CD: Daft Punk, Alive 2007

People came staggering away from Thomas Bangalter and Guy Manuel de Homem-Christo's world tour this year like Saul of Tarsus arriving in Damascus and explaining why he was late. The robot helmets!, they burbled. The pyramid! The lights! Good God, the lights! For those unfortunate enough to have missed it, this record of their Paris show in June is modest compensation. In the admittedly small field of worthwhile live dance albums, it's up there with Underworld's Everything, Everything, by dint of scrunching virtually every Daft Punk track you can think of into one relentless robo-disco-techno-metal juggernaut. There is something awe-inspiring about the power and momentum of these cyborg composites (medley seems too corny a word) but, particularly if you listen while perusing the booklet's images of Parisians having unimaginable amounts of fun, it ultimately feels more like the document of a fantastic experience than a fantastic experience in its own right.