Review: Daft Punk's Homework

 

"WDPK 83.7 - the sound of tomorrow, the music of today - brings you exclusively Daft Punk's Homework!"

Released in January 1997, Daft Punk's debut album is nothing short of incredible, and it's been one of my personal favourites for almost six years. Sure, it certainly isn't as polished as the bubbly, colourful Discovery or the groundbreaking masterpiece that was Random Access Memories, but what is presented is a brilliant debut which brought worldwide attention to French house and destroyed dancefloors for several years after release - and for very good reason.

Produced between 1994-1996 at Thomas' Bangalter's house and released when the duo were in their early twenties, Homework was made on what the duo considered to be "cheap" equipment "very quickly" while they were trying to do "cool things" as stated by the band themselves during a 1997 interview. The equipment used includes multiple Roland synths and drum machine (lucky guys!) and various classic samplers such as the SP1200, as stated during an interview for a Japanese magazine in 1999. Despite the usage of "cheap" equipment and limited space, this album is truly fantastic for a variety of reasons - more on that below...

The album is heavily inspired by an eclectic mix of genres - particularly Chicago house, G-funk (yes, as in Dr Dre G-funk, more on that later!) and even acid techno (this is demonstrated excellently in the second half of the album) and this makes for an incredibly interesting listening experience, whether you're a first timer or a seasoned listener of this album - there's plenty of surprises.

The first half of the album contains some of the strongest openers in any dance music album - (Revolution 909, Da Funk, Phoenix and Fresh) and all of these tracks could be cranked at parties to extremely positive reception. Revolution 909 is a raw, thumping house track with slamming beats, great sample work and a hook which sticks like glue into your brain. Side note to DJs - open your set with this. 

Da Funk is probably one of the most known tracks on the album - with an instantly recognizable melody, a kick ass 303 bass line and some serious low end on the drums,. It's no surprise that it got recognition from a multitude of DJs upon release in 1995, including The Chemical Brothers, who repeatedly played Da Funk in their gigs at the time.

Building onto the mention of G-funk earlier in this post, it is noted that Daft Punk were heavily inspired by G-funk during the production of Da Funk, hence the hip hop influenced drum programming and the slower tempo of the track. The duo were also inspired by Giorgio Moroder for the main riff (if only someone told them that eighteen years later they'd release a song with him!)

Aside from the other amazing Chicago house influenced tracks on the album such as Indo Silver Club, High Fidelity and Burnin' - an extremely obvious stand out is the filter house classic Fresh - a chillout anthem that samples Viola Wills to create an iconic track which is recognizable to many fans and is a huge influence for many artists - a key example of this being Sunset Waves by The Phantom's Revenge, released in January 2010. Not to mention the awesome guitar that comes in during the intro - which is awesome.

Moving through other genres, as mentioned above, Homework has some extremely prevalent acid techno influences throughout, with tracks such as Rock n' Roll and Rollin' and Scratchin' (the B-side to the original issue of Da Funk, and the inspiration for the name of Thomas Bangalter's label Roule) becoming extremely well known for their mind bending, head screwing bass lines which are undoubtedly raw, relentless and exhilarating, with minimalist production used to emphasis the sheer grit of these tracks - which became a staple of Daft Punk's first tour in 1997.

(It'd also be a shame not to mention Oh Yeah, that track is just as insane, but it takes on a more hip hop oriented approach with some head frying distortion and enough bass to make the walls shake - this is true, as I have Homework on vinyl and a pretty decent speaker set up!)

Another thing I love about this album how daring it can be at times - I mean, you wouldn't exactly expect Around The World (one of Daft Punk's most iconic and radio friendly tracks with some heavy disco influence, upbeat production and of course, vocoders!) to be on the same LP as Rock n' Roll, which would likely make some radio DJs (and unsuspecting listeners) squirm in confusion. At the same time, you certainly would NOT expect the groovy, slow track Teachers after Rollin' and Scratchin', but that's early Daft Punk for you!  

Overall, this album is an incredible piece of work spanning multiple genres and proving its worth as one of the greatest debuts in dance music through the fantastic, varied production, the inclusion of classics such as Around The World, Fresh and Revolution 909 and some extremely forward thinking ideas and experimentation which gives Homework a rawness that isn't present on any other bits of the duo's work. 

To put it simply - this is a classic. Go and listen to it.

Rating: 9.5/10

Alright everyone, I hope you enjoyed this review!

As always, keep enjoying your stay at the discotheque.