DAFT PUNK - Human After All

Two cyborgs among us; creatures of superior intelligence, arrived from who knows what future, capable of gifting us poor mortals two of the most sensational records of the last ten years (and maybe more). Hidden away who knows where for almost four years, the cyborgs are back, and they've made a triumphant yet understated return, sparking debate right from the title chosen for this third effort, "Human After All" (but who are they trying to kid?).

That Daft Punk were no ordinary outfit devoted to run-of-the-mill dance music was already clear from the first notes of "Homework", their debut; confirmation came with "Discovery", their second effort, which packed their brilliant dancefloor intuitions into a thoroughly enjoyable song-based format. And now, the acid test, the squaring of the circle: "Human After All" (in stores from March 14th). If "Homework" was daft-house and "Discovery" was daft-pop, this latest work represents their vision of rock - a vision that's utterly original in style yet completely faithful, in attitude and content, to the genre's classic traits: energetic, full-blooded music with immediate appeal. Precisely for this reason, the sound is more minimal and the arrangements sparser than on "Discovery", even if traces of melody can still be found that, as in the past, wink both at Italian-made disco and at the beefiest riffs and cheesiest solos of hard-rock.

Basically, the album runs along two main lines: heavy, noisy tracks built on house beats (though not always) and/or daft punk-style reworkings of the techno universe in many of its shades, from the magnificent naivety of the inevitable Kraftwerk, through the experiments of Richie Hawtin, all the way to modern Chicago shores. The first category includes the splendid title track, placed at the opening, a perfect electro "My Sharona" with samplers and vocoder standing in for guitars; "Robot Rock", which pushes the idea to the extreme by repeating the same riff from start to finish, thus creating the ideal hybrid between the meaning of rock and the signifier of dance; the obsessive, ultra-heavy "Brainwasher", almost metal and almost trance; and the more classic, yet no less incisive, "Television Rules The Nation", a simple groove over a low-slung beat, stuffed with digital garbage.

Even more interesting, perhaps, are the remaining tracks where exploration takes over, mature pieces that above all reveal the French duo's unbridled passion for techno as a whole, along with a masterful ability to absorb the genre's conventions and blend them each time with different influences. This is the case, for instance, with "Make Love", one of the two most pop moments on the album, where the homage to Kraftwerk is crystal clear, but so is the nod to Neu!; "The Prime Time Of Your Life", built almost entirely on vocal samples warped by the vocoder and looped over a hard-blues rhythm; "Steam Machine", in which those more versed in techno will immediately recognize the experimental imprint of a Plastikman; the disorienting "Technologic", which sounds as if it were born from the fusion of the brightest minds in Chicago techno; and above all the moving, epic, grandiose "Emotion" (and, to this writer, the absolute peak of the album), placed at the close: a pop triumph of keyboards, sub-bass, noise and a hammering, obsessive rhythm section.

Daft Punk, in short, once again confirm themselves as one of the most original acts around: capable of astonishing with every new album without the slightest sign of faltering or creative decline, and, above all, instantly recognizable amid a thousand others, even as they keep moving forward by constantly changing the rules of the game. "Human After All" is, first and foremost, further proof of their greatness, but it's also, and perhaps above all, an album that makes clear how music, whatever the genre, holds an underlying "magic" capable of enchanting us and making us humans live better (after all).

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30/04/2026