Daft Punk - Homework

Each month we take a look at a classic track or album and discuss it from a music production perspective. This month we discuss Daft Punk's 1997 album, Homework. 

With the recent news of their retirement still reverberating around the internet, we thought that now would be a good time to look back at the duo's debut album; one that still ranks among the greatest dance records ever recorded.

The album takes its name from the fact that it was recorded in its entirety in Thomas Bangalter's bedroom. While recording an album in at home in 2021 is not particularly difficult or unusual, recording an all-time great in a bedroom in the 1990s is another matter entirely. 

The simplicity of the recording is one of its strengths – it is incredibly raw and direct, but it still stands up on the biggest of sound systems almost 25 years after it was released. As with many other classic recordings, the limitations of the recording setup forced the artists to find creative ways of working, and the result was a truly groundbreaking album. 

An article from a Japanese interview in 1999 recently resurfaced online that shows the entire kit-list Daft Punk used in the recording of the album – you can see a large version here.

As well as listing the equipment used on the recording of the album, it also details the recording process, step-by-step as recounted by Bangalter: 'In the first step when making music with hardware, it goes through the mixer and the compressor and is recorded on the DAT. After that, effects are put on the sound source before going into the mixer to be recorded. We don't use the AUX on the mixer. The second step is directly putting the sounds from the DAT into the S-760 sampler and editing/cutting the two tracks into however many pieces, like hard disk recording. Lastly, we recorded it directly from the S-760 to the DAT. From here we do the rest with the Macintosh.'

Due to the rudimentary recording setup, Homework isn't polished in the way that the duo's later work is. But that remains part of its unique charm – it sounds spontaneous, unruly and thrilling. 

If you want to read about Daft Punk's follow up to Discovery, we've written about that too and you can read our article here.