Daft Punk Bring ‘Da Funk’ in ’07

French electro-house duo Daft Punk made light of a potentially damaging situation when its initial music-making efforts were ill-received by critics. As a rock band, current Daft Punk members Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo found that they had exhausted the scene early with used-up riffs and over-done chord progressions.
After three full-length albums, Daft Punk recently released its second live album, fittingly titled ‘Alive 2007.’ As a sort of 10th anniversary homage to its first live album, this most recent release features its live performance in Paris. As a welcome home concert, the album chronicles Daft Punk’s return to Paris after spending the last 10 years overseas.
A hardcopy of its album won’t be available until December. The wait worth it since the official release includes a 50-page photo album of tour shots.
What allows Daft Punk cult following to proliferate is the mystery behind being unable to put a face to the name. It is fun when Gorillaz play shows with its cartoon band members projected on a big screen because you know that’s really Damon Albarn from Blur singing about ‘sunshine in a bag.’ Daft Punk follow with the running theme of futuristic electronica and perform with helmeted heads and innovative robot astronauts.
To add to its already celebrated discography, Daft Punk has released several videos. Among them are a compilation of home recordings, live videos and full-blown features that have been released since the late 1990s.
Most recently released is ‘Electroma,’ the second feature film by Daft Punk about two robots and their quest to become human. The film includes a genre-bending soundtrack of Curtis Mayfield, Brian Eno and classical greats like Haydn and Chopin.
With a handful of cast members, each a more nondescript robot than the next, the film tracks its journey through a Californian landscape. The characters toil with their desire to become human.
Though the United States may pride itself on usually being the first to premiere blockbuster hits, the real art-house pieces from mostly European projects reach our friendly silver screens last.
Several film festivals across the globe, including ones in Argentina, Japan, Australia and the United Kingdom, have had the pleasure of hosting ‘Electroma’ while the United States patiently waits for a wider release. During the summer hype, the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles held a screening at the end of June, which seems to be the only account of a screening anywhere in the United States.
Until we hear from the media gods otherwise, we’ll just have to replay the trailer on the Daft Punk Web site a billion times to satiate our robot-story needs.