4 days....

so sure, now everyone in the world just loves Daft Punk right now. 2 years ago, however, with the release of 2005's Human After All, everyone was a hater. just look at what pitchfork had to say in their record review:

"Turns out Daft Punk are (mostly) human after all, because from a compositional standpoint, this sounds like it was made in about 19 days. Even the good stuff sounds painfully extemporaneous, like early sketches of tracks that deserve to be much better. Take the title cut-- a slick, vocoder-driven track that, despite being one of the better offerings on the record, has such a clinical build that it registers as patterned and completely starved of joy. It's Daft Punk going through the motions and, for the first time in their career, sounding like cynics."

very harsh. but then again, pitchfork is really nothing more than a bunch of aging hipsters who are on the brink of not really knowing whats cool anymore, and are desperately trying to hang on to their indie stardom. (oh snap)

According to the Teenager Theory (a dynamic model for analyzing the development of Daft Punk) Human After All was a sort of planned third stage in Daft Punk's career. Stage 1 begins with 1997's Homework, a tremendous album, considered to be one of the greatest electronica albums ever made. Homework is more or less a study in the elements of house music. Most of the tracks are straight up re-edits of late-70s/early-80s disco hits, plus reverb and a 4/4 beat. the track "Teachers," which features a robot listing the godfathers of House music (DJ Pierre, DJ Sneak, etc.) over a 4/4 beat and reverb drenched disco vocal is a testament to this hypothesis. Daft Punk did their homework and made the best house album ever.

4 years go by, Daft Punk become robots, and 2001's Discovery is released. now when Discovery was released, few remember but people (pitchfork) actually hated pretty hard on that album. Says pitchfork's Ryan Schreiber:

"It's practically brainwashing, isn't it? Daft Punk seem to be operating under the premise that if you hear something enough times, you'll start to believe it. But after more than 15 listens to Discovery's first single and opening track, "One More Time," vocodered vocalist Romanthony doesn't have me "feeling the need," much less not waiting, celebrating, and dancing so free. This could just be me, of course. Maybe I just haven't taken enough ecstasy and horse tranquilizers to appreciate the tinny, sampled brass ensemble, the too-sincere "chill out" midsection, or the fat drum machine beats that throb in time with my headache."

or you were too much of a nerd in high school/college to notice the revolution in music that was occurring a couple hours away from you (Chicago) in the 80s, or you didn't have any friends to invite you to take those drugs and go dancing, or you really didn't (and don't) know anything about music, but rather are just another washed up college radio GM who is painfully cynical, wears unflattering earth-tones, and sits around pretending to enjoy (Smog) albums. but anyway, Discovery was just that, a discovery (of epic proportions). it was basically the same house format used in Homework, infused with mind-numbing pop-happiness that combined elements of late 70s disco, euro-synth pop, and Japanese animation; elements which defined pop-culture in France during Guy and Thomas's childhood.

now 2005's Human After All, was a massive departure from the "French Touch" we were dancing to on Discovery. the songs were more bare, there were fewer layers, and more importantly alot of the pop, artificial synth effects that defined songs like "One More Time" and "Digital Love" were missing. instead you got songs like "Human After All" and "Robot Rock" with more stripped down, natural sounding guitar and drum samples. in short, the album was less disco, and more metal filtered through disco. and sure, those tracks weren't nearly as catchy as "Around the World" and "Digital Love," but they weren't supposed be. these songs were merely templates for what Daft Punk was planning to do in the future (as demonstrated by their mind blowing live sets). and isn't the format of Human After All the exact same thing the Ed Banger Crew are doing right now? and isn't Busy P the head of Ed Banger Records and the manager of Daft Punk? go ahead and think about that one until tomorrow. in the meantime, enjoy these remixes from Hot Einstein, Diplo, Roccanova, Digitalism, Basement Jaxx, and Para One.

Daft Punk - Prime Time of Your Life (Roccanova Remix)
Daft Punk - Television Rules the Nation (Roccanova Remix)
Daft Punk - Prime Time of Your Life (Para One Remix)
Daft Punk - Technologic (Digitalism Highway To Paris Remix)
Daft Punk - Technologic (Hot Einstein Remix)
Daft Punk - Technologic (Basement Jaxx Kontrol Mix)
Busta Rhymes vs. Daft Punk - Buy It Use It (Diplo Mix)

*special thanks to chazology, palmsout, and get weird turn pro for the tracks