 |
|
at a glance...
Hometown: Paris, France
Year Formed: 1993
Personnel:
Thomas Bangalter
Guy Manuel de Homem-Cristo
Bands in the family :
Stardust, Stereolab, Motorbass, Super Discount, Cassius, Air, La Funk Mob, Dimitri from Paris, Laurent Garnier
Notes:
Thomas Bangalter and Guy Manuel de Homem-Cristo were knocking around in a Stereolab-affiliated indie band when they made the sideways leap to house music and began working out a new kind of French Disko on their bedroom 8-track. The anachronistic yet timeless sounds of "Da Funk" soon made a splash in Britain's big beat clubs, and after a few singles on Soma, Virgin snapped up the duo. Daft Punk would soon be at the forefront of a French scene that breathed new life into house music (see "Bands in the Family"), while clubs like Paris's Respect quickly took on mythical status among clubbers around the world. Workaholic Bangalter continued to bash out tracks on his own imprints (Daft House, Traxx on the Rocks, etc.) and in 1998 under the alias Stardust recorded "Music Sounds Better With You," a worldwide smash that even eclipsed the successes of Daft Punk's crossover hits, "Da Funk" and "Around the World."
|
|
 |
|
Daft Punk
Homework
Soma/Virgin , Released 1996
|
|
|
 |
|
Let's be honest: House music, for all its futuristic trappings, is just disco with boots on. Sure, the beats are bigger, the bass is deeper, and the Isley Brothers have been replaced by machines that bleep and wibble, but the spirit is the same: four-to-the-floor groove action purpose-built for booty shakin'.
Homework is disco the way it should have been, an hour-and-a-half dedicated to the not-so-delicate art of the dance floor. There are moments on "Da Funk," "Phoenix" and "Oh Yeah" when everything drops but the drum, leaving you staring down that throbbing rhythm, the irresistible force to your butt's immovable object. Face its wrath if you dare.
In a climate controlled by the monster breaks of the Prodigy, it took Thomas Bangalter's amazingly beefy bass drum to make house essential again. Homework slaves to that rhythm, but there are enough adventures in sound to keep you listening once you tire of grooving. "Da Funk" has surely burned its psychedelic synth riff onto your brain by now, and the spazzing, ecstatic riff on "Phoenix" is classic uplifting house. "Rock 'n' Roll" and "Rollin' and Scratchin'" flirt with the noise terrorism of hard acid, while the album's closing tracks bring a more subtle and melodic funk to the fore. Hard house fun for 74 minutes - Homework the way it should have been.
If you like Daft Punk, check out:
Cassius 1999
Chich The Best of Chic
Laurent Garnier 30
Faze Action Plans & Designs
Dimitri from Paris Sacrebleu
Dimitri From Paris A Night At The Playboy Mansion
-- jf
Ink Blot Home
about | archives | contact | links
Copyright © 1997-2002 Ink Blot Magazine. All rights reserved.
|
|
 |
|
|
