Hearing Aide: Future Rock “Daft Rock Live”

Fans of the French electronic duo Daft Punk, rejoice! Err…perhaps clap energetically. While Daft Punk rarely performs in the United States, one group that covers them, Future Rock, has recently released Daft Rock Live, a full, 13-track song featuring the very best of their live Daft Punk covers. Album releases go hand-in-hand with tours, meaning American fans can get taste of the interstellar sounds of Daft Punk right here in the United States including performances at Euphoria Fest and Electronic Forest.

future rock daft rock liveHave a dance party in your living room. Future Rock’s latest release covers songs from a variety of albums spanning from Daft Punk’s debut album, Homework, released in 1997, to their most recent and Grammy-winning album, Random Access Memories.

The cover album is spot on. Future Rock loops their live drums, keys and bass to create an electronic astronomical audio journey that precisely parallels the originals of their muse. One can’t help but picture themselves with a futuristic helmet and spandex suit hurtling through space as the songs aggressively crescendo and then subside with dance-mandatory grooves.

The album begins with covers like “Robot Rock” and the frequently sampled “Technologic” from the 2005 album Human After All. Future Rock provides their own flavor to “Technologic,” the first of three Future Rock mixes on the album. “Around the World,” perhaps one Daft Punk’s more popular songs, is the fourth song on the album and covered true to original form.

The rest of the album is heavily focused on the 2001 Daft Punk release, Discovery. This album was featured in the animated film, “Interstella 555.” This includes “Crescendolls,” named after the film’s fictional protagonist band, which is teased in later songs as well as “One More Time,” although this song is not listed as a full track.

Other tracks include teases of “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger,” made famous to non-fans by Kanye West’s sampling in 2009. The tracks weave songs from different albums into one, as Daft Punk themselves often do during live performances. Several of the tracks include sounds of a crowd cheering and singing, reminding the listener that these are indeed live recordings.

The album ends with “Contact,” from Random Access Memories, which is uplifting, fun and the perfect ending to the audio space odyssey the listener has engaged in throughout the album. It again teases “One More Time,” reminding the listener of where they’ve been.

With repetition, intense crescendos and high-energy rhythms, Future Rock covers Daft Punk with precision that so closely resembles the real thing, it’s hard to decipher the difference when listening to the songs at parallel. Even when adding their own mix, it only adds to the thrill. Daft Rock Live leaves a craving for a live performance. If their live performances sound like this, it certainly wouldn’t feel like settling to see these guys instead of the real thing.

Key Tracks: Aerodynamic – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, Around the World, The Prime Time Of Your Life – The Brainwasher – Rollin’ & Scratchin’

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