A live Daft Punk album? From 1997? Must be a joke right? You just never know with the masked duo. Somehow in theory this almost feels like a nasty joke played on behalf of those sad souls who just did not "get" 'Discovery'. Coming a mere 6 months after the release of 'Discovery', an album that basically presented a whole new and exciting galaxy of sound, I would love to see 'Alive 1997' as a bone, pedantically thrown at those who demanded another ' Homework'. "You want another 'Homework'? Well here it is: 'Homework II'. Enjoy, you humorless, beauty impaired fools." That's the theory.

In practice you'll find 45 minutes of pure joy. A lesson in channeling the power of pure House music. Of course they always were the best in playing this music live, only Orbital would sometimes come close, but even they never had that lightness of touch of starting a set with the Miami Vice Theme or the knowledge of dropping 'French Kiss' at the height of your live set. On 'Alive 1997' those extra clever touches are almost absent, instead Daft Punk opt for the construction of the most efficient highway into total abandon.

The pregnant electro of 'WDPK I' morphs into 'Da Funk' and every bass drum and riff is greeted by the crowd (a nice and important decision to leave the crowd noises in the mix, giving it that all important energetic authenticity). 'Da Funk', actually never a real favorite of mine, in a very clever move, segues neatly into Armand Van Helden's utterly mind-blowing, pumping filter-madness remix of 'Da Funk'. Everybody goes mental. Tracks are deconstructed on the spot by the clever fade-outs, stutters, excellent distorted accents, new breakdowns and rolling waves of bass drum. 'Rollin & Scratchin' does predictable damage; before things come to a climax with the ultimate end-of-the-night tune that is 'Alive', made even more delirious by the extra punch of the attacking 909's. An extravagant joke, an anachronistic gift and an ecstatic monument to dance rolled into one.