Daft Punk Alive 2007

Description

Playing like a flawlessly sequenced and paced greatest hits album, this live set finds Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo connecting the booms among their three albums while officially cementing one of the year’s most rewarding and welcomed comebacks.

The blitzing Pimp My Pyramid scheme. The pulsing honeycomb. The tiny metal heads bobbing up and down. The Lite-Brite leather jacket reveal. The dude in front of me who wouldnt let a pair of crutches stop him from dancing as if the apocalypse were mere minutes away. The sensual explosion that was Daft Punks Alive 2007 show is difficult to overstateor reproduce.

One of the most remarkable aspects of Alive 2007 is how well it recontextualizes career nadir Human After All, turning previously leaden songs into ebullient rocknroll manifestos; injected with Homeworks air-tight Moroder-style anthems or Discoverys flamboyant funk, Human After All tracks are constantly improved and born anew. The live set doesnt simply run through the hits, mindlessly segueing from one smash to another. Instead, well-worn favorites are glued together, cut-up and mashed into pieces. The titular refrains of Television Rules the Nation and Around the World combine to form the globes most dance-friendly TV station theme song before the Black Sabbath crunch of Television is sent down upon the impossibly buoyant Crescendolls, resulting in the discs most unlikely-yet-spectacular roller coaster peak. Meanwhile, the creepy hiss of Steam Machine is atomized and given space-age dynamics, turning it from a oddball bore into a fist-pumping celebration of the industrial age. Wisely, the duo also know when to let the bass be, allowing large portions of unfuckwithable classics like Da Funk and Burnin to work their magic with little robo-meddling. Even without video, Alive 2007 is an exercise in exacting excess, from the blaring Robot Rock intro to a wide-eyed power-booster of a encore that layers One More Time” atop Music Sounds Better With Youa combination so holy shit ecstatic it would seem downright cocky if it wasnt so blissful.

Talking about the relationship between artist and audience, Bangalter told Paper, Robots dont make people feel like theres an idol on stage. Its more like a rave party where the DJ isnt important. We are two robots in this pyramid with this light show, but everything is [meant] for you to have fun and enjoy yourself. Hes absolutely right about the have fun and enjoy yourself bit, but the Alive tour separated itself from the millions of DJ parties before it by drawing attention to a fixed point while incorporating everything from Kiss-esque pomp to Space Invaders retro-future shock. The results were massivethe myriad best show ever kudos deserved. And, just as they hold back their identities at every chance, it makes sense for Daft Punk to hold back the Alive visuals; when more and more mystery is constantly being sucked out of popular music thanks to the insatiable hunger for fresh product and up-to-the-nanosecond information, the duo arent about to release an imagination-stifling DVD filled with behind-the-scenes tour bus inanity. Its a noble choice, especially when the consolation prize happens to be the Ultimate Daft Punk Mixtape. (via Pitchfork)

For all intents and purposes Daft Punks Alive 2007 might of been the greatest live album of all time. Alive 2007 is this wonderful explosion of some of the duos greatest hits that are perfectly blended together to create this sort of museum of their perfection on display for those who were lucky enough to see it 12 years ago. Unfortunately, I was only 7 years old when this legendary tour occurred so I wasn’t able to experience it first hand. However, thanks to the wonderful invention of this website called youtube I’ve been able to enjoy this great live album. But if youre like me and werent lucky enough to be in attendance for this legendary tour run than this is for you! Ill try my absolute best to go in-depth in this run of live shows into how this tour started, how the production side of the tour went, and why it is my favorite live experience of all time.

So let’s take it back, before the unveil in 2006 at Coachella, before the performance at the Bercy Arena in 2007, and before the release of the album. Lets take a step back and look at what Daft Punk had accomplished and where they were at the time. Daft Punk was riding high having released 3 studio albums all critically acclaimed and beloved by the fanbase. 1997s Homework was a magnificent display of french house and techno at a time where French House was relatively unknown to the general public. The worldwide success of this album destroyed the notion that much of the general public had at the time that electronic music was nothing more than people pushing buttons and barely playing a keyboard. Songs like Da Funk and Around The World are still praised today for being innovative and exciting at a time when EDM needed a stern kick in the ass to wake up to the creativity that other genres were evolving into. And riding off the innovative high they took it a step forward with 2001s Discovery, a massive and grand look into the world of disco and the music that preceded Guy-Manuel and Thomas. The album is a love letter to 70s with these lush synths, rich texture, and samples from the era it was unlike anything we had heard at the time. And while their follow up Human After All isnt exactly my favorite album it is much more aggressive and if your face than its predecessor. Just these combative and intrusive synthesizers that feel like they are coming full speed at your face with these very robotic and less soul era-inspired vocal samples/performances it is definitely a unique experience that is essential in the duos discography.

Alive 2007 is a record that will stand the test of time and ultimately be remembered as not only of the greatest live performances and records in electronic music but is music history as a whole. In between the futuristic light show, the perfectly crafted staging, and the complicated yet rewarding process it took to make all this come together lies something a little more special. A point in history where Daft Punk was seemingly at the height of their careers and delivered a masterful performance for the ages. Now eventually the duo would return for the soundtrack to Disneys Tron Legacy and their fourth studio Random Access Memories. But with all that being said I hope you may have learned a little bit about how the performance came to be or if youre completely new to this record that you give it a chance because it really is a marker in music history. (via Medium)

Reissued on black vinyl
2LP housed in tri-gatefold sleeve

Label: ADA
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album, Mixed, Reissue
Reissued: 2022 / Originally Released: 2007
Genre: Electronic
Style: House, French House

File under: House // Electro // Techno