're not doing anything else that night.

― Felonious Drunk (Felcher), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I would say Human After All is more static than Discovery and that the exercises in stasis are the antithesis of cutesy (the sole exception being "Prime Time Of Your Life" which SURPRISE SURPRISE is the track I would like to stab with knives).

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Anyway, the reaction to this record is easily breaking down to the "Loved Discovery, hate this" camp, and the "eh on Discovery, this is groovy!" camp, more or less. I don't think anybody who loved Discovery likes this more, and vice versa.

"Prime Time Of Your Life" has that same slow shuffle that a lot of (the worst of) Kompact has... (SURPRISE SURPRISE.)

― donut christ (donut), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:38 (twenty-one years ago)

but donut they can't make an album for the fans can they?

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I understand very little about the new direction the thread has taken.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:40 (twenty-one years ago)

"Make Love" is one of my favorite tracks on the album, but I can't hear "Emotion" as anything other than a prelude to an amazing disco version of "Tracks Of My Tears" and I get mad that it doesn't follow.

― miccio (miccio), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:41 (twenty-one years ago)

you're right.. they can do whatever they want. they can probably afford to. again, i'm just feeling very cheated right now.

― donut christ (donut), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:41 (twenty-one years ago)

dc otm re: difference between sea change and this.

― miccio (miccio), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:42 (twenty-one years ago)

this is probably how XTC fans reacted after hearing Mummer for the very first time, I'm guessing.

― donut christ (donut), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:42 (twenty-one years ago)

comparing it to 'Push The Button' is interesting. i think there's more EFFORT in PTB and you'd hope so with more time being spent recording it. But does that make it better? I have a feeling I am going to be listening to Human After All more, though I find both have their moments (and fantastic moments they are) and any disappointment I have in either is about equal.

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:43 (twenty-one years ago)

miccio, do you feel 'Feels Like Home' on Kish Kash more than 'Emotion'?

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:44 (twenty-one years ago)

the reaction to this record is easily breaking down

Mmm, no there's the "Discovery was amazing, but hey they're not going better that, still it's Daft Punk so instead they made another good album, big surprise" crowd. Me, Ronan and Ned, at least.

― Omar (Omar), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:44 (twenty-one years ago)

haha i love how this album makes me want to hear ANYTHING but it again. I'd actually like to revisit some of those string parts on Sea Change sometime. Beck was a snooze but his dad was in the zone.

not sure, Stevem. I made an EP out of my favorite tracks on Kish Kash ("Right Here's The Spot"/"Lucky Star"/"Plug It In"/"Kish Kash"/"Hot'n'Cold") and tossed the rest. I could make an assumption but its been a long time since I heard "FLH." I definitely feel Jaxx in general a lot more than DP.

― miccio (miccio), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:47 (twenty-one years ago)

too much vs. too little

― miccio (miccio), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, at least Daft Punk will have to release a DOUBLE LIVE album ne.. oh wait, they already did. They trumped the Foghat rule!

― donut christ (donut), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:48 (twenty-one years ago)

the thing is i ignored FLH for a while too but the last few times i've listened to it i'm quite awe-struck by it and can't help but feel 'Emotion' is rather 4:3 to FLH's 24:9 anamorphic surround sound. but perhaps i am wrong to keep comparing the two.

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

actually, scratch the "too much vs. too little" thing. Jaxx has plenty of moments that feel thin to me over their career.

I may actually prefer "Emotion," which almost could be seen as some kind of parodistic commentary - using the chords of "TOMT" with ironic distance.

― miccio (miccio), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:50 (twenty-one years ago)

too much vs. too little

that's the crux of it really. Kish Kash's density never bugged me as much as Human After All's minimalism does tho.

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:52 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah I'll stand by the TM vs. TL thing for Kish Kash vs. Human After All, just not both bands' entire career. And I definitely prefer the density.

― miccio (miccio), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:53 (twenty-one years ago)

It was odd listening to "Primetime of Your Life" on the train this morning, especially as the train was slowing down and the schaffel beat was was speeding up.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:53 (twenty-one years ago)

...except, Omar, I think Discovery isn't flat-out amazing per se -- more top-heavy with a hell of an opening and then after that it's sorta there, though often pleasantly there. The fact that this album is *shorter* than Discovery is already a plus for it -- I have no problem with long albums at all (c'mon, Mellon Collie is one of my favorite albums in all time and space!), but I think Daft Punk carry off longer tracks on their own better than they do a lot of them together.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:53 (twenty-one years ago)

haha sorry if anybody's offended that I said "bands." just came out.

― miccio (miccio), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Whoa, if we're doing Kish Kash vs. Human After All = yay to both! Wow, that would be a great double bill, wouldn't it?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:54 (twenty-one years ago)

if this album sells millions and everyone starts ripping off the frog vomit, im gonna key bangalters car or somethign

― :| (....), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:58 (twenty-one years ago)

on the other hand, everyone ripping off "steam machine" = a glorious future.

― :| (....), Thursday, 27 January 2005 16:58 (twenty-one years ago)

("Feels Like Home" is outstanding, BTW)

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 27 January 2005 17:02 (twenty-one years ago)

think of the remixes people!

― cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 27 January 2005 17:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Have to say, a Cosmo Vitelli remix of anything of this would be a vast improvement for once.

― donut christ (donut), Thursday, 27 January 2005 17:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Human After All isn't very good, is it?

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 27 January 2005 17:16 (twenty-one years ago)

i stand by my 7 out of 10

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I would agree with that; the difference is that I would give Discovery 5 out of 10.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 27 January 2005 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I've only listened to it once so far, and there were parts of it that I thought were great and other parts that were very underwhelming. I'd have to listen to it a bit more before I pass any judgement, right now I prefer Discovery but I don't think this is the horrible disappointment some people are making it out to be either.

― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:07 (twenty-one years ago)

It's not bad, I just can't imagine wanting to listen to it very much.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:08 (twenty-one years ago)

There is a lot of nonsense in this thread.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:15 (twenty-one years ago)

And much of it is from me, I'll wager. Only it isn't nonsense, it's honest opinion!

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I am not sure how anyone, except perhaps Dan, could hate Discovery and like this record.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:19 (twenty-one years ago)

"yeah!" to the last two posts

― miccio (miccio), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:20 (twenty-one years ago)

It's not bad, I just can't imagine wanting to listen to it very much.

Right now I'm listening to it about once a day -- that may change and I always hate burning out on a record, but still. (The other one I should be playing more is the MIA, considering I'm seeing her in a week!)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Dan, you're not the only one, it's like an epidemic. I respect your opinion (and most of the other fine people here), but I'm baffled.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:29 (twenty-one years ago)

also i apologise for acting as if Daft Punk and Basement Jaxx are joined at the hip the whole time.

― Stevem On X (blueski), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Daft Jaxx.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:33 (twenty-one years ago)

i learned it by watching stevem

― miccio (miccio), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

"Hate" is a very strong word to describe how I feel about Discovery; I don't particularly like it but I wouldn't say that I hate it. I mean, if it was playing on a jukebox or at a party I wouldn't try to change it to something else.

I like the concept of Daft Punk as religious music because people are reacting to them the same way that people reacted to the contemporary Christian pop songs the Praise Team sang at the early church service of one of the parishes my wife and I sang at a few years ago. (Obv I like everything that Daft Punk has done better than the Christian pop songs we had to sing but the analogy for the reaction is very apt, esp with that story Alba told about bursting into tears.)

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, wouldn't that be any music anybody really liked?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Or rather, isn't that a common description people use when they see people really enjoying something and they can't see why?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Um, no? I've only burst into tears once due to a song ("Sometimes It Snows In April") and that was after playing it on repeat for 2 hours after finding out my oldest brother had died (_Parade_ was his favorite Prince album).

Then again, I'm a robot.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, does anyone remember the rather unkind words that Basement Jaxx had regarding Discovery's lack of dance focus? I was really disappointed by that.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't remember that, largely because I don't pay any attention to anything Basement Jazz says.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I like Discovery because it has love songs that remind me of how I've felt when I was deeply in love with someone. Is that religion, well sort of, but also not at all.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

(tru-fans call them Basement Jazz, you know)

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I like Discovery because it has love songs that remind me of how I've felt when I was deeply in love with someone. Is that religion, well sort of, but also not at all.

I'd say that's a good 80% of the spirit tied up in religion!

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:43 (twenty-one years ago)

True, but still, I feel like you're sort of needlessly criticizing people here who really like Discovery for whatever reason with the negative connotations of "religion".

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Don't knock religion - it's sex with someone I love!

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Wait, so what did Basement Jaxx say again?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Can't find the interview.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 27 January 2005 18:54 (twenty-one years ago)

But please, I beg of you, no more Dalek flatulence

Boo hiss, I love ‘Human After All’ and ‘Absence’ but have to agree there are parallels between them (ones I like) such as the use noise, the abrasiveness, and the rock dynamics (Dälek’s ‘Ever Somber’ sounds like a hip-hop MBV).

“Human After All” is just fantastic. Its been a long time since I’ve been this smitten with a new album.

― stevo (stevo), Thursday, 27 January 2005 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

It's very annoying when people read semantics into something you've written that you don't intend. Calling Daft Punk "religion music" is not meant to say it's bad as much as it is to say that it generates an ineffable profound connection for the listener who buys in that listeners who don't buy in can't even begin to fathom (see, for example, me with The Cure). Not every fucking mention of religion is a slam, particularly not when they come from someone who works part-time in a church and frequently calls out people on this forum for theological prejudice.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 27 January 2005 19:11 (twenty-one years ago)

People? I'm here Dan.

Sorry to maybe read too much into what you were saying, but it's a pretty loaded term. It's also probably true.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 27 January 2005 19:14 (twenty-one years ago)

the rather unkind words that Basement Jaxx had regarding Discovery's lack of dance focus

Mmm, I remember hatboy saying in De:Bug that Discovery was "like intellectual music." "Well, yeah compared to Shitty," I thought. Never really trusted the Jaxx after that.

(glad to see that Stevo likes it, a reassuring sign.)

I really like Dan comments re. those Christian songs.

― Omar (Omar), Thursday, 27 January 2005 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

well, since you bring the Cure up, Dan, just to get you to understand how I feel about all of this, imagine the Cure waiting five years to release a new album, and then when you finally hear it, you realize that the album is basically just 30 minutes of sampled instrumentals of Limp Bizkit and Korn with Robert Smith buried somewhere in there, with maybe a slight essence of Cure melody, sound, etc. seaping through.

(Not to denigrate Limp Bizkit or Korn. I'm just trying to come up with an example of what would sound like Robert Smith just deciding to toss off an album in the studio for three days.)

― donut christ (donut), Thursday, 27 January 2005 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost:
Sorry again Dan. I guess I'm just predisposed to reading a description of someone's taste as "religious" to being a dismissal along the lines of, "you don't really like x, you just like it in a religous way" i.e. with a zeal or fervor based on nothing but faith or worse, based on nothing but the community or iconography around x. I'm also annoyed by theological prejudice, and maybe that's what I incorrectly thought was implicit in your use of the term.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 27 January 2005 19:24 (twenty-one years ago)

with Robert Smith buried somewhere in there, with maybe a slight essence of Cure melody, sound, etc. seaping through

to be fair, big stretches of this album sound like the soundtrack work bangalter's done recently and the ultra-repetetive tracks shouldn't be a surprise if you've been following bangalter's work with dj falcon or guy-manuel's work on the crydamoure label.

after being surprised at how much this album sounded like their solo work i've switched to being surprised at the break that "discovery" made with their solo work. the hardest loopy bangalter tracks on roule were before "discovery".

also thx for following me on ratatat.

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 27 January 2005 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

i realize that's not really a very stirring defense in favour of "human after all". more like: "well, they tossed off an album, who knows why, maybe they were bored, maybe they didn't want to hassle with the profundity of something like "discovery", and surprise surprise it ends up sounding like the obscure specialist shit they quietly churn out in the background that nobody cares about..."

i wonder if i am the only person who liked the two crydamoure compilations better than either "discovery" or "homework".

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 27 January 2005 19:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahaha DC, you remember that there are perhaps 6 songs out there with Robert Smith singing on them that I would rank lower than 8 out of 10, right? I don't think "imagine if Robert Smith put out a bad album" is a sentence that can possibly scan in my brain.

I read your reaction as the same reaction I had to Cranes going from _Beloved_ to _Population 4_.

xpost: I was just taken aback that someone would level that reading of the word "religious" at me! Sorry for getting kind of shrill. A stronger form of the concept came up on the eternal DMB thread in the form of "drink the Koolaid" bands, ie groups with whom you have become so infatuated that you cannot find fault with almost anything they do. I don't see that as an inherently negative description largely because I view all of my favorites that way.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 27 January 2005 19:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Yow! Those last two statements are almost a perfect description of my view -- I say almost because there are things that sometimes don't quite connect (example I rediscovered recently -- Rocket from the Crypt's RFTC, which a couple of good moments aside doesn't have the same full careening power of the band at its best). But generally if a band nails it for me, THEY NAIL IT.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 27 January 2005 19:39 (twenty-one years ago)

'emotion' sounds like the perfect song I'd like a DJ to play right at the end of the night, just after you've hit your peak, when you're thinking about going home, this long, drawn out anthemic stomp would be kinda perfect.

― cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 27 January 2005 20:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I played HAA six times the day it leaked, pretty much (with a small break in the middle) each one after the other. I like that it is abrasive, cold, mechanical, etc. - it is certainly a direction that will confound fans of Discovery's warmth and humanism, but I do like the sort of fetishism with machines that this seems to embrace. People's reactions are very, very colored by expectations right now, I think; over time, maybe that will fall away? I hope so, because I think it's a great record, and I think Ned is very OTM about the advantage in its short length. I think it's a great album that seems almost hypnotically abrasive, and while I'm taking a break from it today - I've burned myself on it rather quickly, I think - I can't really imagine getting sick of it. To me, the craft is still clearly there, it's just gone in another direction. The structures/trackiness of the first album with the textures and timbres of an entirely new approach.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Thursday, 27 January 2005 21:13 (twenty-one years ago)

i wonder if i am the only person who liked the two crydamoure compilations better than either "discovery" or "homework".

I liked the first Crydamoure comp (didn't even know there was a second one till now) more than Homework, but probably not more than Discovery. I'll have to give them both a listen again.

― Lingbertt, Thursday, 27 January 2005 21:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm looking forward to the CD so I can really feel all those square waves and vomiting frogs! Really!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 27 January 2005 21:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha stevo, I didn't mean Dalek the band, I meant Dalek the Dr. Who-exterminating robot that can't climb stairs, and the theoretical noise of their gastrointestinal distress.

Donut: I really, really dislike Sea Change. So yeah. The comparison sprung from the fact that both artists' previous records were hooky, campy ridiculous fun to the point of absurdity, with follow-ups that, despite the occasional "pretty" moments and about two decent songs, was all gothy as fuck (albeit the polar-opposite Nick Drake sensitive-poet/Trent Reznor animal-fucker ends, respectively).

― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Friday, 28 January 2005 00:42 (twenty-one years ago)

for a couple of guys who shouted-out hyperactive, mike dearborn, jeff mills, dave clake, etc etc on their first album, there is precious little on this album for any of that crew to use. :(

― tylero (tylero), Friday, 28 January 2005 01:42 (twenty-one years ago)

was all gothy as fuck

Which is why it doesn't surprise me that Dan likes Human After All better.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 28 January 2005 01:52 (twenty-one years ago)

But are Venga Boys goth?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 28 January 2005 01:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Nate, I'm not quite sure about the Nick Drake/goth thing, but I understand why you made the analogy now.. I think.

― donut christ (donut), Friday, 28 January 2005 02:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Calling Daft Punk "religion music" is not meant to say it's bad as much as it is to say that it generates an ineffable profound connection for the listener who buys in that listeners who don't buy in can't even begin to fathom

I'm starting to beleive this, particularly the aspect that if you don't have the connection, you can't get it by someone explaining it to you. Most of the reviews here (even the lukewarm ones!) make it sound like my favourite album ever, but they don't sound like the album I've heard.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 28 January 2005 02:02 (twenty-one years ago)

cozen, never dj please.

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 28 January 2005 02:13 (twenty-one years ago)

are there any yousendit links of the album on the go? it's for a friend!

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 28 January 2005 02:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Man I just read Jess' recent blog entry...he really hates it. And Matos doesn't sound too enthused either.

I'm giving myself a few days before listening again...I can't imagine that i will have grown to hate it so much when out of the gate I couldn't stop listening to it.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Friday, 28 January 2005 07:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Wait, so what did Basement Jaxx say again?

"What kind of questions is 'One More Time' raising? Like, "why bother"?" *Further comments involving laziness and boredom* (It's from THE FACE in summer 2001)

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 28 January 2005 10:48 (twenty-one years ago)

i hated on 'One More Time' a fair bit at first too

― Stevem On X (blueski), Friday, 28 January 2005 11:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Felix does tend to talk balls about music, tho'.

― Barima @ ken c's (ken c), Friday, 28 January 2005 11:56 (twenty-one years ago)

TS - Daft Punk wrongfooting people and throwing off a lot of the people who loved their last album and didn't 'get' the first one vs Chemical Brothers making exactly the album everyone in the world expected them to.

I mean, there are bits on the Chems album I like but the entire thing is SO FUCKING PREDICTABLE. Indie guest vocalist? Check. Dreamy folky thing? Check. Old-skool rapper? Check. Psychedelic stylings? Check. There's nothing on that album to even suggest the Chemical Brothers had even the slightest flash of inspiration while recording the whole thing.

I can understand liking Discovery and disliking the new one, but at least it doesn't sound like an act going through the motions, which Push The Button certainly does.

I prefer both Crydamoure albums to any DP album, but DP have higher highs.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 28 January 2005 14:03 (twenty-one years ago)

From Jess's blog entry: Is it just me or is nearly every track here analogous to another, better track by a lesser known producer from the last few years ("Rocker", "Monstertruckdriver", Vitalic, even stuff on their own labels)

This is true, I think, and is possibly what's making this an easy record for me to like but a difficult one to love.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 28 January 2005 14:08 (twenty-one years ago)

i think maybe we just need to get used to the idea that it was recorded in SIX WEEKS. how many albums are recorded in SIX WEEKS? and regardless of how true this is, it sounds like it. I've spent most of the thread bitching about how I wish they'd spent more time on it but I can also appreciate the appeal of just whacking something out like this. I hope they're being honest about it. And again I hope it means there will be something else soon.

― Stevem On X (blueski), Friday, 28 January 2005 15:22 (twenty-one years ago)

how many albums are recorded in SIX WEEKS?

That Eden's Crush album! Oh, and O-Town's first album, too.

(I'm not helping, am I?)

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 28 January 2005 15:28 (twenty-one years ago)

The Chems never had an old-school rapper on a proper artist album before to be fair (teh 2 Grandmasters didn't exactly rap over 'Elektrobank').

― Captain GRRRios' Giggletits (Barima), Friday, 28 January 2005 15:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Liquid dreams, babycakes.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 28 January 2005 15:49 (twenty-one years ago)

downgraded to "***1/2"

― vahid (vahid), Friday, 28 January 2005 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

And again I hope it means there will be something else soon.

I think that's key. I wouldn't mind so much if it hadn't been a four-year wait.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 28 January 2005 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

(Actually, that's slightly disingenuous of me, since I only got into Daft Punk like six months ago, haha, but you get me, right?)

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 28 January 2005 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

how many albums are recorded in SIX WEEKS?

Sandinista!, I think.

― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Friday, 28 January 2005 18:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Belle & Sebastian's debut Tigermilk was supposedly recorded in three days. This may have been one of the lies they put out in the early days, but it's probably not that that far off the mark.

In the 60s of course, all albums were recorded in four hours.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 28 January 2005 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Do we know how long they took to record Discovery? I know in an interview, Just Blaze said that some of his best beats were recorded in an hour; it doesn't have to have been difficult to make to be good, etc.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Friday, 28 January 2005 19:22 (twenty-one years ago)

It's not a very good album, just cos it's moodds don't really take you wanyway. It's neither funky or interesting. Every track has an idea, an OK one, and that's it.

On a different note, Ned, I'm envious that you got a MIA ticket. I tried to get one for the Knitting Facotry (NY), but sold out. I'm always too slow. But anyway, MIA is exciting, Daft Punk are not (how's that for a pointless comparison?)

― paulhw (paulhw), Friday, 28 January 2005 22:57 (twenty-one years ago)

But they could both be exciting! Etc. etc. I have a ticket but I still don't know if I can fully swing it (getting up to the show is not a worry, getting back might be!). I intend to work something out by hook or by crook, though.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 28 January 2005 22:58 (twenty-one years ago)

(getting up to the show is not a worry, getting back might be!).

Are you afraid Mark will dump you in an alley somewhere?

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 28 January 2005 23:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Is there a special trick to swinging a ticket that I don't know about?

― The Ghost of An Immature Juvenile (Dan Perry), Friday, 28 January 2005 23:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Is it true that Virgin considered cancelling the release after it leaked so early and got so many bad early reviews?

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Saturday, 29 January 2005 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)

where'd you hear that?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 29 January 2005 17:45 (twenty-one years ago)

s1ocki's post was 909.

― it's tricky (disco stu), Sunday, 30 January 2005 07:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha, The New Real Daft Punk Album, coming in November 2005.

― donut christ (donut), Sunday, 30 January 2005 11:23 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't know anything about this

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 30 January 2005 17:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Thanks jed!

― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Sunday, 30 January 2005 17:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Oooh, that's nice. I was just thinking that this is the first time I'll even really care about the remixes.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Sunday, 30 January 2005 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

remixes are a way more central part of dance music now than the last 2 times they released an album.

― Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 30 January 2005 20:48 (twenty-one years ago)

you think? what has made them more central now as opposed to constant in importance?

― Stevem On X (blueski), Sunday, 30 January 2005 20:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Does this mean that Pitchfork review of the Daft Club remixes CD is going to have to flip his cartoon panels?

― donut christ (donut), Sunday, 30 January 2005 20:58 (twenty-one years ago)

haha

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Sunday, 30 January 2005 21:09 (twenty-one years ago)

"make love remix" is 10 x better than the original.

Maybe Human After All was intended to be a remix construction kit? I have no idea if this remix was done the past week, or was a commissioned remix from way back when, but it's really nice either way.

― donut christ (donut), Sunday, 30 January 2005 21:26 (twenty-one years ago)

..I mean, come to think of it, maybe Human After All would have been better off marketed as a "loops/breaks" release and not "the next album". It now makes a LOT more sense in the former context!

― donut christ (donut), Sunday, 30 January 2005 21:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Do we know who did this remix?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 30 January 2005 21:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Ivan Ivan! He's back!

― donut christ (donut), Sunday, 30 January 2005 21:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay, I would just like to reiterate that "TECHNOLOGIC" IS FUCKING AWESOME OMGWTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is all.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Sunday, 30 January 2005 23:55 (twenty-one years ago)

And I would just like to reiterate: BLORP BWAAAP PHBLLLT (repeat x50)

But oh. This "Make Love" remix. SO FRESH SO CLEAN.

― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Monday, 31 January 2005 02:28 (twenty years ago)

discovery kind of had a life changing effect on me. no joke.
this is just like a bunch of building blocks.
so yeah it's a shame. still i love MAKE LOVE and ROBOT ROCK though.

it's hard to be too downhearted after 3 of the best pop albums of all time waltzed up without any warning last year (you know; your anniemal, your devin dazzle, your love. angel. music. baby) and
as long as that keeps happening it'll be okay!

i sooo wish theyd toured the *last* one though.

― piscesboy, Monday, 31 January 2005 03:02 (twenty years ago)

See, I'm fearing if they tour with this album, it will be with Ratatat or the Fucking Champs, and it will be one big RockIronictra fest. :/

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 31 January 2005 03:20 (twenty years ago)

LOVE THOU THE ROCK?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 31 January 2005 03:21 (twenty years ago)

So, the Twin Cities contingent isn't much impressed, eh? We'll see.

i wonder if i am the only person who liked the two crydamoure compilations better than either "discovery" or "homework".

Yes. Well, at least yes on the second one. The first one was pretty amazing.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Monday, 31 January 2005 06:36 (twenty years ago)

Dan, incidentally, judging by your reaction to both this album and the Alter Ego track up thread... why the fuck are you not ALL OVER the electrohouse 2004-05 threads? If you like this stuff then you should by all rights be going mental over Tiefschwarz and Rex The Dog and Vitalic and the like...

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 31 January 2005 11:45 (twenty years ago)

trudat

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 31 January 2005 11:55 (twenty years ago)

Vitalic is awesome, or at least "Pony" is awesome. The others I haven't heard because I don't buy much music anymore and I've been avoiding filesharing as it is the devil's work (IOW I'm running out of disk space).

Also, if I'm brutally honest I would be happy just listening to "Technologic" on loop and ignoring the rest of the album.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 31 January 2005 14:56 (twenty years ago)

it reminds me too much of 'We Want Your Soul' and 'Slash Dot Dash' (not musically just thematically) amongst other tracks

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 31 January 2005 15:03 (twenty years ago)

and it's not as good as L.F.O.'s 'Freak'

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 31 January 2005 15:04 (twenty years ago)

Well, what is as good as "Freak"???

(Also, "Slash Dot Slash" sucks ass; I have completely fallen out of love with Fatboy Slim.)

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 31 January 2005 15:08 (twenty years ago)

If you like this stuff then you should by all rights be going mental over Tiefschwarz and Rex The Dog and Vitalic and the like...

And me! www.sum0fapitch.com *
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
* Actual reaction may not be "you going mental".

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Monday, 31 January 2005 15:41 (twenty years ago)

all right all right. i am convinced, CONVINCED, that this is NOT DAFT PUNK. and what's our belief all based upon? some friend-of-a-friend confirmation from a lurker with a wierd name no one's heard from again on another thread. it doesn't jibe. that said, this shit's pretty cool. 7/10 sounds good to me. but i don't believe it's daft punk. my prediction (you will revere me in the future!): this is the new (and best) album by a band already mentioned a couple of times in this thread. initials T.A.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Monday, 31 January 2005 18:07 (twenty years ago)

this couldn't be anyone else surely

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 31 January 2005 18:10 (twenty years ago)

From some other board:

I got some smashing rumor about this album.
don't know if it's true, i got this from daft punk channel on soulseek.

This album it to contain only B-sides and all A-sides are to relesd in 10 singels This things said some guy who was saying he know guys from Daft.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 31 January 2005 18:11 (twenty years ago)

um, you are joking right? i can't believe that anyone seriously thinks this is NOT Daft Punk. however disappointed you may be in it, the style is totally them.

the rumours are absurd, though I would expect Daft Punk to want to fuck with pre-conceptions and piracy to SOME extent...

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 31 January 2005 18:13 (twenty years ago)

i'm stepping out. i'm unconvinced. come time, if i'm wrong, i'll eat, uh, my lunch. but without enjoyment.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Monday, 31 January 2005 18:21 (twenty years ago)

ha. who else has this 'oh it can't really be them can it?' thing happened to prior to a new album release? does it only happen to Dance acts? get over it already. if it's not DP i'll eat your wife.

― Stevem On X (blueski), Monday, 31 January 2005 18:25 (twenty years ago)

Rowr.

― andrew m's wife (Dan Perry), Monday, 31 January 2005 18:38 (twenty years ago)

Of course its the fucking real album, unless someone went out of their way to manufacture a fake tracklisting as well.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 31 January 2005 18:58 (twenty years ago)

unthinkable

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Monday, 31 January 2005 19:02 (twenty years ago)

oh hell, it probably is fer real. forget i said anything. no one has to eat anyone's wife.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Monday, 31 January 2005 19:06 (twenty years ago)

Aw.

― andrew m's wife (Dan Perry), Monday, 31 January 2005 19:25 (twenty years ago)

This album it to contain only B-sides and all A-sides are to relesd in 10 singels This things said some guy who was saying he know guys from Daft.

That's bullshit. That's like having an artist release an entire album on CD as only one track...

oh..wait.

― donut christ (donut), Monday, 31 January 2005 23:25 (twenty years ago)

the 'it's not them' line is silly silly fanboy wishful thinking that seems to make some sort of horrible sense.

― cozen (Cozen), Monday, 31 January 2005 23:26 (twenty years ago)

but is mostly just sour grape flavoured disappointment.

― cozen (Cozen), Monday, 31 January 2005 23:27 (twenty years ago)

... and incredulity.

― cozen (Cozen), Monday, 31 January 2005 23:27 (twenty years ago)

hahha "Just Lose It" CAN'T be the new single! It just can't!

― miccio (miccio), Monday, 31 January 2005 23:32 (twenty years ago)

So, how do you think it's holding up?

I still like it a lot, LOVE the title track, but tend to skip Robot Rock - want to experience it while out, instead.

However, what I can't stop listening to is the Make Love remix. Has any other remix leaked?

― JakeWithBrain!, Wednesday, 2 February 2005 14:21 (twenty years ago)

The track I've gone back to repeatedly is "Technologic". Still haven't heard the "Make Love" remix.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 14:58 (twenty years ago)

guesses on who's "singing" "Technologic?" very obviously not french-inflected english to my ears.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 17:10 (twenty years ago)

no way. it totally is; my french friend even pointed it out

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 19:03 (twenty years ago)

the only tracks i really REALLY love are the first two - listening to them much more than the others

i assume it's Bangalter's voice on 'Technologic', as i assume it was on 'Teachers'

― Alienus Quam Reproba (blueski), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 19:29 (twenty years ago)

If there is a remix album planned by bootleggers it should be called 'Human Overhaul'. it took me ages to think of that so i just want to declare it here before anyone steals it.

― Alienus Quam Reproba (blueski), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 19:30 (twenty years ago)

or Numan After All if it's a Grey Album style affair, this time using different Tubeway Army tracks

― Alienus Quam Reproba (blueski), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 19:30 (twenty years ago)

ihttp://images.usatoday.com/life/_photos/2003/02-11-frenchie-inside.jpg

"The English is Frenchie-inflected!" *snap*

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 19:31 (twenty years ago)

THEY SHOULD OPEN A CHINESE RESTAURANT CALLED HUNAN AFTER ALL

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 20:11 (twenty years ago)

haha!

― David D (djdee2005), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 23:36 (twenty years ago)

did anyone find out who did the make love remix? it sounds slightly like superpitcher to these ears. though i doubt it.

― glenny g2003 (glenny g2003), Thursday, 3 February 2005 09:34 (twenty years ago)

I know that aphex twin were planning on doing a B side CD then release the A side in form of singles, so I do hope that daft punk are gonna do the same coz I am a massive fan and to be honest with you as real as the leaked CD is it still sounds like they made it over one night when they were drunk and thought "yeah that ll do, lets go to bed" check out this link http://podaufeu.free.fr/uploads/breakwater_-_release_the_beast.mp3 then listen to robot rock………. Yeah that’s right anyone could have done the fucking track.

― omikron, Thursday, 3 February 2005 14:32 (twenty years ago)

Just adding fuel to the fire, BUT:
received this email today from a musicfriend (XXX) who may or may not post on here and who has been quite reliable in the past:

I thought you would find this amusing. My girlfriend's brother (ZZZ)is an artist in Paris and runs into the Daft Punk guys now and then - he says (as you can see below) that the tracks that have been going around, which I assume are the ones you sent me, are a joke by Daft Punk to create buzz about the new album.

----- Original message -----
From: XXX
To: ZZZZ
Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2005 17:26:55 +0100
Subject: Re: Re:

no no in fact, this tracks are running everywhere on internet, i dj-d
some the other night in Paris, anyway, i'm sure that it is a joke from
the daft to make the buzz..it is not the real tracks from the new lp..

----- Original Message -----
From: ZZZZZ
To: XXXXX
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2005 4:56 PM
Subject: Re:

Maybe he was upset that that people are hearing them in advance that so that's why he said what he did?

On Thu, 3 Feb 2005 16:52:58 +0100, XXXXX said:
You know what, after a brief talk with Thomas bangalter last night, it seems that all the songs that we listen from the "new" daft punk record are FAKE, it is possible that it is a joke or something, and the songs we have are only very "old working files"..funny no ?

Although Miccio's 'Just Lose It' conspiracy joke brings back memories of another black musical day for me, I've been hard pressed to believe that this is anything but a first gloss of what the final tracks would sound like. I expect these to show up on the album, yes; but in radically different forms with another twelve layers.

THAT SAID, this is still quite listenable and likable but I find myself queing up the John Legend album more often these days.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Thursday, 3 February 2005 23:19 (twenty years ago)

you seriously expect that? sheesh...all the best!

― Alienus Quam Reproba (blueski), Thursday, 3 February 2005 23:45 (twenty years ago)

The title track went down *very* well at a hipster party last night.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Sunday, 6 February 2005 02:51 (twenty years ago)

Technologic went down incredibly well at the house party we through last night too (although Freak Nasty's "Da Dip" stole the evening, really)

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Sunday, 6 February 2005 03:15 (twenty years ago)

we through = we threw obv

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Sunday, 6 February 2005 03:17 (twenty years ago)

(and Freak = Freq)

< /nitpick asswipe ;) >

― donut christ (donut), Sunday, 6 February 2005 03:38 (twenty years ago)

yeah i wasn't thinking my bad.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Sunday, 6 February 2005 03:42 (twenty years ago)

I just listened to what's going around on the net as "Human After All" and I have to add my voice to the chorus of people who will be surprised if these really are the finished versions of these songs. I mean it just feels like there is a lot of room for more in these tracks, and after "Discovery" it's hard to imagine that they'd be able to show such anorexic levels of self-control.

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 21:42 (twenty years ago)

I have to say that I agree with you.

None of us know the full story yet, I feel.

― adam.r.l. (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 21:57 (twenty years ago)

It's a puzzle!

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 22:01 (twenty years ago)

Who dares to be the sleuth to unravel this one?

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 22:02 (twenty years ago)

http://www.dobbsdogdetective.com/DobbsCover.jpg

― adam.r.l. (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 22:04 (twenty years ago)

""ROCK :)
ROBOT ROCK :O
ROCK :)))
ROBOT ROCK :(
ROCK :D
ROBOT ROCK :/
ROCK :>
ROBOT ROCK ]:-)
-- teeny (teen...) (webmail), January 25th, 2005 10:48 PM. (teeny)
"

repeat that about 10000 times and you got it!

― seahorse genius (seahorse genius), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 22:08 (twenty years ago)

Tong says it's "a grower"

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 22:19 (twenty years ago)

Luis Ortiz writes "Just wondering, but wouldn't the theme of this group be obsolete once the new Daft Punk album comes out? Its called "Human After All"."

Kristabot 3000 wrote at 11:54am February 15th, 2005:
I HAVE HEARD HUMAN AFTER ALL, ITS A MISNOMER, THE ROBOTS WIN IN THE END.

― he does guitar with his mouth lmao mint (ex machina), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 22:27 (twenty years ago)

omg The Matrix is real

― Alienus Quam Reproba (blueski), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 23:10 (twenty years ago)

tong is right. i've grown out of it.

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 23:12 (twenty years ago)

Tong says a lot of things.

― adam.r.l. (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 23:12 (twenty years ago)

The single was real... and that wasn't all that much more than looped sample. Great sample though, terrific record!

― JoB (JoB), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 23:16 (twenty years ago)

i really liked what i heard of "robot rock" for the first 2 minutes i think! i'll probably learn to love the final 2:30. i like "human after all" the track the most just now, but then i can listen to vocoder wanking all day.

― ken c (ken c), Saturday, 19 February 2005 20:08 (twenty years ago)

that tune and "harder faster. etc." from the last album were the two that make me want to just put my head down and dance in my own little world forever.

― ken c (ken c), Saturday, 19 February 2005 20:11 (twenty years ago)

I heard the title track on the radio last night, and in that context I thought - wow this is an amazing track and better than anything this guy has played all week.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Saturday, 19 February 2005 21:44 (twenty years ago)

I relistened to the album yesterday for the first time in a couple of weeks and it already felt very familiar to me in a good sense, that comfort level you get from a good record. :-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 19 February 2005 21:54 (twenty years ago)

god i hope the wishful-thinking naysayers are right

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 20 February 2005 00:02 (twenty years ago)

is the hiss and fuzz i'm hearing on the leaked tracks just cos they were encoded from vinyl or part of the faux-rock aesthetic or a sign that they might not be the real final things?

― jermaine (mitchlnw), Sunday, 20 February 2005 00:07 (twenty years ago)

"Human After All" and "Primetime of Your Life" are good, but the record is downhill starting from the pointless train noises at the end of the latter track.

― jaymc (jaymc), Sunday, 20 February 2005 00:18 (twenty years ago)

Press promos have been sent out, so if you haven't already heard otherwise, I'd guess what you've heard are finished versions. It sounds pretty minimal to my ears - not bad, necessarily, but definitely quite sparse

― Jason J, Sunday, 20 February 2005 22:58 (twenty years ago)

Heard the Soulwax mix of Robot Rock in mixed & unmixed form last night, though I'm not the best judge (I find the original track highly iritating) it's definitely a step up from the album version. They've cut out the more obnoxious side of the track, there's more 'space' and breaks / variety in the remix. I wish they'd replace the album version with this, it justs feels like more of a proper track.

Also a tidbit that HAA might not be the only Daft Punk longplayer released in the next year. Dunno what to make of that - either another album, compilation of singles or what, but the source is pretty trustworthy.

― MattR (MattR), Sunday, 27 February 2005 19:27 (twenty years ago)

Ned OTM!

― djdee (djdee2005), Sunday, 27 February 2005 20:04 (twenty years ago)

i think it's fitting that its acronym is "haa".

― mark p (Mark P), Sunday, 27 February 2005 20:17 (twenty years ago)

Just got our promo today... here comes the moment of truth.
(Sample clearance for "Release the Beast" is in the liner notes, though, so I'm assuming the leak was the real thing.)

― i am nervous (cochere), Tuesday, 8 March 2005 19:24 (twenty years ago)

there are tv ads all over the uk.
MOJO says '4 stars'.
i danced to ROBOT ROCK at RAZZ in barcelona on friday.
it's still a disappointment.
fischerspooner still rules over it.

― piscesboy, Tuesday, 8 March 2005 19:35 (twenty years ago)

That's some kind of compliment

― adam.r.l. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 8 March 2005 19:37 (twenty years ago)

Erm, yeah, so I guess the leak was real. This promo does sound a bit more mastered, for whatever it's worth.

― i am nervous (cochere), Tuesday, 8 March 2005 20:20 (twenty years ago)

yeah i'm really surprised by the TV ads!

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 01:46 (twenty years ago)

Well I'm Surprised.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 02:42 (twenty years ago)

Without wishing to be a cunt, why would anyone bother listening to this if they have the quite similar yet vastly superior "Cursor Miner Plays God"?

― edward o (edwardo), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 02:59 (twenty years ago)

Are the programming errors fixed on the final release? Like that choppy transition on the title track?

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 03:15 (twenty years ago)

Teletext's John Earls actually prefers the new Moby to this. I hope HAA is a grower. I really do.

(Listened to 'Robot Rock' post Cut Copy gig last night, it made sense. Esp. b/c I suggested to Steve that CC should've covered it during the set)

― BARMS, Wednesday, 9 March 2005 10:47 (twenty years ago)

have you heard the Breakwater track yet?

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 10:51 (twenty years ago)

Without wishing to be a cunt, why would anyone bother listening to this if they have the quite similar yet vastly superior "Cursor Miner Plays God"?

-- edward o (edwardo...), March 9th, 2005.

Exactly what I was thinking. You don't even get songs about libraries on HAA!

"Sport Of Kings" is like early Simple Minds reborn (N.B.: This is A Good Thing).

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 10:53 (twenty years ago)

Actually, I had to search the thread to check that you hadn't already said it - it's so bloody obvious, and CMPG eats HAA for breakfast.

― edward o (edwardo), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 10:54 (twenty years ago)

have you heard the Breakwater track yet?
-- Sven Bastard (stevem7...), March 9th, 2005.

I heard the opening minute, but otherwise, no. Gmail? And you still haven't sent me the last 2 tracks.

― BARMS, Wednesday, 9 March 2005 11:00 (twenty years ago)

i tried to but it kept failing

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 11:03 (twenty years ago)

FAIL LESS

― BARMS, Wednesday, 9 March 2005 11:09 (twenty years ago)

CMPG eats HAA for breakfast

Not really, went it's good Cursor Miner is better (Sport of Kings obviously, Man-Made Man, Grilled Cheese (Rolling & Scratchin v2.0), War Machine) when it's not it sucks robot balls. HAA in the end is the better album (sorry for being smurfist here :)

― Omar (Omar), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 11:37 (twenty years ago)

I love the album. WOuldn't really say it was a consistently good album - cause there are some real clunkers on the album - but some of the tracks are just otherworldy. I really need to hear CMPG though. Never cared for DP before, but now...

― nathalie barefoot in the head (stevie nixed), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 11:52 (twenty years ago)

Ah, but when is CMPG crap, at all? Surely you don't mean "Library"? There's nothing on HAA that's even remotely as good as say, the sixth best song on CMPG.

― edward o (edwardo), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 22:50 (twenty years ago)

I just listened to samples from this Cursor Miner on their website and it's not really very good and certainly has nothing whatsover on even Daft Punk's weakest moments. That's sort of unfair because it's also kind of in a different genre completely. I don't think they're actually comparable.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 23:00 (twenty years ago)

I'd much sooner compare it to the Vitalic album which it wouldn't fare very well against either!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 23:01 (twenty years ago)

Yikes. Allmusic gave it 3 stars.

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Thursday, 10 March 2005 00:35 (twenty years ago)

Ok Cowboy murders Human After All and wears it's skin as a catsuit.
For shame Daft Punk...for shame.

― modernaire, Thursday, 10 March 2005 03:33 (twenty years ago)

thats not really fair though. ok cowboy murders every dance album since pansoul

― fe zaffe (fezaffe), Thursday, 10 March 2005 03:47 (twenty years ago)

After writing my review of it for Gallery of Sound, I've come to a realization. Am I the first to mention that half the album sounds like castoffs from the Irreversible soundtrack?

― Stupornaut (natepatrin), Thursday, 10 March 2005 03:50 (twenty years ago)

interesting but untrue

― fe zaffe (fezaffe), Thursday, 10 March 2005 03:56 (twenty years ago)

Pft, wh'evah. "The Brainwasher" and "Steam Machine" are totally "we had to cut 10 minutes out of that scene where the dude gets beaten up with the fire extinguisher, maybe you can tinker with it a little for your next album, Bangy."

(Well, fine, I don't think Bangalter gets called Bangy for short, but hopefully the gist is not lost.)

― Stupornaut (natepatrin), Thursday, 10 March 2005 04:21 (twenty years ago)

unfortunately theres nothing on haa that sounds like "rectum". (ass yes, rectum no.) i admit that "brainwasher" is pretty close to "outrun" which is on the soundtrack but not in the film iirc

― fe zaffe (fezaffe), Thursday, 10 March 2005 04:33 (twenty years ago)

I know but there's the same feeling of repetitive, potentially nauseating dread as there is in "Rectum", though the tracks I had more in mind as aesthetic parallels were "Night Beats" and "Stress" (which I don't think scored the Rectum scene but enh)

― Stupornaut (natepatrin), Thursday, 10 March 2005 04:46 (twenty years ago)

and what about "outrage"? nate is right.

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 10 March 2005 05:13 (twenty years ago)

anyway nate i beat you to it

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 10 March 2005 05:15 (twenty years ago)

er, maybe this link works better.

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 10 March 2005 05:21 (twenty years ago)

The title track is better than everything else mentioned on this thread. The rest of it is somewhat disappointing.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 10 March 2005 05:27 (twenty years ago)

I still like this album.

― djdee (djdee2005), Thursday, 10 March 2005 05:59 (twenty years ago)

I still want to powerbomb it through a table

― Stupornaut (natepatrin), Thursday, 10 March 2005 06:35 (twenty years ago)

Ah, but when is CMPG crap, at all? Surely you don't mean "Library"?

Surely 'Library'. And those other songs like Gizmo Kid, which are "funny" the first time around, after that well...I suppose it's the kind of stoner humor that will always have an audience.

'Outrage' is the only thing that's better than anything on HAA but then again 'Outrage' is better than anything even Vitalic has done, so bla.

― Omar (Omar), Thursday, 10 March 2005 08:07 (twenty years ago)

I have suspicions Human After All is headed for a Private Press - Deadringer-style situation with Bright Like Neon Love in the UK this year.

― BARMS, Thursday, 10 March 2005 09:50 (twenty years ago)

"The Brainwasher" and "Steam Machine" are totally "we had to cut 10 minutes out of that scene where the dude gets beaten up with the fire extinguisher, maybe you can tinker with it a little for your next album, Bangy."

Or, you know, like proper dancfloor-orientated music. Ronan nailed it upthread where he said that Steam Machine was like something Ivan Smagghe would play. The Brainwasher too, maybe, just that whole 'pound you to death with one riff' thing. I still don't get how anyone who's been following trends in dance music over the last 18 months could view HAA as a surprise. A disappointment, well, that's another matter...

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 10 March 2005 10:14 (twenty years ago)

"Technologic" will be the second single.

― JoB (JoB), Thursday, 10 March 2005 15:13 (twenty years ago)

Download a television and win prizes, or quelque chose: http://www.human-after-all.tv.

― JoB (JoB), Thursday, 10 March 2005 15:17 (twenty years ago)

album release has been brought forward to Monday?!

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Thursday, 10 March 2005 15:25 (twenty years ago)

My best friend's obsessed w/this based purely on the title (well mostly. She likes "Discovery" a fair bit, too). She can't wait to buy it.

― A Viking of Some Note (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 10 March 2005 15:30 (twenty years ago)

I have suspicions Human After All is headed for a Private Press - Deadringer-style situation with Bright Like Neon Love in the UK this year.

I know what Private Press and Deadringer are, but I don't know what their "situation" is/was, nor do I know what BLNL is. Can someone fill me in?

― sleep (sleep), Thursday, 10 March 2005 15:36 (twenty years ago)

Or, you know, like proper dancfloor-orientated music.

Considering this particular pop music act gave us "Around the World", how in blazes is this any more dancefloor-oriented, unless you're wearing leather pants?

― Stupornaut (natepatrin), Thursday, 10 March 2005 15:40 (twenty years ago)

Barima was implying that Deadringer upstaged The Private Press somewhat by being the funkier, fresher cuz. BLNL is the Cut Copy album now being officially released in the UK in May featuring shades of DP 'great release' house at times.

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Thursday, 10 March 2005 15:41 (twenty years ago)

Well, partly, yes (although TPP is very much the better album), but based on the public perception standpoint those two albums were tagged with. I'm thinking of something like: "Well, that DP record's a bit of a difficult 3rd album, yeah, but hey, this Cut Copy dude sounds a lot like the first 2 DP albums, that's what they shoulda made, yeah!" I definitely prefer BLNL right now, but not every critic or fan will (and won't, besides those who've not) take to HAA, possibly leading to a similar adoption scenario as that of 2002.

― BARMS, Thursday, 10 March 2005 16:09 (twenty years ago)

Considering this particular pop music act gave us "Around the World", how in blazes is this any more dancefloor-oriented, unless you're wearing leather pants?

It isn't. But then its not exactly stretching the imagination for anyone to make exactly the same argument about Around The World, or Da Funk, both of which are about as minimal or repetetive as either of the two newer tracks you mention. Well, maybe not as beat-em-up movie music but you get where I'm coming from.

At the same time, I can't imagine anyone using a similar criticism of Digital Love or One More Time. Well, I could, but they would be WRONG.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 10 March 2005 16:21 (twenty years ago)

they were made in the happier time

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Thursday, 10 March 2005 16:26 (twenty years ago)

The terrorists have won.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 10 March 2005 16:35 (twenty years ago)

"Da Funk" is brilliant! I miss it.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 10 March 2005 17:42 (twenty years ago)

The liner notes to HAA:

"Paris, September 13 to November 9, 2004
All Guitars by Daft Punk"

― JoB (JoB), Thursday, 10 March 2005 19:36 (twenty years ago)

I heard a rumour that the guy who signed Daft Punk has left Virgin to start a new company and that this is DP's contractual obligation fulfillment to follow said music exec.

― JoB (JoB), Thursday, 10 March 2005 19:37 (twenty years ago)

...after its release.

― JoB (JoB), Thursday, 10 March 2005 19:38 (twenty years ago)

I do not understand how anyone could not like "Robot Rock."

― Mr Deeds (Mr Deeds), Thursday, 10 March 2005 22:24 (twenty years ago)

I do not understand how the writing credits for "Robot Rock" could misspell "Homem-Christo".

― i am nervous (cochere), Thursday, 10 March 2005 23:36 (twenty years ago)

I do not understand how "all guitars" applies to 'Robot Rock'.

― BARMS, Friday, 11 March 2005 09:17 (twenty years ago)

Ask Frank Kogan

― A Viking of Some Note (Andrew Thames), Friday, 11 March 2005 11:14 (twenty years ago)

the Breakwater track is better i think

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Friday, 11 March 2005 11:27 (twenty years ago)

That's because it was made by real humans.

(Stevem's Robot Rockism)

― BARMS ;-), Friday, 11 March 2005 12:01 (twenty years ago)

there's just more to it

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Friday, 11 March 2005 12:10 (twenty years ago)

Ah hang on now, Da Funk is possibly the most dancefloor orientated albumdance record of all time, that fucking gigantic "Controversy" bass drum!

I like HAA and it's a nice record but it's no better than lots of other nice records, like Le Dust Sucker's album. The only thing which really elevates it above many records is that it's so distinctly an album by Daft Punk, ie that they have a well developed character/schtick which is more agreeable than many.

Or in other words, a shit Daft Punk record is still pretty good.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 11 March 2005 12:17 (twenty years ago)

Personally, RF, that remains to be seen.

there's just more to it

I agree, but that 'Robot Rockism' gag was waiting to be born.

― BARMS, Friday, 11 March 2005 12:31 (twenty years ago)

I have to say though, to me a Deadringer/The Private Press situation is bad record/bad record. there is absolutely no way I can envisage preferring a Cut Copy record to a Daft Punk one. I mean if anyone outdoes DP it's already Vitalic, or else simply an assortment of singles in the electrohouse threads, not another artist who's been around as long.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 11 March 2005 12:42 (twenty years ago)

I have to admit I like a couple songs on the Cut Copy album more than some of the songs on Human After All

Also, it was weird seeing it in the Best Buy sunday circular.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Sunday, 13 March 2005 19:31 (twenty years ago)

Do you want to hear the latest rumors that are floating around here in Paris ?
-They have another new record (a real new record) that is finished
-HAA is just a way for them to end up their contract with Virgin, so they can follow Emmanuel de Buretel (who was the former boss of Virgin France)in his new company.
I can't tell you how much fiable these rumors are, but I find the story quite fascinating if they are true.

― snowballing (snowballing), Monday, 14 March 2005 13:39 (twenty years ago)

this is their teenage fanclub's "the king"?!

― cozen (Cozen), Monday, 14 March 2005 13:41 (twenty years ago)

two stars in today's Metro from the reliable Claire Allfree (tho she gives the Stereophonics three...) - i've not seen any other press reviews

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Monday, 14 March 2005 13:41 (twenty years ago)

other press reviews :

mojo - 4/5
uncut - 4/5
q- 2/5

and jo wiley was playing 'technologic' just now.

― piscesboy, Monday, 14 March 2005 13:52 (twenty years ago)

If they have another new record finished then thats awesome

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Monday, 14 March 2005 13:58 (twenty years ago)

The Cut Copy record can't even be compared to HAA though, they're totally different. Cut Copy are indie for one thing. And not as good.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 14 March 2005 14:04 (twenty years ago)

I mean if anyone outdoes DP it's already Vitalic, or else simply an assortment of singles in the electrohouse threads, not another artist who's been around as long.

You and Matt are missing the point, Ro. Especially you, Matt, for confusing Cut Copy with an indie band/Philippe Zdar's rockist shame. Do either of you actually understand the comparison?

To reiterate, here's Steve:

Barima was implying that Deadringer upstaged The Private Press somewhat by being the funkier, fresher cuz. BLNL is the Cut Copy album now being officially released in the UK in May featuring shades of DP 'great release' house at times.

As Nate Patrin also observed, the direct DP links in BLNL are from Discovery, which, need I point it out, was the last Daft Punk original music available for public consumption and therfore fresher in that consciouness than Homework. And hence the comment in bold.

― BARMS, Monday, 14 March 2005 14:21 (twenty years ago)

Also, explain to me how the 'Take Me Out' remix fundamentally differs from some of the more indie dance moments on BLNL. For example.

― BARMS, Monday, 14 March 2005 14:22 (twenty years ago)

Do you want to hear the latest rumors that are floating around here in Paris ?

Yeah, all those other rumors turned out to be true. ;)

Thing is, based on the lovers/haters ratio on this thread I expected more negative reviews/reactions than HAA is getting at the moment.

― Omar (Omar), Monday, 14 March 2005 14:28 (twenty years ago)

I've seen more public negatives than positives - The Sunday Times yesterday weren't feeling it (2/5), as weren't the Grauniard (2/5). Steve's noted Metro. I have to say, it's almost a nice suprise to see where the negatives are coming from.

The dance press are (obviously) more positive - Mixmag and DJ give it album of the issue status.

― BARMS, Monday, 14 March 2005 14:37 (twenty years ago)

wonder if it will make the top 20...

Matt DC had never even heard of Cut Copy last week! they're less indie more new wave revival i suppose. i didn't realise Zdar had had a hand in BLNL until last week either tho, i'm quite amazed by that.

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Monday, 14 March 2005 14:41 (twenty years ago)

I wouldn't worry, Ste. If Mylo sold 100,000 last year, there's no way DP can't, no matter the press (Kish Kash also did good business ultimately, public/XL idiocy aside).

― BARMS, Monday, 14 March 2005 14:54 (twenty years ago)

i doubt HAA will sell anywhere near as much as either Mylo or Kish Kash actually, given the negative press and 'tired unimaginative schtick' aspect

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Monday, 14 March 2005 15:25 (twenty years ago)

I love love love the stronger tracks here, and they're so strong that the weak ones don't really matter. However the only DP song I've loved prior to this is "Da Funk". Hmmmm.

― The Lex (The Lex), Monday, 14 March 2005 15:28 (twenty years ago)

Stylus gives it an A-

― Chris Dahlen (Chris Dahlen), Monday, 14 March 2005 15:36 (twenty years ago)

since what the duo’s debut, 1996’s Homework, lacked in substance, it almost made up for in sheer reference points

lack of substance? hmmmm

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Monday, 14 March 2005 15:49 (twenty years ago)

and iconic sleeve memorabilia to the “Another One Bites the Dust” stomp of “Da Funk”’s bass and drums

ha, wonder if he heard my bootleg

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Monday, 14 March 2005 15:51 (twenty years ago)

We won’t likely be hearing “Steam Machine” in clubs anytime soon

'au contraire' cries Mr Smagghe?

It’s the same story, track after track, willfully mistaking alternation for variation, intensification for development and dynamics. In other words, a shining example of pop songcraft in the 21st Century.

hmmmm...

Human After All more than lives up to its name, rendering a metaphor for failure on the grandest yet simultaneously most personal of terms.

nice point, but i don't get the A- as this review seems overly negative too

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Monday, 14 March 2005 15:55 (twenty years ago)

(I was, to be fair, using the broad Ewingesque definition of indie which also encompasses the Scissor Sisters and Annie). I didn't say this was a bad thing though!

I don't like the CC album as much as HAA but its still enjoyable but the comparison seems overstated. The albums certainly aren't as close to each other in either sound or method as Deadringer is to The Private Press. And yeah, of course there's a big DP influence in there but the same is true of hundreds of records released over the past few years.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:03 (twenty years ago)

This album has been brought to you by the letters "P" and "U."

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:16 (twenty years ago)

Sorry, Matthew. Let me shed light like cats shed fur:

Shadow releases album wih recognisable shtick. Despite subsequently dumping 50% of said shtick inbetween albums to further embrace hardcore hip hop, surf rock, electro and techno, the follow-up resembles less his previous album and more the subsequent work, somehow confusing fans who have settled into a comfort xone of sorts.

Enter RJD2, whose debut album has shades of DJ Shadow's slow burn cross-genre instrumental hip hop, varied moody vs old school rappers-samples and inventive drum programming at times. With this and its general relative safe-playing vs the personal framework exploding/sidestepping and explorations of the rather more energetic second Shadow album, it acquires a large number of old-school Shadow fans who do not immediately ~~spark up a blunt~~ take to their former idol's sophomore effort.

I suggest that the negativity surrounding the current new Daft Punk release could potentially bestow such a similar fortune to the forthcoming wider release of the Cut Copy album, which qualifies for the comparison by being significantly influenced by an older act in the same business (first DP release 1994, first CC release: 1999/2000 - that's for Ronan) and for taking BLATANTLY OBVIOUS influence from a widely known previous album and sound from said act and infusing the end result with its own wider influences and, crucially, an easier to swallow accesibility/pop sensibility.

And any 'indie definition' of Annie that goes beyond her being on an idependent label sounds spurious and wrongheaded to me.

Bye!

― BARMS, Monday, 14 March 2005 16:32 (twenty years ago)

I can't wait to buy this at midnight tonight!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 14 March 2005 18:24 (twenty years ago)

(Sorry, I've been particularly dense today all over the place. Blame it on a lack of sleep. I think I must have somehow missed your middle post on this subject).

Whether the Cut Copy record will benefit from post-HAA disillusionment (Human After All being the Kid A to Cut Copy's Parachutes) it still doesn't change my basic point that the Cut Copy record is coming from a completely different place. They're both great pop records but, with the exception of one or two tracks, BLNL just doesn't feel like a house record to me whereas Discovery clearly does. The indie bit was a windup but it still feels like an indie-dance-pop record influenced by French house. Its all in the drums.

Whereas you could've release Deadringer as a DJ Shadow album and no one would have batted an eyelid.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 14 March 2005 19:13 (twenty years ago)

True, but Cut Copy do house also, "Glittering Clouds" for instance is like Avalanches+Daft Punk. I think they share certain sensibilities. I think Phoenix and The Avalanches (even Air) are part of the same continuum (which I'd love to discuss!).

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 14 March 2005 19:17 (twenty years ago)

Listening for the first time.

To me this is like an album of b-sides. The only track that really stands out to me is the title track and the artwork is fucking half-arsed as fuck.
Daft Punk have followed in the steps of their countrymen Air and gone for a simpler sound for their second albums rather than the all-out flamboyance of the second.
I just find it hard to believe that DP are happy with this release and wouldn't be surprised if the rumours about contractual obligation were true. How can the same band who did something as gorgeous and timely as Digital Love be content with something like Brainwasher?
It's not a truly terrible album but I can pretty much tell on first listen that like Talkie Walkie it won't have the staying power of Discovery or 10,000Hz the Legend.

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 14 March 2005 19:24 (twenty years ago)

Haha, re: Air, I thought you were talking about Moon Safari.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 14 March 2005 19:26 (twenty years ago)

The Stylus review is OTM. I've been saying all along that the whole thing is incredibly tongue in cheek.

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Monday, 14 March 2005 19:29 (twenty years ago)

(Actually I don't really agree with the notion that Deadringer was significantly closer to Endtroducing than The Private Press was. What lets the Private Press down in a battle between the three is that The Private Press just isn't as good, although I maintain its a decent record nonetheless).

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 14 March 2005 19:32 (twenty years ago)

re: Air

I just wrote this massive thing but then deleted. In short, they've followed similar trajectories from good commercial debut to accomplished and wonderfully proggy follow-up to slightly half-arsed third album.

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 14 March 2005 19:38 (twenty years ago)

Jacques Lu Cont should've got his arse in gear and put out a new LRD record and that really would've cleaned up the post-Discovery overspill.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 14 March 2005 19:41 (twenty years ago)

nah he doesnt need to, felix da housecat beat him to it last sumer.

― piscesboy, Monday, 14 March 2005 19:43 (twenty years ago)

the artwork is fucking half-arsed as fuck.

It's not. It's their ode to Radio-Activity (most of the album is really...I got on this trip when I realized 'Emotion' is basically their take on 'Ohm Sweet Ohm'. Hey 'On/Off', goes for that 'Intermission' spot.)

(You have to wonder with DP if they just toss stuff off or really get all the details right, that tv-set is what at least 30 years old? Like that radio on Radio-Activity was at least 30 years old at the time, etc. etc.)

― Omar (Omar), Monday, 14 March 2005 20:31 (twenty years ago)

The cover may be a tribute but there's something so knocked-up about it. Yes I know Radioactivity looks tacky too but the minimal liner notes, the "don't put this on the web or we'll cry" message on the inside... It just feels slipshod. When I bought Discovery I felt like I'd bought a proper album but this is just ugly even down to the massive sticker on the front telling me that it has the single "Robot Rock" on it.

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 14 March 2005 21:29 (twenty years ago)

Whereas you could've release Deadringer as a DJ Shadow album and no one would have batted an eyelid.

Uh, dude, the comparisons between Deadringer and Moby's Play are not as facile as they appear (ie, I disagree). And Deadringer is also a lot less fleshy than both Endtroducing and TPP - less ideas too, which certainly makes it the weaker of the 3 for me.

Spencer, a more timely example (ie album cuts) of Cut Copy house is 'That Was Just A Dream', in addition to 'Future', 'Zap Zap' and 'A Dream', which has Crydamoure written all over it.

― Deerninja B4rim4, Plus-Tech Whizz Kid (Barima), Monday, 14 March 2005 21:29 (twenty years ago)

But I still feel like those are written more like indie-disco songs, whereas "Glittering Clouds" is a house track from the ground, uh floor-up.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 14 March 2005 21:32 (twenty years ago)

Hey I got the Cut Copy promo, I mean fine, you can say that that sound is better at aping old Daft Punk than the latest Daft Punk album, but there are better old Daft Punk copyists too.

Hystereo for one, plus they have the harder edge too.

My point really is that, what all of us want surely, from Daft Punk, or any artist, is for them to do something new, something really new and interesting and original.

And the people doing that now are not going to be album orientated acts anyway. It just won't happen. debut albums are what's needed in dance at the moment.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 14 March 2005 21:39 (twenty years ago)

sorry I am being very cynical, but I have to listen to reams and reams of bad 3rd album dance music every day at work and it's just got nothing on the vinyl at the moment, NOTHING. the amount of good releases so far this year surpasses is mindblowing.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 14 March 2005 21:40 (twenty years ago)

bah, surpasses lots of.......years

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 14 March 2005 21:44 (twenty years ago)

Heard it for the first time today and, well, sounds terribly disappointing. What's with all this "rock" sounding stuff? I thought Big Beat ended in the late 90s?

Their first two albums were great, but upon first listen, it seems they have lost it completely third time around. Pity...

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 14 March 2005 21:58 (twenty years ago)

............

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 14 March 2005 22:01 (twenty years ago)

It just feels slipshod

I know. But is it? That "All Guitars By Daft Punk" line...I mean: are they stupid/careless (i really don't think so) or do they want to suggest that they didn't sample but replayed that Breakwater riff (noticed how they put it in the liner notes not as 'contains samples of...'?) Suddenly we're deep into Warhol territory (what with all the repitition, the robots, the cries of "I could have made 'Robot Rock'") This album can be read at very different levels, seems almost deliberatly built to generate diverse readings (I'll be surprised if they give any interviews to explain themselves) and we will never know if we're suckers. (aargh bastards, must.stop.now)

― Omar (Omar), Monday, 14 March 2005 22:06 (twenty years ago)

Actually, I'm going to back track a bit on the Cut Copy thing. I said upthread that I like some Cut Copy songs more than things on HAA. I meant this in a general sense, and not in a directly comparative sense. I do feel they make some house songs, but most of their songs sound like they're doing a synthpop band thing. They're more danceable because they're not afraid of house/dahnce, but obviously there are going to be proper vinyl house singles that are "better" dance records. Hope that makes more sense.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 14 March 2005 22:07 (twenty years ago)

"I like HAA and it's a nice record but it's no better than lots of other nice records, like Le Dust Sucker's album."

yeah, anyone who enjoys HAA needs to check the Le Dust Sucker s/t full-length on Plong. I guarantee you'll like Le Dust Sucker better.

Who's putting out Cut Copy? Anyone?

― david day (winslow), Monday, 14 March 2005 22:12 (twenty years ago)

On further listens this seems like a random jumble of songs, not a proper album. I'm itching, for example, to put "Prime Time Of Your Life" over another track. Each track has it's own context whereas Discovery was a lot more focussed.

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 14 March 2005 23:49 (twenty years ago)

re: Cut Copy

my friend directed the video for Future - might be a chance that Ill be putting CC out if talks go right

― LeCoq (LeCoq), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 00:10 (twenty years ago)

the RJD2/DJ shadow thing is interesting, but that stylus review raises a much weirder point: "i love these guys so much, and this album is so bland and emotionless, that i have to assume it's deliberately terrible as some sort of performance art statement on how bland and emotionless most modern music is. thus, this awful record is actually brilliant."

is there any precedent for this? now that the "this can't possibly be daft punk" crutch is gone, how far will DP devotees go to avoid calling a spade a spade?

― cobra commander (cobra commander), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 00:11 (twenty years ago)

Not all devotees thought it was fake.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 00:22 (twenty years ago)

http://www.musicbomb.com/reviews/k/kraftwerk_radioactivity.jpg http://media.bestprices.com/content/music/30/519535.jpg http://www.albumvote.co.uk/d/daft_punk/human.jpg

Looks like a tribute to a tribute, strangely.

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 00:28 (twenty years ago)

modular is putting out cut copy i thought.....

― glenny g2003 (glenny g2003), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 00:29 (twenty years ago)

If Daft Punk played this at your house, you'd chuck them out.

*giggles*. The Guardian's review is hilarious.

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 01:30 (twenty years ago)

Well, there's always Metal Machine Music...

― Telephonething, Tuesday, 15 March 2005 02:59 (twenty years ago)

You stole my thesis!

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 03:04 (twenty years ago)

Whoa, eerie. Just saw your thread after posting here...

― Telephonething, Tuesday, 15 March 2005 03:04 (twenty years ago)

Looks like a tribute to a tribute, strangely.

Jesus. Stop it already! :) I'm really starting to believe in this performance art reading.

― Omar (Omar), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 08:53 (twenty years ago)

But I still feel like those are written more like indie-disco songs, whereas "Glittering Clouds" is a house track from the ground, uh floor-up.

Indie-disco songs with house production and structure. And 'Live' and 'Rendezvous' are sorelly underrated - I listen to 'Live' just as much as 'GC'. Better'n Hystereo too.

Hey I got the Cut Copy promo, I mean fine, you can say that that sound is better at aping old Daft Punk than the latest Daft Punk album, but there are better old Daft Punk copyists too.

That's fascinating, but how many are putting out debut albums this year, this close to HAA no less?

Also, so you're clear, I reiterate that being inspired by Daft Punk is not the entirety of CC's shtick by a long way, but it IS a recognisable part of it. Nowhere did I ever say that Cut Copy made "a good/better Daft Punk album" (though that 50% of DP's pop sensibility that's missing here had ta go somewhere ;-)) and this applies to RJ and Shadow, who are also as divided by difference as they're brought together by similarities (the exact reason RJ supported Shadow on tour, something he told me in an interview was a mild issue for him during 2002, albeit one that ultimately worked in his favour).

And if we break it down purely to my *personal* preferences and comparisons, regardless of which sides of the dance rubik cube these two records spin on, I'll dance to 'Saturdays' 6/10 times over 'Robot Rock' or 'Going Nowhere' over 'HAA', as voted by my feet. Listening's a foregone conclusion, obv.

Haha at Geir up above. That "What's with all this "rock" sounding stuff?" comment is great.

― BARMS, Tuesday, 15 March 2005 09:25 (twenty years ago)

(Also, I like a *good* debate, but not one where I'm just repeating myself over and over and over like I'm a new Daft Punk release. This wouldn't have gone this far if there was a better understanding of both the RJ-Shadow situation, and the albums themselves, as well as the Cut Copy record. And the fact that I was stating a supposition not a fact born out of clairvoyance)

I'd definitely like to think this is in the contractual obligation zone, but it still doesn't make up for some of the lack of engagement. Even Prince did better when we knew he was trying to escape Warners.

― BARMS, Tuesday, 15 March 2005 09:31 (twenty years ago)

when Cut Copy first appeared they were understandably tagged with The Avalanches, so i'd always think of them first when listening to Glittering Clouds et al. as a result i was quite surprised when i first heard 'Future' and even more surprised at hearing the filter-house stuff - it's all pretty good and it's nice to have an album out with that sort of range, i prefer it over the Mylo for example tho i do also like that one. perhaps there's too much focus on what became DP's trademark of big release filter house, as opposed to the hard techno sound they were initially championing as much as anything else (New Wave, Assault, Rock n' Roll) which is where comparisons to Vitalic and Hystereo (Corporate Crimewave) may be better founded.

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 11:05 (twenty years ago)

i'm sceptical about the contractual obligation thing but to be honest i could understand Virgin (well known and respected for their tolerance and support of 'difficult'/non-prolific but iconic/iconoclastic artists generally aren't they?) getting the arse with Daft Punk wrt their trajectory if it's true. i mean, this album's rushed for sure, so Virgin have to worry a little about selling it hence the TV ads which really surprised me as it seemed obvious from first listen that this album was not going to go down well with the mainstream press or even many devoted fans at all - then factor in DP's 'downloadibility' (Daft Club in the end effectively an 'endorsement' of file-sharing as much as a measure to tackle it somehow), i would not be at all surprised if HAA flopped terribly, tho i suppose right now it could just as easily make the top 20, hard to tell...

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 11:13 (twenty years ago)

Making the top 20 would hardly make it a resounding hit album.

Didn't the Cut Copy album come out months ago? Why are we talking about Cut Copy again? I think I agree with Matt that outside of a handful of tracks that bear a certain similarity to something DP a bit of, it's got nothing to do with much at all. I think I have lost touch with this thread.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 11:19 (twenty years ago)

"DP did a bit of", that should read.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 11:20 (twenty years ago)

And god, listening to 'High Life' or 'Face to Face' next to Cut Copy's album is like listening to the Beatles next to Gerry and the bloody Pacemakers or something.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 11:24 (twenty years ago)

they've got as much to do with DP as Vitalic or anyone else, even if the new album is closer to the latter in terms of sound (abrasive 'guitars' and general metallic noize replacing glossy disco sheen)

the Cut Copy album is being re-released in May

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 11:27 (twenty years ago)

I don't remember the bit rate of my advance HAA files but I can't remember hearing such a difference between mp3s and the CD version. Putting the CD on last night for the 1st time, it sounded so HUGE.

― Baaderonixxx le Jeune (Fabfunk), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 11:28 (twenty years ago)

but yeah, i probably wouldn't have bothered mentioning them myself, other than to point out the few Braxisms/Bangalterisms that do occur on BLNL. now let us all chase Barima to the ends of the earth with big sticks.

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 11:28 (twenty years ago)

I still like 'Glittering Clouds' though.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 11:31 (twenty years ago)

perhaps there's too much focus on what became DP's trademark of big release filter house, as opposed to the hard techno sound they were initially championing as much as anything else

Good to see your brain's still on somewhat, Steve, "trademark" being the key word. Did Discovery outsell Homework in both albums and singles categories or just get bigger MTV etc rotation (plus using Disco...very to score an animated film would certainly up the trademark some)?

But you lose points for not reading my last but one post where I point out the entire fucking reason for the analogy. And you question why I prefer ILE.

― BARMS, Tuesday, 15 March 2005 11:32 (twenty years ago)

It is not selling in our shop, at all. Like I have yet to sell a copy, and I worked 3 out of the 4 days it's been out. I don't think we have sold even one copy. Mystifying cos "Push The Button" sold loads of CDs.

As for Cut Copy, well this is a Human After All thread, so I assumed you'd placed the album in opposition to HAA!

N otm though, there are so so so many Daft Punk copyists, and my point was that this is a thread about "what is wrong with HAA, why is it not a step forward or something Daft Punk should have done", not, at least in my opinion, "why didn't Daft Punk make Discovery again".

I think someone as removed from the scene as Cut Copy can only hope to make a record collection record, whereas the real new Daft Punk sound (and I accept perhaps Barima was not saying this is what Cut Copy are doing), album dance music, is going to come from where Daft Punk originally did, singles dance music.

There's always the strong likelihood of new artists bursting onto the scene in the interim, but I don't think it's crazy to think Black Strobe and Tiefschwarz will eventually do a Vitalic and make a great album, and become the new generation of dance dinosaurs along with him.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 11:32 (twenty years ago)

x-post BARMS as I said it's on a Daft Punk thread, of course people are going to think you're comparing the record to Human After All.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 11:33 (twenty years ago)

"brutally dumb"

― JoB (JoB), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 11:36 (twenty years ago)

it's not "brutally dumb" enough!

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 11:40 (twenty years ago)

Less of the eventually please. Both are talented and prolific enough, I want them both to release albums THIS YEAR.

(Yeah I know there isn't really a qualitative difference between a Tiefschwarz album and another 12 great remixes but still...)

Why is being dumb, synthentic, repetetive, minimal or anything else suddenly a bad thing when we are talking about dance music anyway? Its like complaining that metal records are too noisy or something.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 11:40 (twenty years ago)

Good to see your brain's still on somewhat, Steve,

er, thanks...i think...

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 11:43 (twenty years ago)

Ro: Push The Button was at least generally touted as a return to form, whereas HAA is in no small part being treated the same way the Jaxx reacted to 'One More Time': "like, why bother?"

I can also easily see OK Cowboy getting a reaction in the vein of, "If you want a 'techno Daft Punk' (impersonating a HYPOTHETICAL reviewer here, or even a disgruntled Discovery-only fan), buy that Vitalic bloke's album**."

Until you said you were having trouble selling HAA, I was pretty confident that this was just a (partly) work-boredom inspired, mildly plausible idea that got twisted into funny shapes by some of you, and now I'm even more interested to see 'Future' reviews of both BLNL and OK C. The only thing missing from certain HAA reviews are comments stating "um, dance not quite at full health yet then". And if HAA's not gonna sell, the 3 most likely beneficiaries (discounting the Jaxx's singles comp due to in-built fanbase and what seem to be decent sales for 'Oh My Gosh' if CD:UK's crowd and my visits to HMV and Tower last night are any indication) would be Vitalic, Cut Copy and/or another frickin' rock band. Oh, and drugs.

**I bought Bangalter's 'Outrage' single before 'Poney EP' b/c I took to it more immediately. It's hard to imagine doing the same today, good as the former is.

― BARMS, Tuesday, 15 March 2005 11:46 (twenty years ago)

"Pas assez radical pour retrouver l'urgence, trop désincarné pour être touchant, Human After All reste un disque distrayant, léger, mais frustrant."

― JoB (JoB), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 11:52 (twenty years ago)

i'd say Tiefschwarz are totally on course to do an album like Vitalic's too, but rather than be faced with the whole 'saviour of dance music/album' thing it could just slide out like a Speedy J or Garnier or Dave Clarke LP, sell a few ten thousand and let's get on with it...

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 11:53 (twenty years ago)

I'm not sure I understand your second paragraph!

I think it's worth noting how long it takes for dance acts to become successful, in this sort of meta discussion, like OK Cowboy may not sell amazingly, but it will do rather well and be critically acclaimed. And it's difficult to see Vitalic just disappearing, I think the same is true of Black Strobe and Tiefschwarz, though they do have a little more to prove as regards what they do with the album format.

x-post perhaps Steve yeah.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 11:54 (twenty years ago)

oops my first sentence was for Barima

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 11:56 (twenty years ago)

BARMS as I said it's on a Daft Punk thread, of course people are going to think you're comparing the record to Human After All.

That's not good enough. The least that could have been done was to either ask me what I meant specifically or at least know in the first place, as Steve did. I mean, at least show me up by showing me where I directly compare them by genre and style - oh wait.

Oh, and re: "record collection record" - this does not prevent originality from occurring. My favourite record next to Off The Wall IS a record collection record, but it could only have come from that person by dint of what he brought to the table as well. I feel this way about BLNL also.

Less of the eventually please. Both are talented and prolific enough, I want them both to release albums THIS YEAR.

BUT THEY'RE NOT. And another 2 previously named acts are. If HAA does tank but Twarz and Strobe did release this year anyway, they could also potentially be beneficiaries. If not, new year, new mindset.

Well, gee whiz, Matt, what if the sounds aren't interesting enough to warrant sticking out the repetition? The excuse you're making is not good enough for what we're paying!

― BARMS, Tuesday, 15 March 2005 11:57 (twenty years ago)

Bangalter reaps what he sows anyway - see that abysmal Freeloaders version of 'So Much Love To Give' as the latest example!

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 12:01 (twenty years ago)

but that alone wouldn't serve as 'justification' for an album that's remarkable in some ways (hostile and antipathetic yet still somehow resolutely pop/wants to be thought of as a pop record, it's anti-heroic tho maybe not quite charming enough as tracks like 'Emotion' just stretch things too far for that really). i wonder if Bangalter's still pissed off with so many people stealing his grooves/ideas and having the bigger hit with them when that could be him as it was with Stardust - i don't suppose he's interested in that anymore, and also resigned to the probability that it will continue - and HAA is perhaps in part a reaction to all that too (sorry to GuyMan for not considering what his own view may be here - for example maybe this is more GuyMan's record? or 50/50 balance, hard to tell - i exaggerate the difference between them i suppose)

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 12:08 (twenty years ago)

what if the sounds aren't interesting enough to warrant sticking out the repetition? The excuse you're making is not good enough for what we're paying!

Well, yes, that's why I've been saying the Vitalic album is better all along because it does the harsh and abraisive thing with so much more force and momentum. But it doesn't mean that HAA is either eclipsed or made redundant because any album containing Human After All, Make Love, Technologic, Emotion and Robot Rock is strong enough in my book.

(I actually like the fact that Emotion is so strung out because it has the sense of space to make that work. Television Rules The Nation is a bigger failure, I think).

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 12:30 (twenty years ago)

I'm not sure I understand your second paragraph!

Essentially, replace BLNL with OK Cowboy in the analogy, refer to the harsher techno sounds that Vitalic uses and DP are reintroducing to their own work and then imagine that in this hypothetical situation, Vitalic picks up a load more positive press and reactions, if not necessarily more sales, than HAA because some hypothetical writers - or fans - proclaim that he has beaten them at their own game.

It doesn't fit the RJ/Shadow model as easily as HAA and BLNL do but that model has a lot to do with taking the pre-established artist's previous album as the jump-off point. In this loose analogy, Homework would have to be the 2nd DP record or Discovery never happened.

As for the '**'s, I was noting an attendant irony wrt to my own experience where years ago, I was more interested in Bangalter/Daft techno than Vitalic, whereas today, the opposite is certainly true. And here's a precedent, as posted by Matt: From Jess's blog entry: Is it just me or is nearly every track here analogous to another, better track by a lesser known producer from the last few years ("Rocker", "Monstertruckdriver", Vitalic, even stuff on their own labels)

The reason Vitalic has been added to my considerations is also specific to the fact the he's releasing an album, with all this in consideration, this close to HAA. As is Cut Copy etc etc.

But then, I already said a lot of this.

i wonder if Bangalter's still pissed off with so many people stealing his grooves/ideas and having the bigger hit with them when that could be him as it was with Stardust - i don't suppose he's interested in that anymore, and also resigned to the probability that it will continue - and HAA is perhaps in part a reaction to all that too

Well, when this happened to Timbaland, he went off and made Under Construction, Simple Girl and Deliverance. What's DP's excuse?

But it doesn't mean that HAA is either eclipsed or made redundant because any album containing Human After All, Make Love, Technologic, Emotion and Robot Rock is strong enough in my book.

Key words: "my book".

― BARMS, Tuesday, 15 March 2005 12:34 (twenty years ago)

(I actually like the fact that Emotion is so strung out because it has the sense of space to make that work. Television Rules The Nation is a bigger failure, I think).

i'm the opposite 'funnily' enough. i just like the ridiculous early 80s metal vibe of 'Television..'

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 12:52 (twenty years ago)

hang on, Black Strobe are actually releasing an album this year. Tiefschwarz have no firm plans but it's not been announced that they aren't either.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 13:05 (twenty years ago)

at least show me up by showing me where I directly compare them by genre and style - oh wait.

You said it's a Private Press/Deadringer situation, if that's not a comparison by genre and style then nothing is!

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 13:11 (twenty years ago)

I still don't understand what you mean Barima, as regards the rest of the stuff, subsequent to the initial comparison.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 13:12 (twenty years ago)

I said "Private Press/Deadringer-style situation", which means "similar to", not "a genre-displaced copy of". "Ya get me?"

And I'm not interested in re-explaining myself again, either. I'd be more patient if you were specific perhaps, but really, I've used my best fine-toothed combs already.

― BARMS, Tuesday, 15 March 2005 13:23 (twenty years ago)

Doesn't one of the other threads say Tiefschwarz are releasing an album this year? Mind you it may not be all that mindblowing. "Blow" and "Issst" were both heavily based on remixes they'd already done (play the remix of Lopazz's "Blood" and "Issst" back to back to see what I mean), they seem to save their new ideas for other people's songs.

Rex the Dog should release an album.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 13:26 (twenty years ago)

Ronan - I still understand where he's coming from but I still think the analogy is a bit skewed. I think where it falls down (aside from the reasons I've already mentioned) is that DJ Shadow was always a relatively specialist concern whereas Discovery was a big mainstream pop success and the mainstream pop landscape has changed a lot in the four intervening years.

I'm not sure there's still the same market appeal for a Discovery-esque vocodered pop house album any more than there was still the same market appeal for a Great Escape-esque Britpop album by the time Blur released their eponymous album. Maybe there won't ever be a dance album that hits in the same way as Discovery or Rooty or anything from the 90s ever again. (Until the revival in five years time, hem hem).

(Possible flaw in this argument = Mylo)

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 13:27 (twenty years ago)

I didn't know that, well then both Tiefschwarz and Black Strobe are releasing records.

Rex the Dog should just release a cartoon DVD, with a few more records, and comedy skits of all the Kompakt artists.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 13:27 (twenty years ago)

"I'm not sure there's still the same market appeal for a Discovery-esque vocodered pop house album any more than there was still the same market appeal for a Great Escape-esque Britpop album by the time Blur released their eponymous album. Maybe there won't ever be a dance album that hits in the same way as Discovery or Rooty or anything from the 90s ever again. (Until the revival in five years time, hem hem)."

I dunno, I don't think emotionalist maximalism is entirely absent from the current scene, I mean this is exactly what Jacques Lu Cont is exploiting. And a lot of it's about matching up certain production techniques to certain song techniques - there's a lot about what, say, Get Physical are doing, which could easily be folded back into a really open-hearted pop approach. I think as electroclash's specific influence continues to fade the possibility of this happening will become more distinct.

I've been saying this for ages but there so needs to be an electro-house update of The Blue Nile's "Tinseltown in the Rain".

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 13:39 (twenty years ago)

Matt in unknowingly acknowledging what I was getting at way with it before I even thought of it shocker:

TS - Daft Punk wrongfooting people and throwing off a lot of the people who loved their last album and didn't 'get' the first one vs (brackets mine) [Chemical Brothers making exactly the album everyone in the world expected them to].

I can understand liking Discovery and disliking the new one [snip]

-- Matt DC (runmd...), January 28th, 2005.

Nice try, Matt, but in spite of market differences, Deadringer did not outsell TPP (which also had 2 top 40 hits in the UK - how's that for mainstream? His profile was also a big part in UNKLE's own mainstream experience way back when), I said ages ago that I don't expect BLNL, or OK Cowboy for that matter, to outsell HAA, and furthermore, the public has not lost their taste for catchy, repetitious day-glo dance samples/hooks to the extent that not only did Eric Prydz go to no.1 for an absurdly long time, but 'Waiting For A Star To Fall' has not only been recently reincarnated similarly twice but the second version beat the chart position of the first just this Sunday.

Oh, and your other reasons didn't extend much beyond "Cut Copy are really an indie band" and "I preferred Deadringer".

Tiefschwarz...may not be all that mindblowing. "Blow" and "Issst" were both heavily based on remixes they'd already done (play the remix of Lopazz's "Blood" and "Issst" back to back to see what I mean), they seem to save their new ideas for other people's songs.

Tim - yes, I initially came back in here to say that the electro-house thread posits a summer Tiefschwarz album, which, along with the Black Strobe tidbit, does negate part of my previous rebuttal to Matt. I think you're on to something here.

― BARMS, Tuesday, 15 March 2005 13:40 (twenty years ago)

Nice try, Matt, but in spite of market differences, Deadringer did not outsell TPP (which also had 2 top 40 hits in the UK - how's that for mainstream?

Then what are you saying?! That lots of people who also bought DJ Shadow records also bought Deadringer because they were in some way dissatisfied with The Private Press, even thought most of them would have bought it anyway because they are really pretty similar things.

His profile was also a big part in UNKLE's own mainstream experience way back when)

Probably not as big as Messrs Yorke and Ashcroft though.

the public has not lost their taste for catchy, repetitious day-glo dance samples/hooks to the extent that not only did Eric Prydz go to no.1 for an absurdly long time, but 'Waiting For A Star To Fall' has not only been recently reincarnated similarly twice but the second version beat the chart position of the first just this Sunday.

I don't disagree with you here, but this IS the weakest singles market ever so all things are relative. I don't think I've heard these 'Waiting For A Star To Fall' things but am I right in thinking they're ripoffs of 'In My Arms' by Mylo, or are they straight disco covers of the original?

I think what I'm essentially getting at is that even if Daft Punk had released Discovery II this week there is no guarantee at all that the record would sell any better than Human After All, let alone Discovery.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 14:00 (twenty years ago)

even thought most of them would have bought it anyway because they are really pretty similar things

I mean most of them would have bought Deadringer anyway.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 14:02 (twenty years ago)

Oh, this is all very silly.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 14:02 (twenty years ago)

4.8 in Pitchfork...

― Baaderonixxx le Jeune (Fabfunk), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 14:09 (twenty years ago)

I dunno, the comparison has become way too intricate at this stage to make any sense whatsoever, blind alley. I am not sure what the actual point of it is at this stage, and I mean that non facetiously.

x-post Matt otm.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 14:09 (twenty years ago)

I think a new thread about the Cut Copy album would have made alot more sense than whatever way they fit into this thread.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 14:10 (twenty years ago)

the question still remains 'why does Human After All have TV ads?' i suppose with the heavy televisual theme it makes sense, but i don't think there's ever been such a 'commercially difficult' album advertised on non-music TV before has there? '100th Window' (also Virgin) and 'Kid A' don't quite compare (or maybe they do, what with DP having registered SOME level of profile on TV what with the GAP ad and viability of the Discovery videos - i.e. they're courting publicity MORE than Massive Attack or even Radiohead did with their aforementioned albums).

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 14:21 (twenty years ago)

You really don't get it, do you? Last time for real:

While still very popular (for it's "niche" etc), TPP was initially harmed by stylistic comparisons to Endtroducing due to its willingness to deliver something more unexpected, COMPARISONS THAT WERE THEN REFLECTED FAVOURABLY, MOSTLY BY FANS, TO THE DEBUT ALBUM THAT WAS RELEASED IN THE SAME TIME-SPAN BY A HITHERTO-MOSTLY UNKNOWN, LIKE-MINDED ARTIST WHO REFLECTED A LOT OF THE STYLISTIC QUALITIES OF THE OTHER ARTIST'S PREVIOUS ALBUM AND THEREBY EXCEEDING THE SALES AND PROFILE EXPECTATIONS FOR DEADRINGER THAN WAS EVEN EXPECTED.

Now, either you get it now or you never will.

Probably not as big as Messrs Yorke and Ashcroft though.

Or the huge marketing campaign, the usual Mo' Wax collectability shenanigans, the touring, the increasing profile of the label and their star find...

I don't disagree with you here, but this IS the weakest singles market ever so all things are relative.

Right, so this - the mainstream pop landscape has changed a lot in the four intervening years - is in fact so relative an occurence it's not a major issue then? Or it is? Which is it? I didn't see 'One More Time' at no.1. And for all the change you're citing, these singles are doing a lot better than 'Plug It In' or 'Stupidisco' (irregardless of quality, overreacters).

Well, Discovery II would by definition contain some enjoyable populist dance tunes. Think that'd help any?

x-p: Ro, the only people making that big a deal out of it are you and Matt, and that comes with your (continuing) cluelessness anyway.

― BARMS, Tuesday, 15 March 2005 14:33 (twenty years ago)

ohhhhh be nice

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 14:47 (twenty years ago)

MASONIC BOOM!

― Guile, Tuesday, 15 March 2005 14:50 (twenty years ago)

is this thread worth reading?

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 14:53 (twenty years ago)

No. It involves those who like the new album, those who hate it, those who are in-between, 3 dance boys in an accidental pissing contest, four weddings, one funeral and Monica Belluci's ass . Y'know, like every ILM dance thread ever.

― BARMS, Tuesday, 15 March 2005 15:04 (twenty years ago)

would you mind directly linking to the monica belluci's ass part please.

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 15:10 (twenty years ago)

Yes so I did understand the first time, hence I return to what I said already, the fallout as such from HAA has already happened. I don't think most hardcore DP fans really need to be bailed out by some forthcoming album.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 15:17 (twenty years ago)

Also, consider the possibility that HAA is a disappointment BECAUSE of the last 4 years and not because of 4 years of waiting.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 15:18 (twenty years ago)

Oh for goodness sake stop being so tetchy. I'm not being clueless, I've understood perfectly well the bit you somewhat rudely put in capitals up there for ages, my point is that I don't agree with the parallels you're citing, that I don't believe the relative fortunes or receptions of these records are linked. That's it.

(xpost - I still wuv Barima though)

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 15:18 (twenty years ago)

I feel the same, and I've never rowed with Barima before I don't think. I just think he wanted to mention the Cut Copy record!

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 15:20 (twenty years ago)

after the break JC Chasez gives advice on DVD players, and find out what happened when Plus-Tech Squeeze Box got their ride pimped

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 15:44 (twenty years ago)

"the dryrot is a real pain but such is life"

Superpitcher, on a very special edition of Cribs

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 15:48 (twenty years ago)

Well, yeah, of course you two are my boys, and of course, I'm also gripping a stress ball as I type (not that you could have known. I'd rather have a gun - or a hooker, but that's another thread).

I don't believe the relative fortunes or receptions of these records are linked

Yes, but neither did I, you know?

I don't think most hardcore DP fans really need to be bailed out by some forthcoming album.

Well, surely not - that's not necessarily absolute either, all the hardcore fans buying/loving it, I mean, but the supposition wasn't about them anyway. I'm wondering about the less hardcore, who may also be partly comprised of the Discovery fans, and by that I mean the Discovery fans who don't care for or about Homework (potential Cut Copy buyers). Or! the Homework fans who didn't care for Discovery and may still not be so taken with HAA (potential Vitalic/Black Strobe buyers). I don't claim any of these fan subsets to be vocal majorities and neither do I deny an overlap of fans for all dance outfits included.

― BARMS, Tuesday, 15 March 2005 15:56 (twenty years ago)

Steve, it's not a stretch to say that you're not helping matters any.

― BARMS, Tuesday, 15 March 2005 15:59 (twenty years ago)

That Cut Copy album is going nowhere.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 17:03 (twenty years ago)

Just because he's fit and you know it in your black little heart.

― BARMS, Tuesday, 15 March 2005 17:06 (twenty years ago)

the reviews and parts of this thread are far more depressing/disappointing than the album itself. they're all falling over themselves to see who can be the first to give it a 1/10 or find the cleverest way to say how gutted they are and we should be at it's tossed-off-ness. i'll be in my room with it cranked and moving my body cuz i can't help it and every few minutes i'll say out loud to thomas and guy-m., "you dudes are fuckin sick! this is some sick shit!"

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 17:21 (twenty years ago)

RIGHT ON

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 17:23 (twenty years ago)

interesting to note what seems like real antipathy towards Cut Copy/BLNL on this thread

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 17:25 (twenty years ago)

Sorry for NOT LIKING IT because it is FUCKING BORING compared to their previous two albums and OK Cowboy and (yes) Bright Like Neon Love (you heard me) and "Oh My Gosh" and the 20-or-so house/techno/dance tracks I included on CDR Go! 2004 (including "Girls"! From that fucking Prodigy album!) and I was hoping for a house album instead of WARMED-OVER INDUSTRIAL and CONSTANT BLORP BLARP SOUNDS. I sprained my ankle falling over myself! I hurt myself TO LOOK COOL, and now look at how you INGRATES treat me!

OK, I admit it, I gave it a 4/10. Because at least it's better than Palookaville.

― Stupornaut (natepatrin), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 18:19 (twenty years ago)

Haha! Ultimate diss!

(Antipathy not worth noting, really, there's enough going round for DP anyway and there's plenty of BLNL love on the Cut Copy thread)

― Deerninja B4rim4, Plus-Tech Whizz Kid (Barima), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 18:22 (twenty years ago)

i was about to write a similarly snarky retort but nate beat me to it. bottom line is that it's totally disingenuous to assume that people who are strenuously disappointed by a record are inherently grandstanding or involved in some sort of silly race to the bottom. i think this record is the poodles nuts but you don't see me saying "anyone who likes this is just being a contrarian". fuck, i'm happy that someone deems this worth blaring in their bedroom, i just wish it was me.

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 18:27 (twenty years ago)

I've lost track of who's arguing with who on this thread. Who is it that's supposed to be saying "Anyone who doesn't like this is inherently grandstanding" or similar? Is it Ronan? I do hope so.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 19:12 (twenty years ago)

I'll fight anyone.

race you to the bottom!

― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 19:27 (twenty years ago)

for alba:

― sleep (sleep), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 19:28 (twenty years ago)

I admittedly got quite lost in the Ronan/Barima/Stevem bit, but let's leave that alone.

I'm still not feeling this album. And as much as I'd like to have faith in DP, I can't bring myself to buy into the stylus review's angle.

― sleep (sleep), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 19:32 (twenty years ago)

you people are fucking assholes sometimes. xpost, xpost, xpost.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 19:35 (twenty years ago)

Thanks for the update.

This is the same thing someone was pulling on the MIA thread, though. The whole "You guys don't allow anyone to express an opinion different to yours", as if anyone here is in a position to inhibit anyone else's views being expressed. It's just argument - get over it!

People seem to love the victim vs. mob status so much they seem to fall over themselves claiming it, sometimes people from the opposite camps at the same time, as here.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 19:40 (twenty years ago)

I think only robots should be allowed to post on this thread from now on.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 19:41 (twenty years ago)

perhaps it's a record only a robot mother could love.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 19:51 (twenty years ago)

The thing is, a lot of people I know like Human After All who didn't care about the first two albums. Can't help it, they did something right, something some of us ILM'ers just don't get.

I still think it's neat, doesn't get boring at all after repeated listenings and I love to spin mad theories about it.

Now as for that falling over to give it bad reviews bit. Someone like Mark has been gutted for months and that's some honest disappointment he writes about. But really some of the newspaper reviews totally read like "oh man I've been waiting for this chance for a long while." Hey, you don't like it, great, but what depresses me is how little effort some make to analyze this album beyond "repetition. boring. they made it in two days. they lost it. insert crap one-liner."

― Omar (Omar), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 20:28 (twenty years ago)

The thing is, a lot of people I know like Human After All who didn't care about the first two albums. Can't help it, they did something right, something some of us ILM'ers just don't get.

Now THAT'S an interesting new precedent - brand new Daft Punk fans. Cool.

Dude, we're talking about newspaper reviews.

Mind you, I reckon Nate, for example, has made an effort to go beyond that and he still finds HAA wanting. That's a dodgy generalisation to make.

― Deerninja B4rim4, Plus-Tech Whizz Kid (Barima), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 20:35 (twenty years ago)

Now THAT'S an interesting new precedent - brand new Daft Punk fans

It's true though. Dude.

That's a dodgy generalisation to make.

Talking to me? :) err...just in case, I didn't make any generalisation did I? (I'm going "some this", "some that." )

― Omar (Omar), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 21:05 (twenty years ago)

I'm almost deliberately delaying hearing this so that I can come onto this thread in three months time with a ridiculously tardy position.

Some of the reviews I've read do possess a rather boring "so the emperor really DOES have no clothes" air of anti-DP triumphalism - basically by people who think both Discovery and HAA are superficial conceptual jokes, only this time the masses won't be taken in.

I don't need to hear the new album to know that this is wrong obv.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 22:46 (twenty years ago)

Why do people hate on industrial and blorp blapp sounds. You guys are gay... go listen to early 90s trance.

― green uno skip card (ex machina), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 22:56 (twenty years ago)

I just listened to the CD and actually enjoyed it immensely. It's no Discovery but it still has that Daft Punk mystery, it's just the wonder is more jaded.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 23:02 (twenty years ago)

It definitely is more jaded. I dunno — maybe I'm up my own ass or something, but I have a difficult time imagining how more people cant hear HAA without at least SOME measure of irony. I mean, you only need to listen to "Robot Rock" repeat that fucking riff six thousand times to understand that they're doing a lot of this with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

It would be one thing if this came out after Homework, but it just so happened to come out after one of the best pop albums of the decade. Which for tons of people makes HAA's lack of tunes and proper songcraft unacceptable — for me, it makes this intentional. And pretty brave.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 23:34 (twenty years ago)

When are the ILX admins going to develop an "ignore" filter? Just wondering.

(PS: I hope Wolf Eyes' next album sounds like Franz Ferdinand.)

― Stupornaut (natepatrin), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 23:58 (twenty years ago)

A bit timely that the reissued United States of Electronica album came out today in the U.S. along with HAA.

I like how the Pfork review of HAA is as tossed off as the album is.

(that said, I find HAA a bit average with some good bits)

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 00:11 (twenty years ago)

Who do you want to ignore, Nate?

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 00:51 (twenty years ago)

Here's a hint: he's only posted to this thread twice.
Here's another hint: He is to Something Awful what C-Man is to Maxim.

― Stupornaut (natepatrin), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 00:57 (twenty years ago)

You seem fixated.

― Dr. Eldon Tyrell (ex machina), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 01:10 (twenty years ago)

I'm on your Wire-readers-on-crank-board enemies list now; I figure I might as well go for it.

― Stupornaut (natepatrin), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 01:12 (twenty years ago)

On the other hand, arguing with people who develop a fucking enemies list on a fucking internet messageboard is futility personified. Life's to short to run around starting shit with people over this kind of bullshit.

― Stupornaut (natepatrin), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 01:16 (twenty years ago)

what is this "life" you speak of

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 01:17 (twenty years ago)

Dude, I don't even know what you're arguing with me about. This is a thread about DAFT PUNK. Get a life.

xpost

― Dr. Eldon Tyrell (ex machina), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 01:19 (twenty years ago)

Step 1: I draw up a post positing that I do not like the new Daft Punk album because it sounds like a type of music I do not want/like/expect from Daft Punk
Step 2: Jon calls me gay
Step 3: I make smarmy but comparatively lighthearted retort
Step 4: I am added onto the Noise Idiot enemies list
Step 5: I post that thing about Jon being the C-Man of the Something Awful set
Step 6: WTF, are you 12?

Christ, I could forgive you if you were, I don't know, funny or something.

― Stupornaut (natepatrin), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 01:25 (twenty years ago)

walk away nate, walk away

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 01:27 (twenty years ago)

Then again, I can't come within 12 feet of ILx without turning into a total spastic. And derailing threads. And making myself look like a thalidomide baby on angel dust. Like I said. Futility.

(xpost: good idea)

― Stupornaut (natepatrin), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 01:29 (twenty years ago)

I noticed you left out the step where you lurk on the noise board. xpost

― Dr. Eldon Tyrell (ex machina), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 01:29 (twenty years ago)

Go back to your trance CDs.

― Dr. Eldon Tyrell (ex machina), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 01:30 (twenty years ago)

I think only robots should be allowed to post on this thread from now on.

abracadabra

― fe zaffe (fezaffe), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 01:38 (twenty years ago)

can someone summarize this thread in two paragraphs for me?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 01:43 (twenty years ago)

"Go back to your trance CDs" is the gist of it

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 02:13 (twenty years ago)

A photo of Monica Bellucci with an emphasis on the body part of your choice would validate this thing entirely.

― BARMS, Wednesday, 16 March 2005 09:16 (twenty years ago)

MIXMAG has an ace DP article. no really. the one with BEZ on the cover.

― piscesboy, Wednesday, 16 March 2005 11:40 (twenty years ago)

Why do people hate on industrial and blorp blapp sounds. You guys are gay... go listen to early 90s trance.
-- green uno skip card (j()nathan.william$@geeMaleDotCom), March 15th, 2005. (later)

haha early 90s trance is pretty good, you might like it.

if you like industrial sounding stuff, you need to hear even better stuff than Human After All, like the Blackstrobe Essential Mix or something.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 17:24 (twenty years ago)

i listened to this today after a month-long break. i like it again!!

― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 17:34 (twenty years ago)

Amateurist:

OMG new Daft Punk album is TEH SUCK
d00d U R TEH GHEY

rinse, repeat

― daria g (daria g), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 18:55 (twenty years ago)

yeah thanks for that, that's a really good way you've summed up 1000 posts there. really helpful.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 18:57 (twenty years ago)

well, she did forget the most crucial part:

"on/off is ace. best best. makes me cry. more emotional than one more time."

― sleep (sleep), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:11 (twenty years ago)

there's also this heavy slant towards comparing "discovery" and "human after all" and acting like daft punk have been doing nothing in the intervening time.

― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:24 (twenty years ago)

haha early 90s trance is pretty good, you might like it.
WRONG!
if you like industrial sounding stuff, you need to hear even better stuff than Human After All, like the Blackstrobe Essential Mix or something.

-- Ronan (ronan.fitzgerald6NOSPA...) (webmail), March 16th, 2005 12:24 PM. (Ronan) (link)

Don't condescend to me.

― Dr. Eldon Tyrell (ex machina), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:27 (twenty years ago)

here is some early 90s trance you'll probably like, jon

http://www.irdial.com/catfix.htm

― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:31 (twenty years ago)

actually i think the mp3s are at this mirror: http://irdial.hyperreal.org/

― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 19:32 (twenty years ago)

Downloaded the album back when people thought it was a fake and i liked it a lot. Hadn't heard it in a month or so but after all the reviews and the official release I started playing the mp3s again and I still like it.

This is the probably most-played new album for me, I'm really into it. To tell the truth, much moreso than the new Mouse on Mars, which I really didnt like the first time I heard it. Maybe i should put that on as well..

― Adam Bruneau (oliver8bit), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 21:51 (twenty years ago)

if you don't like early 90s trance you don't deserve to live

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Thursday, 17 March 2005 00:46 (twenty years ago)

Are we talking Jam & Spoon "Stella"?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 17 March 2005 01:04 (twenty years ago)

JA. PLOOS EIN TECHNOTRANCE, ICHT LICHTEN R&S VS EYE Q

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Thursday, 17 March 2005 01:10 (twenty years ago)

Anyway -- still a great album. :-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 17 March 2005 13:21 (twenty years ago)

DAFT PONG!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 17 March 2005 18:21 (twenty years ago)

I really like it and have convinced several people to buy it.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 17 March 2005 22:30 (twenty years ago)

soulwax remix robot rock?

― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 17 March 2005 22:52 (twenty years ago)

Hear it here ("uur 2"). (That's my radio show from last weekend.)

― JoB (JoB), Friday, 18 March 2005 00:07 (twenty years ago)

Ah, thanks JoB. Just hearing it now. Hmmm... I'm not sure that Soulwax's pissing about with it achieves really. The original is this ridiculous monolithic thing that you can either go with or more rationally get bored of within a couple of minutes. This keeps the slamming thing that gets boring to dance to unless you are going totally mental but loses the audacity of the original.

But maybe I'm just not in the mood.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 18 March 2005 00:37 (twenty years ago)

What's with DP's mega-compression that makes the bass drum TOTALLY ERADICATE EVERYTHING ELSE IN EXISTENCE for a split-second?

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Saturday, 19 March 2005 02:47 (twenty years ago)

DJmag have got five Daft Punk t-shirts to give away. But the t-shirts will go to the people who NEED it most. To win, email a picture of you wearing your worse clothes. The winners will be the ones that look the most cringing. The more unfashionable, the more likely you are to win a t-shirt.

― JoB (JoB), Saturday, 19 March 2005 13:01 (twenty years ago)

The thing is, a lot of people I know like Human After All who didn't care about the first two albums. Can't help it, they did something right, something some of us ILM'ers just don't get.

Stop talking about me. ;-) I think the reason why I never bothered with the music: the cutesy videoclip I saw on MTV. I know it's wrong to dislike a band based on a videoclip. But it's not that I really disliked'em, I just didn't care about their image so didn't bother with the music. All in all I find HAA to be a good album. No more no less. Probably would give it a seven (tops). I don't really like it as a *whole*, I like some elements IMMENSELY. But to hate the album? I can understand, just don't agree at all.

― nathalie barefoot in the head (stevie nixed), Saturday, 19 March 2005 13:18 (twenty years ago)

I dont think it's hate, if anything that's the crushing dissapointment talking. As unlistenable as some of the songs are (i.e. "Television Rules The Nation") the album is still better than most of the repetitive pop it's trying to imitate.

― modernaire, Saturday, 19 March 2005 19:13 (twenty years ago)

I actually sort of like "Television Rules the Nation", it's probably my 5th favorite track on the album.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Saturday, 19 March 2005 20:46 (twenty years ago)

me too, it's easily one of the best tracks on it.

― Ronan (Ronan), Saturday, 19 March 2005 20:54 (twenty years ago)

I like "Television Rules The Nation" too! It just needs a cannon firing like "For Those About to Rock ... We Salute You".

― tipustiger, Saturday, 19 March 2005 20:59 (twenty years ago)

It just needs a cannon firing like "For Those About to Rock ... We Salute You".

HA! This is sooo true. :) One of my favourite tracks on the album (probably my inner AC/DC teenage self.)

― Omar (Omar), Saturday, 19 March 2005 21:07 (twenty years ago)

"I did't care for their image, so I didn't bother with their music."

Did their image not contain the potential to improve your own, or do you see image as a good measure of what an act will sound like?

― jmeister (jmeister), Saturday, 19 March 2005 21:43 (twenty years ago)

I should've clarified, I like the overall production on the song but it gets beyond annoying when you're about a minute and a half into it and it's like "Ok, where's the rest of the song??". The repetitiveness is executed on this album so bluntly it makes what could be quality tracks boring as fuck, which is why I can't sit through the whole album let alone "Television...."

Maybe it's cause I'm an 80's baby and most of my generation's attention span's are shot, I dunno.

It sucks cause all of the songs start off as really good ideas.

― modernaire, Saturday, 19 March 2005 22:07 (twenty years ago)

Why has it taken one Daft Punk album to convert the critical world to the en-masse conclusion that excessive repetition is suddenly a bad thing when there are hundreds of records JUST as repetetive as any track on Human After All that go down a fucking storm on the dancefloor and are just as listenable elsewhere? My theory is that HAA is largely light on the accepted dynamics of uber-repetetive dance music - big builds and breakdowns in other words.

(New and highly dubious theory - DP have done this deliberately and it is some wanky postmodern attempt to make a point over the course album they new full well was going to get loads of critical attention in the aftermath of Discovery. A point *maybe* supported by rumours of another album in the pipeline later this year.)

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Sunday, 20 March 2005 01:06 (twenty years ago)

there are hundreds of records JUST as repetetive as any track on Human After All that go down a fucking storm on the dancefloor and are just as listenable elsewhere?

hmm, can you list a few tho?

i think it's because when considering their profile and the images they like to project, it comes off as more frustrating even contemptible than with more anonymous producers who haven't cultivated such a mystique. i think Daft Punk are exactly like Kraftwerk in this respect - i've always found Kraftwerk hugely frustrating at times because you know they could do more, but they just don't seem interested in doing more, and what they are interested in doing at times is completely uninteresting to me. with DP GuyMan's always seemed the shyer, moodier one and in a way this makes the Crydamoure stuff more 'acceptable', because it's in a more appropriate context on Waves 2 or a live DJ set or just the label's latest 12" following on from the last one. it's the same with much of Bangalter's solo work - in the right contexts it's no problem, but HAA is dressed up and made out to be a big event plus it's got to stand up to the other two albums somehow so you can understand why the frustration occurs with such a limited palette of sounds and ideas on this one, because we know what they COULD do more... (i still like it ok enough btw)

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Sunday, 20 March 2005 23:01 (twenty years ago)

I think the "we just churned this out so we can get off Virgin" theory is the most cogent.

I'll probably get this on vinyl when it arrives here, but if I decide to get it on CD, it will likely pop up in the used bins in about, oh, a month or so.

― donut debonair (donut), Sunday, 20 March 2005 23:18 (twenty years ago)

but HAA is dressed up and made out to be a big event plus it's got to stand up to the other two albums somehow so you can understand why the frustration occurs with such a limited palette of sounds and ideas on this one, because we know what they COULD do more

I want to avoid using terrible "less is more" puns ... but "more" in this case equals "dance music + pop-oriented song structure", because that's what we're used to from DP. And moreso, let's face it, polishing any genre of music into a more pop-tastic sheen is the ideal for many ILM'ers.

However, not everyone hears a minimalist dance track and thinks "they could have put *more* into this record". In a track like "Emotion", I hear a lot of Vainqueur's swirls and G-Man's slowed-down funk, and I can't say that I've ever listened to those artists and wished that their could have done "more" with their music.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Sunday, 20 March 2005 23:30 (twenty years ago)

"Why has it taken one Daft Punk album to convert the critical world to the en-masse conclusion that excessive repetition is suddenly a bad thing when there are hundreds of records JUST as repetetive as any track on Human After All that go down a fucking storm on the dancefloor and are just as listenable elsewhere? My theory is that HAA is largely light on the accepted dynamics of uber-repetetive dance music - big builds and breakdowns in other words."

Having finally heard the album i can sorta tentatively agree with this but I think it's only true for some of the tracks. The title track and "Robot Rock" and "Television Rules The Nation" may flaunt their repetition, but "Steam Machine" and "The Brainwasher" and "Technologic" are much closer to what feels like "standard practice" for that sort of sound (they're also the three most successful dance qua dance tracks on the album, I reckon). "The Prime Time Of Your Life" kinda falls outside the equation anyway, and "Make Love" and "Emotion" are highly repetitive but in a way that feels much more familiar and comfortable ("Emotion" in particular is ace in this regard, but what is the track it reminds me of so intensely? Something with a short vocoder loop going through the whole thing as a sort of bassline).

What unites the first three tracks is that they each pour all their energy into a single, intensely catchy hook which is then repeated ad infinitum, but the tracks themselves aren't particularly dancefloor bombs, they never take off in the manner which we're accustomed to with French House - if anything, they feel like nothing but a looped breakdown rather than an absence of breakdowns. Were it a case of the latter these tracks might be closer to "So Much Love To Give" or "Call On Me" or a Crydamoure production.

I think this is deliberate rather than lazy (though I can't guess at the motive) - there's a moment in most of the tracks here where the duo will introduce a single element - a snare, a synth variation etc. - which threatens to send the whole thing over the top, and then they pull it back again. It feels like a rather restrained album to me, in the same way that Discovery felt restrained in places but without the pop-song structure that would explain/complement/contextualise it.

I think "Steam Machine" may be my favourite track, though at the moment it's all up for grabs. "The Prime Time Of Your Life" is the track that suffers most for its brevity I reckon - it should be twice as long!

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 20 March 2005 23:32 (twenty years ago)

"The Prime Time Of Your Life" is the track that suffers most for its brevity I reckon - it should be twice as long!

Yes! "Emotion" could use another three or four minutes, and if "Make Love" had a bit more variation and a beatless intro or outro then it could have topped eight or nine minutes, no problem.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Sunday, 20 March 2005 23:36 (twenty years ago)

I was just going through my Tony Senghore/Hakan Lidbo/Martin Venetjoki/DJ Pascal/Impulsion vinyl collection last night thinking.. "God, Daft Punk were masters when it came to many of their songs, but the influencees have certainly taken the ideas and just HIGHLY progressed with them moreso than the influencer"

The Tony Senghore/>7 track "Herbalise Me", for example, kills everything off Human After All alone. I defer to Jess's point on this album...

― donut debonair (donut), Sunday, 20 March 2005 23:40 (twenty years ago)

Donut! I've always wanted to buy Impulsion after reading a review of one of their albums six years ago. But now I've forgotten what they're supposed to sound like. Can you give me advice?

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 20 March 2005 23:42 (twenty years ago)

There's a video for "Robot Rock" up at the official site now:
http://www.daftpunk.com/

A bit depressingly literal- it is two Robots, Rocking Out- but still kind of fun. Not a patch on the Jonze/Gondry/Matsumoto videos, but not bad either.

― Telephonething, Sunday, 20 March 2005 23:46 (twenty years ago)

Impulsion were really the forgotten peers of Daft Punk, along with the Micronauts (who are also sadly forgotten and underrated).. they started around the same time as DP got popular.. around 1996. They are a duo: DJ Pascal R and Christophe Monier.

I only have a couple of their releases:

The 12" "Higher" which is EXCELLENT. The main track starts off sounding like really pulsing weird diva house, and but then it gets really fucking noisy, 303'ed out, and just extremely fucked up

And there's the double album Love Addict which is at least half amazing.

Both from 1998.

I'll also put in my vote for the double 12"/single "Bleep to Bleep" by the Micronauts as a forgetten great French noisy house classic.

― donut debonair (donut), Sunday, 20 March 2005 23:55 (twenty years ago)

Daft Punk are nothing if not enigmatic. That video is one of the best things I've ever seen.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Sunday, 20 March 2005 23:57 (twenty years ago)

The video is like Bill & Ted as robots.

― donut debonair (donut), Monday, 21 March 2005 00:07 (twenty years ago)

except not as energetic.

― donut debonair (donut), Monday, 21 March 2005 00:08 (twenty years ago)

I have to admit I like the BangalterBot's leather suit, and the ridiculous lens flares and soft-focus 70's style. And the GUITAR HERO crotch-pumping.

― Telephonething, Monday, 21 March 2005 00:12 (twenty years ago)

OTM.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 21 March 2005 00:19 (twenty years ago)

I've just watched it 4 times.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 21 March 2005 00:21 (twenty years ago)

7 times.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 21 March 2005 00:49 (twenty years ago)

Is it me or does the video mix sound quite different?

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Monday, 21 March 2005 00:56 (twenty years ago)

I think it's just the audio compression. The Real and Quicktime versions sound different too.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 21 March 2005 01:06 (twenty years ago)

Spot on. I have Impulsion's 'Rock Le House Musiq' 12", which is crazy and good and the Micronauts also deserved way mo' (that remix of 'Block Rockin' Beats' is probably better than I remember, and the reprise remix of the same is really hot, with a calypso breakdown).

― BARMS, Monday, 21 March 2005 11:01 (twenty years ago)

re the video: looks lovely but they could do MORE! ;)

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Monday, 21 March 2005 11:06 (twenty years ago)

I have Impulsion's 'Rock Le House Musiq' 12"

Sort of a longshot: but is this a relatively slow/big sounding track with loadsa scratching sounds? (still my holy grail, heard it around that time 96-97?)

― Omar (Omar), Monday, 21 March 2005 11:10 (twenty years ago)

Looks like the critical panning has had its effect; HAA only entered the album chart at #10 (Discovery, in contrast, peaked at #2). 5 for £30 at Virgin in three weeks then.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 21 March 2005 11:12 (twenty years ago)

#10 is much much better than i expected

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Monday, 21 March 2005 11:15 (twenty years ago)

#10 is much much better than i expected

ILM is not the rest of the world SHOCKA. ;)
No but really, doesn't surprise me at all. Critics don't break records any more (if this ever was the case.)And reactions have been 50/50 all along, probably even disappointed fans have purchased HAA and as I've been saying, there is a group of people who like this better than Discovery. So #10 sounds about right.

― Omar (Omar), Monday, 21 March 2005 11:37 (twenty years ago)

Sort of a longshot: but is this a relatively slow/big sounding track with loadsa scratching sounds?

Yeah, tho' I haven't heard it in a while, so I may be off a little.

― BARMS, Monday, 21 March 2005 12:01 (twenty years ago)

well i'm not ILM Omar, it was based on my own reckoning - it's a pretty hard sounding album, i figure it's selling more due to generous media coverage (the tv ads etc.) and many people just thinking 'oh new daft punk, the last one was cool so i'll get this' - they may only have heard 'robot rock'). non-dance press reaction did seem weighted towards the negative. it's a pleasant surprise really, but it's extraordinary to think that it's first week sales are probably better than those of 'Kish Kash's going by chart positions alone.

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Monday, 21 March 2005 12:13 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, tho' I haven't heard it in a while, so I may be off a little.

ohboy, ohboy...will I finally find peace of mind. :)

well i'm not ILM

this is true. ;) You believe tv ads would make a difference? I'm sceptical about this. The "what a disaster/joke" anti-hype just seemed premature in retrospect.

― Omar (Omar), Monday, 21 March 2005 12:37 (twenty years ago)

Just finished listening to this for the first time. It's certainly Daft Punk, personality-wise, but - whew!- is it light on the ideas!

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Monday, 21 March 2005 21:15 (twenty years ago)

Another person asking who did that "Make Love" remix. Is it really Ivan Ivan, or is donut messing w/our heads?

― Stupornaut (natepatrin), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 00:32 (twenty years ago)

Well, I was going to buy for this mofo today, but noooooo, I won't get it 'til April 5th.

But this new A-Frames' Black Forest (that also came out today) is amazing.. and I'm dancing to it a lot more than Human After All

― donut debonair (donut), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 05:08 (twenty years ago)

I should note I was going to buy THE VINYL for... sorry. Important qualifier there.

― donut debonair (donut), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 05:09 (twenty years ago)

(also I'm dancing to the A-Frames in a very different way I'd dance to da 'Punk.. this is not a direct recommendation necessarily for Daft Punk fans)

― donut debonair (donut), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 05:17 (twenty years ago)

This album is seriously underrated. I like it at least as much as the first one.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 21:35 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

Humans After All was a hoax after all! Of course Daft Punk would never release such a repetitive, loopy mess of an album. I've got a friend in the Toshiba-EMI Yogaku-bu (Western music division) who filled me in on the secret and slipped me the real DP release due to hit stores next month: Robots After All. Here is the single "Rrobot Rrock" (mp3) - a vast improvement over the original hoax version.

http://www.pliink.com/mt/marxy/archives/000480.html

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Saturday, 9 April 2005 16:01 (twenty years ago)

why did they send six copies of the "hoax" album to my radio station this week?

― miccio (miccio), Saturday, 9 April 2005 16:16 (twenty years ago)

hahaha

xpost

― fe zaffe (fezaffe), Saturday, 9 April 2005 16:23 (twenty years ago)

i think the "hoax" version is better

― Aerodynamic (Aerodynamic), Saturday, 9 April 2005 17:19 (twenty years ago)

...

― fe zaffe (fezaffe), Saturday, 9 April 2005 17:36 (twenty years ago)

GIGGLETITS ROFFLEMUFF

― Plus-Tech Whiz Kid (Disco) (Barima), Saturday, 9 April 2005 19:07 (twenty years ago)

Yes, quite the improvement.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Saturday, 9 April 2005 19:36 (twenty years ago)

According to BoingBoing, there's a video for "Technologic" now. Here's the torrent:

http://www.vilodex.com/daputec.torrent

Haven't finished dl'ing it yet, but the still is fucking creepy.
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/04/09/daft_punk_video_tech.html

― Telephonething, Sunday, 10 April 2005 17:26 (twenty years ago)

...okay, just watched it and AAAAAGH HOLY FUCK GET IT AWAY FROM ME.

― Telephonething, Sunday, 10 April 2005 17:28 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

i cant help but listen to "technologic" without thinking it was purposely made to soundtrack tomorrow's electronics and it commercials
-- mark p, January 25th, 2005 12:14 AM.

SO IT IS DONE. The new ipod commercial uses "Technologic".

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Sunday, 15 May 2005 03:08 (twenty years ago)

*cries*

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Sunday, 15 May 2005 03:13 (twenty years ago)

where can I see this ad?

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Sunday, 15 May 2005 03:15 (twenty years ago)

Just played during SNL.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Sunday, 15 May 2005 03:16 (twenty years ago)

This was destiny! I've always though DP deliberately tailor-made the song to appeal to to the Apple/ipod/burning/ripping/downloading culture.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Sunday, 15 May 2005 03:24 (twenty years ago)

Genius.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Sunday, 15 May 2005 03:52 (twenty years ago)

Is the commercial anything like the "Technologic" video? now THAT would be genius.

― donut debonair (donut), Sunday, 15 May 2005 03:57 (twenty years ago)

This is quite similar to the Shins song used in the Mcdonalds commercial in regards to content of the song and the use of it.

― jmeister (jmeister), Sunday, 15 May 2005 07:11 (twenty years ago)

three months pass...

mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmmmmm we are human mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmmmm after all...

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 15 August 2005 23:01 (twenty years ago)

I never listen to this now!

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 00:04 (twenty years ago)

I've been listening to "Release the Beast" a lot on the Freeform Five mix.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 00:07 (twenty years ago)

Both of those Breakwater albums are pretty good.. the first album (the one that doesn't have "Release The Beast") is actually better.. especially "Do It Till The Fluid Gets Hot". Admittedly, I have to thank Daft Punk for turning me on to this group.

(As for HAA, I've lost my initial disenchantment for it... it's still Daft Punk saying "ah fuck it" still, but I don't dislike the album any more.)

― donut ferry (donut), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 00:13 (twenty years ago)

:-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 00:16 (twenty years ago)

i haven't listened to this in months!! completely exited my brain.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 00:24 (twenty years ago)

I think buying it on vinyl helped (which was released almost a month after the CD was.) I wouldn't have blinked an eye buying a somewhat decent hard techno-housey album by any other artist, always expecting half filler, but I had my expectations raised for this one, because.. well... it was the same guys who did Discovery, ya know?

Aside from the Basement Jaxx remix of "Technlogic", the singles from this have been pretty disappointing.

― donut ferry (donut), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 00:25 (twenty years ago)

still listening to it and loving it.

― stevo (stevo), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 02:06 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

          ARTiST........: Daft Punk
          TiTLE.........: Human After All (Remixes)
            01.  Human After All (Emperor Machine Version)           06:02
            02.  Human After All (Justice Remix)                     03:55
            03.  Human After All (Original Mix)                      05:18
            04.  Human After All (Sebastian Remix)                   04:42
            05.  Human After All (The Juan Maclean Remix)            07:33
            06.  Human After All (Alter Ego Remix)                   07:20

― unconscious, honey (FE7), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 05:28 (twenty years ago)

i admire the way the emperor machine takes everything thats bad about the original and makes it even worse

― unconscious, honey (FE7), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 05:30 (twenty years ago)

HEY GUYS, REMEMBER THIS ALBUM? LOLOLOLOL.

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Saturday, 29 October 2005 01:55 (twenty years ago)

I still like this.

― deej.. (deej..), Saturday, 29 October 2005 02:45 (twenty years ago)

me too, but I never listen to it.

Remember when nobody thought it was REAL, though? Pretty shameful!

― F.R.I.E.N.D. (nordicskilla), Saturday, 29 October 2005 02:47 (twenty years ago)

Not that they won't be good, but that is a rather predictable bunch of remixers.

― F.R.I.E.N.D. (nordicskilla), Saturday, 29 October 2005 02:47 (twenty years ago)

i still think it's godawful

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 29 October 2005 02:57 (twenty years ago)

I remember the day it came out excitedly rushing to Amoeba to hear it. They happened to be playing it on the store's stereo. I wandered the aisles as it played and it quickly ruled itself out as a purchase. I've heard it here and there since then and...ugh...no.

― gear (gear), Saturday, 29 October 2005 03:00 (twenty years ago)

The Sebastian remix is really awesome

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Saturday, 29 October 2005 03:09 (twenty years ago)

And the Justice mix, too. I'm still undecided on the Emperor Machine, though I'm glad they chose this as a single over, say, "Steam Machine."

― telephone thing, Saturday, 29 October 2005 03:24 (twenty years ago)

this album is wonderful

― Christopher Costello (CGC), Saturday, 29 October 2005 03:29 (twenty years ago)

Discovery:
http://forums.autoweek.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/17-12965-285320-5897/amx3.gif

Human After All:
http://www.tdrake.net/motw/pix/amc-pacer.jpg

― disco violence (disco violence), Saturday, 29 October 2005 04:26 (twenty years ago)

if you pretend its not daft punk it's quite enjoyable!

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 29 October 2005 04:30 (twenty years ago)

three months pass...

Japan-only remix compilation coming out soon. Definitely not worth paying ludicrous import prices for (unless you are hell-bent on owning Thomas and GuyMan Kubricks) but there are two new tracks that may be worth Soulseeking after the release: a Playgroup remix of "Steam Machine" and Para One of "Prime Time Of Your Life."

― telephone thing, Thursday, 23 February 2006 00:41 (nineteen years ago)

...and another release coming soon, a best-of on Virgin entitled Musique 1993-2005. One CD of singles, one DVD of videos. Kind of a weak package, actually, since the best videos are already available elsewhere (on the Gondry DVD or as part of Interstella 5555), and the only rarity is a live take on "Rollin' and Scratchin'" that I'm willing to bet is taken straight from Alive 1997.

― telephone thing, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 19:59 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

I'm liking this now.

― Jeff, Sunday, 26 August 2007 23:21 (eighteen years ago)

four months pass...

vid for "Prime Time Of Your Life" is fucking fucked up

― Curt1s Stephens, Friday, 11 January 2008 13:32 (eighteen years ago)

one month passes...

great album.

― The Brainwasher, Wednesday, 5 March 2008 06:14 (seventeen years ago)

Hahahah this is gonna be just like discovery where everyone hates on it them comes around in the end, I can tell.

Oh man the synths on the last track are so wonderful.

-- djdee2005 (djdee2005), Monday, January 24, 2005 1:56 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Link

like most threads from around this time i was being a total douche but i was also right

― deej, Wednesday, 5 March 2008 07:23 (seventeen years ago)

yeah this album makes a lot of sense after the whole Justice / ed banger hoopla

― baaderonixx, Wednesday, 5 March 2008 19:59 (seventeen years ago)

01. Human After All

03. Robot Rock

08. Television Rules The Nation
09. Technologic

"Great EP in there somewhere."

― Bodrick III, Wednesday, 5 March 2008 20:05 (seventeen years ago)

the slow songs are so good!

― mizzell, Wednesday, 5 March 2008 20:08 (seventeen years ago)

Human After All >>>> Discovery >>>>>>>>>> Homework >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Justice (LOL)

― stephen, Wednesday, 5 March 2008 20:42 (seventeen years ago)

the slow songs are so good!

yup!!

i can only hear 'make love' in my head right now. maybe cos i never listened to this album very much.

― gff, Wednesday, 5 March 2008 20:46 (seventeen years ago)

emooootion
emooootion

― mizzell, Wednesday, 5 March 2008 20:48 (seventeen years ago)

'make love' sounds like cluster.

― haitch, Wednesday, 5 March 2008 21:22 (seventeen years ago)

five years pass...

human human human human
human human human human
human human human human
human human human after all
human human human human
human human human human
human human human human
human human human after all
human human human human
human human human human
human human human human
human human human after all
human human human human
human human human human
human human human human
human human human after all
human human human human
human human human human
human human human human
human human human after all
human human human human
human human human human
human human human human
human human human after all
human human human human
human human human human
human human human human
human human human after all

― Tip from Tae Kwon Do: (crüt), Wednesday, 13 November 2013 21:33 (twelve years ago)

seven years pass...

wish I'd known of ILM in 2005, would've made my love of this album less confusing and lonely

― swing out sister: live in new donk city (geoffreyess), Monday, 22 February 2021 16:16 (four years ago)

I've never (knowingly) heard anything from this album except for "Technologic." Seems like a good day to check it out lol

― J. Sam, Monday, 22 February 2021 18:53 (four years ago)

great completely misunderstood record

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, 22 February 2021 19:01 (four years ago)

WOW The Prime Time of Your Life GOES. The way it keeps speeding up I feel like I've just railed two full grams of blow. I think I love this album already

― J. Sam, Monday, 22 February 2021 19:01 (four years ago)

Ok Robot Rock, I see why people rag on this record for being repetitive, but it seems like the absolute right choice for music this loud and scuzzy

― J. Sam, Monday, 22 February 2021 19:05 (four years ago)

it's fun!!! BOW bunananana

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, 22 February 2021 19:09 (four years ago)

'make love' sounds like cluster.

― haitch, Wednesday, March 5, 2008 4:22 PM (twelve years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yes! I really really love this. So elegant. Just that primitive drum machine, piano(!), a lil palm-muted guitar, and a lonely vocoded robot crooning off in the distance.

― J. Sam, Monday, 22 February 2021 19:15 (four years ago)

RE-MO-SHUUUUUUN

― J. Sam, Monday, 22 February 2021 19:37 (four years ago)

great completely misunderstood record

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, February 22, 2021 2:01 PM (twenty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yes. I love it. Crazy that it took Daft Punk breaking up to get me to listen to this album. Thanks, robots. Wishing you all the best in your future endeavors.

― J. Sam, Monday, 22 February 2021 19:44 (four years ago)

it was really funny how this album leaked a year in advance and pretty much everyone assumed it was fake

― frogbs, Monday, 22 February 2021 20:25 (four years ago)

I’m not crazy about this album but it’s much better than that not dissimilar Ed banger/justice/digitalism crap that was going on

― brimstead, Monday, 22 February 2021 20:44 (four years ago)

Justice was the worst

― Hello Nice FBI Lady (DJP), Monday, 22 February 2021 20:44 (four years ago)

"it was really funny how this album leaked a year in advance and pretty much everyone assumed it was fake"

LOL, I had forgotten about this. The reaction was almost uniformly negative but they didn't change anything.

― skip, Monday, 22 February 2021 22:18 (four years ago)

make love rules

― nxd, Monday, 22 February 2021 22:41 (four years ago)

Probably one of the few times I got it right: http://stylusmagazine.com/reviews/daft-punk/human-after-all.html

― Naive Teen Idol, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 13:04 (four years ago)

it was really funny how this album leaked a year in advance and pretty much everyone assumed it was fake

This can't be right. Why would they have recorded it in just a few weeks (and it sounded like it) just to sit on it for over a year?

― nashwan, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 13:25 (four years ago)

Yeah, I don't recall it leaking a year in advance. It only leaked like a month or two in advance, as was common at the time.

But he is right on a lot of people thinking the leak was fake. The fact that P2P networks were full of fake versions of Discovery tracks where parts just looped over and over again didn't help either.

― MarkoP, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 13:32 (four years ago)

Also this is kinda shown in this very topic, where things were leaked around the time I remember them being leaked.

― MarkoP, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 13:45 (four years ago)

fake versions of Discovery tracks where parts just looped over and over again

hard to tell the difference tbf

― eisimpleir (crüt), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 14:32 (four years ago)

Well you can tell something is wrong with your version of Harder Faster Better Stronger if it never gets to the fun breakdown sections which are the best part.

― MarkoP, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 14:34 (four years ago)

the primetimeofyourLIFE

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 14:35 (four years ago)

steeeeeeeam
machiiiiiiine

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 14:46 (four years ago)

this is my second favorite dp album after discovery lol

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 14:47 (four years ago)

https://hasitleaked.com/articles/memorable-and-odd-album-leaks/

The hugely anticipated follow up to the French electro duo’s masterpiece Discovery leaked months ahead of its intended release. Daft Punk has been subject to fake album leaks throughout their releases, the most memorable being the numerous fake Tron soundtrack leaks. Interestingly enough, some of those leaks, although fake, were pretty impressive. The problem with the Human After All album leak was that a lot of fans thought it was fake due to the fact that it wasn’t up to the same quality as Daft Punk’s previous releases. As a reviewer from Sputnik put it:
“Most fans did not believe that it was actually Human After All, many fans warned others not to download the leak because it was a fake. They proclaimed it sounded too cheap and dirty to be the real thing, and that the sound just did not fit Daft Punk at all. Little did they know, they were listening to the real thing.”

― groovypanda, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 15:00 (four years ago)

But he is right on a lot of people thinking the leak was fake. The fact that P2P networks were full of fake versions of Discovery tracks where parts just looped over and over again didn't help either.

IIRC this very thread has a lot of people saying it must be fake and waiting for the "real" album to drop?

― Tuomas, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 15:09 (four years ago)

Album is front-loaded to fuck. Love the first three tracks but there are some draggy, too long songs on here that don't really do anything much. The overall sound is very hot and compressed. It works in certain situations (title track), others it's just a bit "ecchhh was this a mistake or done on purpose"? I know they used a lot of guitar effects and stuff on these tunes, and you can tell - it's got a gritty, overdriven vibe that sort-of works, but sort-of doesn't.

Too many tracks have potential but sound unfinished. Some might like the unfussy, unpolished approach, but compared to the perfection of Discovery, there's a tossed-off feel to a lot of these.

"Steam Machine" is ploddy and boring.
"Make Love" is pretty but sounds like a stripped-down off-cut from Discovery.
"The Brainwasher" is Black Sabbath's 'Iron Man' played on an Atari DOS Tracker and again doesn't do enough in its 4 minute run.
"On/Off" completely pointless, even as a filler track.
"Television Rules The Nation" isn't bad, but we didn't need a song about TV being the opiate of the masses even back in 2005. "Technologic" sounds like it was written especially for a TV ad, and I'm pretty sure it was (but the Basement Jaxx version is AMAAAAAZING).
"Emotion" is okay but like "Too Long", it's too long and the hot, over-compressed fuzziness doesn't suit the vibe.

― Party With A Jagger Ban (dog latin), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 15:18 (four years ago)

you're ploddy and boring

― Hello Nice FBI Lady (DJP), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 15:28 (four years ago)

Robot Rock though... absolute smasher. BOW bunananana indeed

― Party With A Jagger Ban (dog latin), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 15:29 (four years ago)

Don't remember thinking the HAA leaks were fake, but I did think we would see less distorted audio on the actual release, given the pristine sound of the first two albums

― Vinnie, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 15:37 (four years ago)

The overall sound is very hot and compressed. It works in certain situations (title track), others it's just a bit "ecchhh was this a mistake or done on purpose"? I know they used a lot of guitar effects and stuff on these tunes, and you can tell - it's got a gritty, overdriven vibe that sort-of works, but sort-of doesn't.

This anticipated blog house to a tee, kind of wild

― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 15:40 (four years ago)

i mean, over-compressed mastering was becoming an issue by then anyway, but this is an artistic choice rather than a production decision. it's really hard to tame guitar distortion at the best of times, but seeing as it's guitars it doesn't usually matter. putting an analogue synth through digital guitar fx (which it sounds like they're doing here) gives it that sparky, overloaded sound. i think that's what this album makes me think of: a dicey power socket you're not sure if it's safe to plug the TV into. it skirts between illicit danger and the potential of a nasty shock.

― Party With A Jagger Ban (dog latin), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 15:59 (four years ago)

Not sure if this was already posted re mastering

My one .@DaftPunk_Music anecdote is really a chance for me to share one about the late, great Nilesh Patel at The Exchange, who was always a joy to work with.
— Man With A Spleen (@manwithaspleen) February 22, 2021

― groovypanda, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 16:59 (four years ago)

Too many tracks have potential but sound unfinished

the idea that this album was lazy or rushed or unfinished pops up over and over again throughout this thread and it strikes me as as stupid now as it did at that time

turns out everyone was projecting a maximum understanding of 'effort' in the first place

low-effort kings https://t.co/xbMJBAOnBy pic.twitter.com/WON53tmRQi
— MG (@meaghan_garvey) February 22, 2021

― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 18:54 (four years ago)

Yes but Homework was far far more interesting in its minimalism than Human After All, imho their most boring work. It makes up for that with catchiness, but ... it's boring. If they truly wanted to make a statement and make these tracks less boring than they should have been half the length. By far the best presentation of the material from this album was in Alive 2007, which appropriately combines the hooks here with mutation and mashups with their other singles and it's perfection. This is the ultimate "phoned it in" album, and most of the comments I see here defending it simply just wave the criticisms away magically with a subjective rose colored nostalgic lenses and condescending words like "stupid". They are valid criticisms.

― octobeard, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 19:17 (four years ago)

"make love"... "the brainwasher"... boring? okidoke

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 19:19 (four years ago)

That's basically the two least boring songs on the album, which are still less dynamic than most anything on their previous two. Let's talk about how many are boring as well!

― octobeard, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 19:20 (four years ago)

i do not view this record through a lens of nostalgia btw

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 19:21 (four years ago)

Daft Punk minimalism done to perfect: Superheroes, Alive. Both those tracks >>>>>>>>>> any song on this album imho

― octobeard, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 19:22 (four years ago)

Perfection, sorry

― octobeard, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 19:22 (four years ago)

like "Too Long", it's too long

calling "too long" too long is one of the most immortal self-owns afaict

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 19:22 (four years ago)

my 'nostalgia' of the songs on this album are arguing with people i respected (well some) and wanted to respect me as a 22 year old on ilx about it .. it flopped in the public sphere (until alive 2007) so its hard to have my interest in it driven by 'passion'

i dont know why house producers making a trackier project makes these records 'boring' unless you're looking at it through a pop lens though. repetition & such is a tool of house music and always has been...and the project has great hooks, like the breakwater sample and the title track, which are worth hearing on repeat

i feel like ppl projected all kinds of 'effort' into stuff that was house music ... samples flipped and curated to create a particular sonic world ... and they just didn't like this world as much as they liked the warmer one on discovery ... this one was way more mechanistic and grinding and leaned a bit into a trebly mix that ended up being pretty prescient about where dance music was heading (or did it help push it the way, the world may never know)

nb more people on here liked Justice as i recall, but i still like this more than Justice's debut

― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 19:29 (four years ago)

* so its hard to have my interest in it driven by *nostalgia* -- its purely driven by 'passion'

― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 19:29 (four years ago)

which is to say, all the claims about there being something wrong with the *process* of creating 'human after all' suggests to me that maybe people just werent interested in the world they created, because the tools were functionally the same! surely years of sample exposes of discovery have suggested as much

― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 19:31 (four years ago)

This album was like a sleeper cell waiting for people to reassess with newfound fondness upon the dissolution of its creators the whole time.

― avatar of a kind of respectability homosexual culture (Eric H.), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 19:34 (four years ago)

there's nothing on this record as complexly realized as "digital love" but that's not what the record's about, it's delivering a sparer and harsher sound with some additional trademark daft punk perversity (cf. "the prime time of your life" rearing up out of a sea of mechanical murk and then when it finally seems to settle on a steady beat, the vocals disappear and it speeds up, it's very funny to me in addition to sounding super cool and genuinely dynamic)

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 19:34 (four years ago)

for some reason i listened to the whole daft punk discog last month so i feel like i made this breakup happen

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 19:35 (four years ago)

deej otm as well

the breakwater sample in "robot rock" seems to me a very basic example of why sampling is good and awesome, let's take this one awesome part of a song and make it the whole thing

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 19:38 (four years ago)

I just want to know what all the naysayers think of Rollin’ & Scratchin’

― Hello Nice FBI Lady (DJP), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 19:41 (four years ago)

~~Rollin' & Scratchin'~~ Rock'n Roll

― avatar of a kind of respectability homosexual culture (Eric H.), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 19:43 (four years ago)

its boring

― frogbs, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 19:43 (four years ago)

Put on the Crydamoure Waves Vol II compilation (released a couple years prior) and compare with this album. House music has progression over time, and responds to and provokes a dance floor. Most of this album is basically 4+ minutes of a single loop, with minimal layering and depth and no sonic variation. It is not responding to or provoking a dance floor. It is just... basic. Boring. Uninteresting. It is indeed a master class in the "hook", and this is where it gets its gusto and love from. But from a song structure and arrangement standpoint (let alone production and layering) it's boring and simplistic, and if intended as a "statement", it was pretentiously and poorly executed imho.

Superheroes has a constant tension, buildup, and then dramatic and glorious release at the end. Alive is like one of these loops organically building up and mutating (as if it's alive!), responding to a dance floor with a constantly flowing and satisfying dynamism, despite being a basic loop. Btw, both these aforementioned songs are not necessarily pop, but house tracks, so to be clear I think this album is boring for house music as well as pop! None of the songs on this album are "dynamic", they set a mood through their loops and just let them run for 4 minutes with maybe a slight change here and there at the end of every 8 bars or so. Perhaps I should just edit these down to 90 second/2 minute versions and see how that plays out. Would be easy enough.

― octobeard, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 19:47 (four years ago)

there are lots of non HAA DP songs that don't have especially dynamic or complex songwriting and are trackier and simpler. I dont for one minute think that what makes a Daft Punk song "good" is where it stands on the spectrum of complex > simple

― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 19:53 (four years ago)

I just want to know what all the naysayers think of Rock'n Roll

A better dance floor track than anything on this album is what it is.

― octobeard, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 19:54 (four years ago)

Also Vitalic's remix of Technologic >>>> Technologic, which highlights in such a raw manner what this album is missing for me.

― octobeard, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 19:56 (four years ago)

FTR I wasn't outright dissing this album upthread. I'd say I genuinely enjoy a good third of it and I'd put the first three tracks in a personal best of.

But the dead giveaway in that DP quote upthread is: "The main thing is that it sounds good". I've got no problem with dance music being quickly produced, or being repetitive or using challenging or harsh sounds.

But there are tracks on HAA that sound (to me at least) like an especially unpleasant noise or frequency repeated for 5 minutes with very little in the way of variation, lift, propulsion or a lot of the things I kind of want in dance and electronic music. It's just this slow-chugging wall of digital distortion that reminds me of bad industrial music.

I dunno, I'm not going to argue with anyone who likes those particular tracks,ymmv etc. It's just that compared to Discovery, which feel light but perfectly crafted, this is a steamroller crudely flattening the ground and choking up the air.

God I'm making it sound great, aren't I?

― Party With A Jagger Ban (dog latin), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 20:23 (four years ago)

rock n roll is not boring, it tears the roof off

― brimstead, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 20:32 (four years ago)

house music *shrugs*

― brimstead, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 20:32 (four years ago)

"Robot Rock" is funny b/c it's like "actually this should be a Daft Punk song, we're taking this song now, thx" - can't argue with the results

― eisimpleir (crüt), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 20:44 (four years ago)

“Steam machine” is prob the epitome of the album aesthetic to me, feel like writing that one off might explain why someone would consider the overall project a disappointment

― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 20:46 (four years ago)

haha totally

― brimstead, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 20:46 (four years ago)

there are tracks on HAA that sound (to me at least) like an especially unpleasant noise or frequency repeated for 5 minutes with very little in the way of variation, lift, propulsion

More of this plz

― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 20:46 (four years ago)

― brimstead, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 20:47 (four years ago)

Every Daft Punk album is and obviously sounds like a different project with a specific approach. This is a positive thing about the band.

(it is also true and also good that all this stuff sounded way better stripped for parts and mixed in with other songs on the tour. oh wow a bunch of deliberately repetitive tracky techno songs could be used to transformative effect?! shocker of the decade)

― stilt in the wings (sic), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 21:22 (four years ago)

Exactly, every DP album that's not RAM has simple songs in it. But "simple" and "boring" can be mutually exclusive. I paid special attention to highlight how Alive, a song as "simple" as anything on HAA, is more entertaining and less boring than literally every song on it. For me, when I listen to HAA, I get fidgety thinking about how much better the tracks could be with minimal tweaking while simultaneously getting frustrated and annoyed at the sonic monotony. If the band were aiming for many to have that response as an artistic statement, cool - but still makes it a meh listen at best. I'll put on Homework instead.

I find the vast majority of Grateful Dead to be boring too - but that music is the opposite of "simple"

― octobeard, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 22:05 (four years ago)

Yeah it's the same fidgetiness. It's not the repetition or the fact they set out to make a more "raw" sounding album - I'm cool with those factors, I just don't think the factors work well together here

― Party With A Jagger Ban (dog latin), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 22:12 (four years ago)

If the band were aiming for many to have that response as an artistic statement, cool - but still makes it a meh listen at best. I'll put on Homework instead.

i dont think you need an 'if' here and i also think if you're looking for a vibe like 'steam machine' 'but less boring' it doesn't make much sense to listen to homework which is a completely different sound/aesthetic

idk, do you guys like...the trackier end of acid house or techno or industrial music? the comparison to "bad industrial music" dog latin made up thread makes me think its just a specific tonal color you guys are disinterest in, rather than finding it lacking

i suspect that part of this album's sound is based around the live event, and recognizing what gaps exist in their earlier music, and the reason people like "Alive 2007" so much is that they start to hear how all those pieces fit in together... I don't think the versions on "Alive 2007" are "better" than the ones on HAA although I do think they create a context where they make more sense ... something you could as easily say about plenty of other tracky house albums

― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 22:26 (four years ago)

I think it is largely the tonal colour here.
I don't think this sounds much like the trackier house/techno that I've heard, which at least sounds propulsive and hypnotic and probably still has a feeling of evolvement and change even if it doesn't do very much.
HAA sounds more like a rock album to me: the way the mid-frequencies are filled to breaking point, and the fuzz effect on all the synths etc.

The tempos too - I never really got on with some of Homework because it's this heavy, lumbering, constant chug that I'm not sure what to do with.

I mean, you get repetition and monotony in rock songs - Swans, for example. But it's hard to recreate this kind of nervous energy in the same way perhaps?

― Party With A Jagger Ban (dog latin), Tuesday, 23 February 2021 22:47 (four years ago)

I don’t think Daft Punk originated the sound variation that Human After All leans into, but I think there’s a definitely lineage between Human After All coming out in 2005 and Ed Banger records blowing up in 2007

There’s also something to be said about the 2007 Daft Punk tour and the effect it had on the full visual spectacle EDM tours, especially in the US, in the following years. Not just from an influence on younger musicians and their aspirations when it came to touring, but from the corporate side seeing that two guys in masks could do things standing inside a giant pyramid that most of the audience has no idea about, and make a lot of money doing so in huge festival venues

― mh, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 22:58 (four years ago)

I was not ready for this album in 2005

― brimstead, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 22:59 (four years ago)

You could probably say the same thing about Homework and Discovery. If they weren’t helping originate waves, they were very shrewd about riding them, and didn’t really mine the same niche twice!

― mh, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 23:01 (four years ago)

xp it was not what I wanted it to be

― brimstead, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 23:02 (four years ago)

at the very least now it's clear that HAA provided the backbone for Alive 2007. It's almost like it was planned that way ahead of time.

― skip, Tuesday, 23 February 2021 23:05 (four years ago)

I have the suspicion this album was a piss-take.

I do like “Make Love” a lot... it might be the only song in here which doesn’t drive me mad with the absurd repetition and lack of progression, it might also be the only track which doesn’t use that bitcrusher, distorted “yeah” effect sound that is used in every fucking song. Is that a bass ot a guitar thru a pedal? I’ve seen people replicating it with pedals... anyhoo it gets annoying. According to this post on reddit is used 1154 times on the album!

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 03:56 (four years ago)

It sounds like a guitar when the effect is longer like on”television rules the nation” but even there I can’t stop not hearing it as a “yeah”.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 04:01 (four years ago)

But it kind of confirms that those “yeah” sounds are a distorted guitar effect cutted up to trigger on a synth or whatever.

It sounds cool alright but not cool enough to be the party trick you keep using all night.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 04:05 (four years ago)

oh for the love of god

― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 04:23 (four years ago)

you don't get it: it's supposed to sound annoying as shit

― frogbs, Wednesday, 24 February 2021 04:25 (four years ago)

I get it, that’s why I think it’s a piss take.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 04:27 (four years ago)

you guys are babies. 'steam machine' doesn't sound annoying it sounds cool as hell

― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 04:28 (four years ago)

I like Daft Punk, but I don't get why we are supposed to accept them as utterly beyond reproach.

― Mr. Cacciatore (Moodles), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 04:30 (four years ago)

because discovery is fucking awesome

― brimstead, Wednesday, 24 February 2021 04:55 (four years ago)

D40 otm

― brimstead, Wednesday, 24 February 2021 04:55 (four years ago)

Discovery is the boring album

― Hello Nice FBI Lady (DJP), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 14:18 (four years ago)

The poppier they became, the worse they were

― Hello Nice FBI Lady (DJP), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 14:18 (four years ago)

RAM is their poppiest album. I have the absolute opposite problem with it in that it's had a lot of the rough edges smoothed off completely, and the glances at experimentalism (Giorgio By Moroder) don't really land well enough to stand up to future listens. It's a strangely forlorn little album for one that spawned Get Lucky. I can't get my head around the idea that Discovery is boring though.

― Party With A Jagger Ban (dog latin), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 15:13 (four years ago)

RAM is abjectly terrible

― Hello Nice FBI Lady (DJP), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 15:15 (four years ago)

they tricked EDM fans into buying a record that sounds like early '80s Deodato which is hilarious to me

― eisimpleir (crüt), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 15:29 (four years ago)

they really have an all-time weird career arc

― ufo, Wednesday, 24 February 2021 15:33 (four years ago)

i appreciate ram as an exercise still, making explicit connections between your music and not just the records but the very context of the records that inspired it ('70s/'80s disco/boogie/r&b played by crack studio musicians and sounding like it was produced by quincy jones)? pretty dope

also makes way more sense as a final record probably

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 15:34 (four years ago)

whoever said "fragments of time" -> "doin it right" was a peak for them was correct

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 15:42 (four years ago)

the release of ram coincided with me getting really into post-disco and electro-r&b and for that i will cherish it as like a talisman or a prism forever

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 15:46 (four years ago)

RAM is definitely one of those albums where every track individually sounds pretty great but I cannot get into it at all as an album. by the time "Game of Love" comes on I want to put on literally anything else

― frogbs, Wednesday, 24 February 2021 15:49 (four years ago)

it is an enormous unwieldy album experience for sure

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 15:55 (four years ago)

whoever said "fragments of time" -> "doin it right" was a peak for them was correct

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, February 24, 2021 10:42 AM (twenty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Sup

― J. Sam, Wednesday, 24 February 2021 16:10 (four years ago)

The poppier they became, the worse they were

I agree with this take at the same time as I think Discovery is their best (really only) album.

― avatar of a kind of respectability homosexual culture (Eric H.), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 16:13 (four years ago)

whoever said "fragments of time" -> "doin it right" was a peak for them was correct

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, February 24, 2021 10:42 AM (twenty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Sup

― J. Sam

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 17:27 (four years ago)

well at least a couple of people came to praise DP not to bury them

― The Scampo Fell to Earth (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 17:28 (four years ago)

Agree that RAM is a bit much to digest in one go despite being made up of some strong elements.

It veers wildly around in mood,so that even the more ebullient moments harbour a twinge of defeated melancholy. One minute we're being invited to Give Life Back To Music, but immediately having the wind taken out our sails with the sad robot music of Game Of Love. This happens throughout, and I'm never quite sure if I'm really meant to be losing myself to dance, or if this is a reverse bathos going on.

― Party With A Jagger Ban (dog latin), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 18:15 (four years ago)

i think there are several reasons why it doesn't matter whether you think an album released in 2013 works as a consistent piece beginning to end

― The Scampo Fell to Earth (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 18:17 (four years ago)

or an album released in 2005 even if we're just going to randomly access threads

― The Scampo Fell to Earth (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 18:19 (four years ago)

Does the year it came out matter? One of the things I like about Discovery is how well sequenced it is, which is further cemented by how it was used on Interstella 5555

― Party With A Jagger Ban (dog latin), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 18:28 (four years ago)

RAM has the best sequencing of all their albums!

― eisimpleir (crüt), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 19:08 (four years ago)

yuman after yall

― J. Sam, Wednesday, 24 February 2021 19:14 (four years ago)

Xp maybe the second half, but I find the sequencing of the first three tracks really odd and jarring

― Party With A Jagger Ban (dog latin), Wednesday, 24 February 2021 20:10 (four years ago)

So, I spent an evening editing this down from 45 to 30 minutes, which was surprisingly easy given its loopy, minimal nature. No song is longer than 4 minutes, and some songs like Emotion, The Brainwasher and the title track sound a bit less wanting as they express their core ideas more concisely. I took maybe one creative liberty on a transition, but other than that the edits almost feel completely natural.

Here's a link if anyone's interested:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AeBYVJiThQafBqqtp28CKmShiOsqcqfD?usp=sharing

― octobeard, Friday, 26 February 2021 07:14 (four years ago)

Downloading now. Sounds interesting

― Party With A Jagger Ban (dog latin), Friday, 26 February 2021 08:24 (four years ago)

Well that was enjoyable. Definitely felt like an easier listen and less like I was being pummelled into submission in certain places. That said, in others I missed the pummelling, particularly on the first two tracks which I always liked just fine. I did enjoy the artistic liberty you took with Prime Time (I think) though, that was fun

― Party With A Jagger Ban (dog latin), Friday, 26 February 2021 09:26 (four years ago)

🤮

― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Friday, 26 February 2021 17:21 (four years ago)

Thanks! The creative liberty I think I was referring to was the edit to only a single "Technologic" before the first drop instead of four. The fact that didn't actually stick out as noticeable is a victory I think hah.

Re: PTOYL, it was the hardest song to edit, because it's the only one on the album I actually enjoy its full length for the most part. However, I forced myself to get it below 4 mins just to see, and was able to slice out the 2nd half of the intro successfully. Flows better now I think, but I did cut out the part with the most personality. I still think most people casually listening wouldn't even notice. It's basically an album of radio edits.

― octobeard, Friday, 26 February 2021 17:37 (four years ago)

Thanks for the work - this is kind of reminiscent of the Rex the Dog compilation.

― skip, Friday, 26 February 2021 17:45 (four years ago)

one year passes...

god this album is so dope

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Monday, 25 July 2022 14:42 (three years ago)

The perfect anxiety album. I've written about it as such n' all

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Monday, 25 July 2022 15:52 (three years ago)

two years pass...

20 years ago today

"make love" is all time for me

― nxd, Friday, 14 March 2025 18:44 (ten months ago)

my enduring memory of this was when it leaked 9 months early and everyone thought it was fake only to be bitterly disappointed when the real thing came out

― frogbs, Friday, 14 March 2025 18:46 (ten months ago)

the Alive 07 mixes/re-workings/mashups totally saved these tracks for me.

― gman59, Friday, 14 March 2025 19:43 (ten months ago)

ya as soon as I saw the tracklist my first thought was "oooh, that'll probably work really well"

― frogbs, Friday, 14 March 2025 19:53 (ten months ago)

I once expounded 3,300 words on why this is my autistic depression comfort album

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Friday, 14 March 2025 23:02 (ten months ago)

"robot rock" sign of poor judgment imo

relistening to "make love" it is indeed good

― corrs unplugged, Saturday, 15 March 2025 18:30 (ten months ago)

something abt this being 20 yrs old really shakes the marbles outta me

― johnny crunch, Saturday, 15 March 2025 18:44 (ten months ago)

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