Daft Punk about to release new album

[[i:Vibes] System]

Discuss this [i:Vibes] article here!

[i][b]Article teaser:[/b][/i]
2005 seems the year for old favorites to release new albums, find out all about Daft Punk's new album!

[Djouls]

The Thomas Bangalter and Guy Manuel of Homem Christo duet declared that they had recorded the ten pieces of their next album "Human after All" in their Parisian studio in only six weeks, between September and November of this year.
Announced for Mars 2005, this album is described by the band as "diverse and fresh whilst retaining the trademark Daft Punk sound, this time with a more spontaneous and direct quality to the recording"...
I volunteered for the hard journalism job of listening to it and reviewing it exclusively (even though I'm not really familiar with cheap 80's stuff the Dafts usually copy or sample), and I must admit that the album is disappointing from the very start.
With "Human After All" indeed, here's a primer of 80's synthetic bad taste with a full dose of filters, in order to announce directly to the listeners : "What were you waiting for? This is Daft Punk doing some Daft Punk". Five minutes of robotic-house-chewing-gum-pop, which seem to last forever after only two minutes (in a boring way). Of course, many fans and 80's nostalgics will love it...
... And they won't be deceived. The second track, "The Prime Time Of Your Life", even more irritating that the one before, loops on half a sample, filtered in as many ways as possible, before ending on a Lil' Louis-stylee acceleration, that goes up until the track sounds like the noise of the washing machine in drying mode.
After this intense brainwashing session, let's get on with more serious matters, and a "Robot Rock" always based on half an idea, exploited to the extreme, but here in the form of electro-funk exctasy-torture with pop-rock sauce, which soon becomes a supra-gimmicky discoïdal breakbeat you cannot escape from (meaning "everybody on the dancefloor NOW"). Caramba!
"Steam Machine" then tries to go the same road in a gothic-hopping manner, kinda "go play Nine Inch Nails on your Playstation", but without achieving much, and "Make Love" and its playskool-electro-pop offers a small and boring acalmy.
At this point we can only hope and pray for a more inspired B side than this one... and a quick end to this review!
Comes "The Brainwasher", an epic tek-rock-house rollercoaster of less than 4 minutes, should appeal to all the dancing freaks, be it vast crowds or small dancefloors.
Then "One/Off", a 20 secondes "zapping on the telly" interlude, is used as opener for "Television Rules The Nation", a track served on a phat and solid beat, very rock'n'roll, but finally rather meaningless. The Daft Punk formula is always the same : a guitar or synthetizer gimmicky-loop that goes on for 4 minutes with just a small sentence repeated while an inventory of the filters at disposal is being made. It's just over-boring, idea-less programmation...
The end of the album is unfortunately from the same tree, with a very efficient "Technologic", but in the end rather "dance" (in an "aerobics" meaning of the term, like in "eurodance"), and an "Emotion" which is visibly emotion-less.
Verdict: two tracks out of ten. Bets are on for the choice of singles (I'd say "Robot rock" and "The Brainwasher").

Djouls.
Translated from french website http://www.saounds.com/index.php/2004/12/24/342-daftpunk-humanafterall