Daft Punk is not a novelty new wave band, but a French dance duo with a penchant for bizarre videos and niggling, insistent beats.
Thomas Bangalter and GuyManuel de Homem Christo met in school at the age of fourteen, and they've been tinkering around in the bedroom ever since, emerging with a triumphant first album, Homework, last January.
The pair create a rolling, tumbling mix of breakbeats, funky house and techno grooves, using thumping bass lines and squiggly melodies to hip-jerking effect.
Before Daft Punk's eagerlyawaited set at the Red Box on Sunday night, DJ Roger Sanchez drove the crowd wild with some deft mixing, pulling some very inventive tricks out of the decks. Sanchez paced his set perfectly, building up the anticipation, then pitching the sounds up to feverish levels.
Daft Punk took their places before an array of mixers and computers and began to slowly stoke up the beat while two giant screens and three smaller ones churned out the visuals.
Musique set the agenda, and from there it was bump 'n' grind all the way. Da Funk was greeted with ecstatic cheers, the stomping beat holding firm while a psychotic keyboard hook swished back and forth.
Burnin' was stripped down almost to the basic beat, but Around The World went the full monty, soaring on a disco bassline, then bouncing into orbit on a spaceball ricochet.
