Daft Punks's "Discovery" : Classic or Dud

I just realized the potentially disasterous implications of this acronym in this phrase.

it is dance music, afterall.

Who said dance music had to be so deadly dull though? Surely dance is all about build ups and break downs and cheeky little bits that make you sit up and take notice. Granted, Discovery is perhaps more of a rock album compared to Homework but it is testament to the way dance can make you feel exhilarated and keep you bouncing around, new ideas hitting you at every turn.

Homework may have harder beats but they're really unpleasant to listen to (and I like Gabba). It's this kind of depressed mid-tempo whumping noise. It doesn't do anything to improve my life.

Okay, Morrissey.

Yeh, me too. Maybe I ought to forget about Discovery and try Homework out seperately. I still don't think I'll like it. Every time I've put it on, track one starts...

WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP
"Hmmm...."
WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP
"...When's that melody gonna kick in?"
WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP
"S'pose they're just being DJ friendly or something"
WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP
"Aw, c'mon DO SOMETHING!"
WHUMP SQUELCHY WHUMP SQUELCHY WHUMP
"Ah, that's more like it... I-I think"
WHUMP SQUELCHY WHUMP SQUELCHY WHUMP
"This is testing my patience more than an Autechre album..."
WHUMP SQUELCHY WHUMP SQUELCHY CROWD NOISE
(TRACK ENDS)
"Was that it?"
(TRACK TWO BEGINS)
WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP
"Oh for crap's sake".

I like repetitive loops and beats as much as the next man but these don't equal genius, they equal knob twiddling, and not very exciting knob twiddling at that.

why don't they just break out the organically grown guitars!

Wow. Abandon all hope, dude.

This is the line that makes me bubble with inappropriate laughter.

Hang on hang on. I know that on ILX I like to play devil's advocate a lot but you know that this is not what I'm saying. If you read my posts you'll know that I enjoy producing, mixing and dancing to dance music. Don't want to get up on this now but I've noticed that you will get pretty aggressive about certain subjects and I could see you were going to play the "you are a rockist" a long way off.
This is rubbish really. If you've read my comments above, I was not having a go at any particular style of music, I was talking about Homework and how most of the tracks are average-speed whumpers with little or no variation to them. Maybe I'll admit that I think a good dance track should have build ups, breakdowns, stops, starts, and in most cases some kind of hook. Homework doesn't make me feel anything at all. It doesn't move me because it's all the same speed and more or less the same sounds the way through. It becomes a chore. I can't dance to something that is that predictable. Ironically I reckon "So Much Love to Give" is ace but that's because it really is one big massive build up. I dunno, it's just a drag.

nobody would say "it's just guitar playing" about a rock band.

also how "homework" is hookless remains a mystery to me, most of the haters would complain it's too full of hooks and not loopy enough, and let's face it in comparison to so so so much ace dance music it really is full of hooks.

personally i find how harsh and abrasive daft punk were kind of amazing given they used to be in a mimsy indie band.

anyone ever think 'short circuit' may have been recorded before 'homework' was released? could easily have been on it...

Skipped tracks 1 & 2 because I've heard them a million times on other attempts to get into the album. Revolution 909 starts, and yes there's some typical French loopy whumping. Er... Look I'm trying to get into this but it's the same French loopy whumping being faded in and out! The beat changes slightly every 16 bars or so I guess.
Oh well, at least Da Funk is on next. This is a lot slower than I remember - almost like it's being played at entirely the wrong speed. I think I'd find it hard to dance to this in a club. A very loud nasty kick drum being played at 110bpm just seems pointless to me. It does drop out, but then it comes back in in exactly the same way. The 303 gets slightly more manic on each loop but eventually fades out without reaching any kind of peak or conclusion. Damn, I thought I liked this track.
I've always enjoyed Phoenix more than any other track on this album because of that kicking bassline. Also it's a bit less ploddy than the rest of the tunes - the cut up sample is actually upbeat for a change. I'd like to hear a drum'n'bass remix of this tune. Mind you, much as I quite like it, I'm ready for the "next" button after about 3 minutes.
Slish slosh, Fresh comes in. Haha, the intro reminds me of "Texas Never Whispers" by Pavement, but that's an irrelevant rockist comment. It's alright. I still don't see it going off in a club - for once the bass drum isn't loud enough, but I think people would nod their heads to it a little while they go off to the bar. 3 minutes... okay come on when's it going to kick in? 4 minutes -wtf?!
Around The World, well I know this one by heart. I think I quite liked it at the time, though house wasn't really my oeuvre in 1996. I think it was this that gave me my first impression of Daft Punk and then "One More Time" which solidified them in my mind as a slightly cheesy but fun house band. It wasn't till someone played me the rest of Discovery that I realised there was a lot more to them than that. Maybe that's why I don't like Homework. Discovery is something else entirely while Homework is definitely a House album. Maybe at the time it was regarded as groundbreaking because it was French and it had that filter thing on it, but to new ears there's nothing more to it than that.
Oh God! Rollin and Scratchin's intro is exactly what I mean about nasty whumping. This is really horrible. The noise is so intrusive and monotonous it manages to sound out of time. That said, I could imagine this going off in a club if mixed in with the right kind of stuff. That track "Superheroes" on Discovery is like a pisstake of tracks like this in a way except they actually manage to make it sound incredible. That synth noise is incredibly nasty too. Without wanting to sound like Ronan's dad, I must say it sounds like a broken tumble dryer. And then the beats stop but it carries on. And then they fucking start again in exactly the same way PLOD PLOD PLOD PLOD PLOD PLOD. ADD ANOTHER SNARE OR A CYMBAL OR A HIHAT OR SOMETHING YOU BASTARDS IT'S NOT DIFFICULT!!!! Ah, finally, the 6minute mark rolls around and the drums get a bit more mental but then someone fixes the tumble dryer which was just about to get really good and all we're left with is the whumping again. This would probably make me want to leave the club with the way it's wasted my time and anticipation.
I really don't like Teachers. Someone I know DJ-ed it once and it bombed out like fuck. Tribute Schmibute - he double pitched vocal is especially annoying "Blahblahblah is in der haus yeh". Sounds like even Daft Punk are having a bad time and can't wait to leave. It's about this time that the whumping is really getting on my bastard tits. You'd think that after 7 tracks I'd have become desensitised to tedious plod but it's starting to grate even more.
Hey, High Fidelity just came in. It's not awful. At least the whump is nice and bouncy. The cut up vocal is a little stuck-record but not too bad. I do have the feeling this track may go the way of the others - a loop fading in and out and never really going anywhere or getting to any kind of peak or conclusion. It's entertaining trying to work out what the samples are saying. "Dancing Dancing Dancing Dancing, DJ Greenspun, Dancing, Dancing, DJ Greenspun, Move It Up Bah, Move It Up Bah" etc... FFWD!!
CLomp Clomp Clomp Rock'n'Roll here we go. Hmmm... This is a bit like Rollin' & Scratchin' innit? The synth drone noise is cool but the drums are sequenced in possibly the worst way I've heard so far. Maybe I should shut up about the whumping or you'll never hear the end of it but jeez this is CRAP! Okay no I've just gone back and spellchecked some of what I've just written and the whumping's EVEN WORSE! Plus they've added a noise like someone making balloon toys. I refuse to press FFWD though. I can handle this. I think.... Oh God make it end!
Oh Yeah - this is good! Thank God the whumping's stopped for a while and DP are actually doing something a bit more interesting. It's like really slow glitchy electro. Big-arsed bass noise too! Shame it's only two minutes long - that could've been the best track on the album.
Burnin is zip-up jumper core. It takes a little while to build up but it's got a nice funky bassline and the drumming's at least a bit more interesting than on some other tracks. Yeh, this track is good.
Indo Silver Club is good too. I like the heavily compressed stuff going on that makes you feel like you're jumping up and down. There's proper action going on in this track, unlike many of the others. Sadly once again, it doesn't do a whole lot throughout.
Alive is pretty hardcore, even for Daft Punk. An almost industrial beat pervades everything and then the synths filter in. This track is pretty evil and at last they've added some reverb to some of the synths and drums. I think maybe this was what was missing - a lot of the tracks on Homework sound like they're being played in a tiny tiny box whereas this sounds like the same tracks in a massive aircraft hangar. I still don't know if I'd want to jump around to this in a club though, much as I like it. The beats just filter bigger and bigger and then fade out.
For something to be able to move people about, this style of music is ever so linear and static. Get from point A to B via very slow manipulation of sounds. A lot of the time I wait for up to five or six minutes for the track to blossom into something amazing and it just doesn't. Perhaps I'm listening to Homework and trying to imagine hands-in-the-air anthems when really it's not about that at all. I could imagine people break-dancing to it maybe as it's a steady beat with a bassline. I dunno. Look, I gave it a try and most of it annoyed me. Sorry guys.

On Steve's request - here's a mix cd I did in Acid Pro.

disc 1
01 ill cosby - one of the family
02 paul hardcastle - 19
03 lcd soundsystem - losing my edge
04 lfo - lfo
05 mory kante - yeke yeke (hardfloor mix)
06 electrotheque - everyone's a winner (electrochocolate mix)
07 si futures - we are not a rock band
08 imatran voima - in-out
09 infected mushroom - bust a move
10 hennes & cold - the second trip (nick sentience mix)
11 dk - murder was the bass

disc 2
01 dk - murder was the bass
02 headroom - ride the threshold
03 thomas krome - wood carver (adam beyer mix)
04 dave the drummer - one night in hackney
05 pragha khan - injected with the poison (bk & nick sentience mix)
06 drugface - fill me with drugs (the crow mix)
07 dj tim vs lock n load - access ya mind
08 deepack - prophecy (luna mix)
09 marc smith vs safe n sound - identify the beat
10 john b - blandwagon poos
11 adam f - brand new funk
12 andy c - body rock

It's a bit eclectic and there isn't a whole lot of house on there, but that's kind of ultimate for me in the way of dance.