Daft Punk

When the rumour first hit the blogosphere many months ago that Daft Punk were composing a full-length soundtrack to Disney's Tron: Legacy blockbuster, the fusion of sci-fi film lore and the electronica veterans seemed like a match made in heaven. After all, Daft Punk had already produced a few of their own sci-fi movies (2003's Interstella 5555 and 2007's Electroma) for just such purposes. And though Tron: Legacy doesn't revisit the vocodered, poptastic terrain of 2005's Human After All or even 2001's Discovery, it does signal a welcome shift back into elements of their filter-house debut, 1997's Homework. But Tron: Legacy is, first and foremost, a soundtrack and apart from select highlights like "The Crash," its transient compositions are designed to work primarily as atmospherics to the movie. In this regard, Daft Punk never quite break out the level of detail that would make this music stand on its own for very long. Tron: Legacy may very well be an excellent companion to a big-screen cinematic experience, and some will welcome the darker qualities of the music, but on its own it doesn't fill the six-year absence since their last full-length statement.