The Nuts and Bolts of Robot Rock
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

A pair of Vocoder-distorted voices bounces the words “robot” and “human” off each other until they create a Pong-like pulse. A programmed beat then thunders behind these vocal volleys, and is soon joined by a sampled guitar chug and a keyboard riff tracing the faintest outline of a melody. Hi-hats anxiously shimmy as though counting down toward some liftoff. And then, two minutes into the opening track on Daft Punk’s new live album, “Alive 2007,” the Paris electronic duo launches into the pugnacious combination of synth punches and bass jabs that is “Robot Rock,” from the group’s last studio album, 2005’s “Human After All.” Gone are that record’s prog-rock affectations, though. Here, Daft Punk strips the song down to pure dance-floor adrenaline, looping the titular refrain into a shredded bombast of repetitions before seamlessly segueing into “Oh Yeah,” from the group’s 1997 debut, “Homework.”
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