Daft Punk live

The Birth of the French Touch

Paris 

30/10/2001 - 

Hip French electro duo Daft Punk are back in the music news this week with Alive 1997. This live album, which takes the twosome back to their roots, confirms Christo and Bangalter's former status as the kings of French techno.

Cast your mind back to '95 when the French rave scene was at its height. Now, imagine you're a few miles outside Rennes, during the "Transmusicales" Festival. Night has fallen and, in the midst of dense fog, thousands of ravers and techno fans stomp across the fields, making their way to the latest edition of the "Raves O’trans". There's a general buzz of excitement in the air, as tonight the "Raves O’trans" line-up features Dimitri From Paris and a young French duo by the name of Daft Punk (who, rumour has it, brought the house down when they put in an appearance at "Le Queen" on the Champs-Elysées a couple of nights back).

At this point in their career, Guy-Manuel de Homem Christo and Thomas Bangalter (aka Les Daft Punk) are about to pass from relative unknowns to the status of techno icons. Their debut EP, Da Funk, released on the Scottish label, Soma, has just taken off on the international club scene and, over the past few weeks, the world's hottest DJs have been spinning it on their turntables. Given the buzz surrounding the duo, the Who's Who of the Paris electro scene have turned out to Rennes to watch the duo's first live show.

With a combined age of less than 40, Christo and Bangalter appear to ooze confidence way beyond their years. The idea of techno outfits performing live shows was still relatively new back in the mid-90s and you could count the groups who had managed to transpose their sound from studio to stage on the fingers of one hand! Obviously, the question on everyone's lips was: how come this cheeky young pair of Parisian upstarts hoped to pull off what only Orbital, Underworld and the Chemical Brothers had done?
Excitement mounted as we made our way towards the "Raves O’trans" and, eager journos that we were, we had our notebooks and cameras at the ready. On arriving at the entrance, however, an army of black-suited bodyguards escorted us to the cloakroom and ordered us to check in anything vaguely resembling a camera or tape recorder. Only ballpoint pens made it through the military-style checkpoint! With this type of security, we found ourselves wondering if Madonna or U2 were about to drop in for a secret concert, but no, Daft Punk had organised a master coup, banning journalists from doing interviews, taking photos or, actually carrying out any kind of work, until they were well and truly off stage!

With strictures like these imposed during Daft Punk's concert, you can imagine the full-scale riot that broke out backstage as crowds of frustrated reporters and cameramen sought to interview the elusive pair. All attempts to get hold of the duo before the concert proved vain - Daft Punk's manager, Pedro Winter, was adamant that no-one was talking to anyone before 4 in the morning and, if we didn't like it, we could lump it. "Watch them live first, and then we'll talk!", he shouted, to anyone who would listen.

So there was nothing for it but to troop back out front and watch the show with the rest of the audience. And, in retrospect, we were glad we did! In fact, we can honestly say that in all our journalistic career we have never witnessed a live techno performance quite like that. Exuding a rare power and energy on stage, Daft Punk held complete sway over the crowd and, with the aid of a blinding light show, went on to whip up 55 minutes of what could only be described as pure musical hysteria.

Halfway through the show Christo and Bangalter even had the audacity to sample Prince's Raspberry Beret. (No wonder the duo hadn't wanted journalists sneaking around with recorders and cameras. With their debut album Homework about to be released worldwide, a court case with the legendary Artist with No Name would hardly have been timely!) No matter, by the end of the show, the audience were left in no doubt whatsoever. Daft Punk were about to spearhead the French attack on the world's music scene and wreak revenge on our cross-Channel neighbours once and for all. The time for aping Anglo-Saxon musicians was over – France had finally found its own musical style. In short, that night in Rennes, the "French Touch" was born!
Alive 1997 (which hits record stores this week) was recorded in the UK, in Birmingham, two years after Daft Punk's white-hot performance in Rennes. And, judging by the superb new versions of the hits Around the world and Da funk included on the live album, the terrible French twosome had lost none of their on-stage energy or verve. Interestingly enough, the release of Alive 1997 comes shortly after Daft Punk's second album Discovery which, despite having sold hundreds of thousands of copies worldwide, appears to have somewhat disappointed techno purists.

So, is Alive 1997 a move on Daft Punk's part to regain their former 'underground' cred? The duo's record label are keeping mum on that one, claiming that Christo and Bangalter were simply sifting through their archives one day, when they came across their old live recording and decided it was good enough to release on the current scene (at the unbeatable price of 80 francs!)

Whether Alive 1997 is an attempt to win back street cred or a cunning marketing ploy, we heartily recommend buying it. If nothing else, the album captures the historic moment when Daft Punk whipped up French electro fever on the club scene and reigned as the undisputed kings of techno (rather than the current kings of pop!). Oh, and by the way, don't go looking for that sample of Prince's Raspberry Beret on Alive 1997. Daft Punk decided not to include it – although, frankly, given their phenomenal sales right now, they could more than afford the court case!

Daft Punk Alive 1997,( Virgin) 2001

Willy  Richert

Translation : Julie  Street