Daft Punk - Alive 2007 (2007)

Timed to perfection, Daft Punk's second live album landed exactly ten years after the first, and provides a fitting complement to Alive 1997, easily the best live non-DJ electronica record ever released. While the original featured only a handful of tracks (but found them transformed and tweaked ad infinitum), Alive 2007 is packed with productions, most of them short and many of them getting a big crowd response (all recorded at one show in Paris in June of 2007). As on their first two classic full-lengths, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo display excellent crowd control, pacing the record well, spacing the hits, and building the mood like the good crowd-pleasers they are.
(The visuals included in the regular and deluxe editions reveal quite the stage show as well.) It has the feel of a greatest-hits-live concert, but energized by Daft Punk's talents at weaving songs in and out of each other. Even songs from the comparatively desultory Human After All sound rejuvenated in context, with "Robot Rock" getting the show off to a rousing start. It may not be better or stronger than the original Alive 1997, but it's definitely harder and faster.
The Alive 2007 set used Ableton Live software on "custom made super-computers" for the show. Daft Punk accessed the hardware remotely with Behringer BCR2000 MIDI controllers and JazzMutant Lemur touchscreen pads within the central pyramid. Minimoog Voyager RME units were also implemented for the live performances.
The four Voyager units and two Behringer mixers allowed Daft Punk to "mix, shuffle, trigger loops, filter, distort samples, EQ in and out, transpose or destroy and deconstruct synth lines." The majority of the equipment was stored away during the live sets within offstage towers.
The album includes elements of the Busta Rhymes song "Touch It", the original version of which was produced by Swizz Beatz featuring a sample of "Technologic". Also featured are elements of Gabrielle's "Forget About the World", the original version of which was remixed by Daft Punk for her single. The encore of the Alive 2007 set features Bangalter's side projects: Stardust's "Music Sounds Better with You" and Together's self-titled track "Together".

Track listing

01.  "Robot Rock / Oh Yeah"  - 6:28
02.  "Touch It / Technologic"  - 5:30
03.  "Television Rules the Nation / Crescendolls"  - 4:51
04.  "Too Long / Steam Machine"  - 7:02
05.  "Around the World / Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger"  - 5:43
06.  "Burnin' / Too Long"  - 7:12
07.  "Face to Face / Short Circuit"  - 4:55
08.  "One More Time / Aerodynamic"  - 6:11
09.  "Aerodynamic Beats / Forget About the World"  - 3:32
10.  "The Prime Time of Your Life / The Brainwasher / Rollin' & Scratchin' / Alive"  - 10:22
11.  "Da Funk / Daftendirekt" -  6:37
12.  "Superheroes / Human After All / Rock'n Roll"  - 5:41

Bonus Track
13 .Encore: "Human After All" / "Together" / "One More Time (reprise)" / "Music Sounds Better with You"  – 9:59

All songs written and composed by Daft Punk.

Credits
Engineer [Sound] – Peter Franco
Mastered By – Howie Weinberg
Music By, Lyrics By – Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Thomas Bangalter

Notes
Released: 19 November 2007, 4 December 2007 (North America), 25 February 2008 (United Kingdom)
Recorded: 14 June 2007, Studio Bercy Arena(Paris, France)
Genre:  House
Length: 84:03
© 2007

Label - Virgin