If you frequent dance clubs, the odds are you’re going to be hearing house music at some point, maybe shaking your hips to it the whole night. With explosive, heavy beats and primal, repetitive melodies, the music moves your feet and your body and your whole consciousness. Because house is so repetitive, you can find a groove and then rock it all night without being tripped up by much rhythmic or melodic change. It’s a way to let go of thought for a while, to embrace being body rather than being mind. When you crank up the best of house, just try to resist the beats. Just try. You can’t do it. That toe is tapping.
The French duo Daft Punk is one of the kings of house. They are known as much for their “fashion sense” as they are for their throbbing basslines. Daft Punk dresses up as robots for live performance and no one knows their faces. With tracks like “One More Time” and “Technologic” that dominate house radio, they’ve fought their way even into mainstream consciousness, which is probably why the creators of the recent movie Tron: Legacy tapped Daft Punk to compose the soundtrack.
Contemporary group LCD Soundsystem takes its inspiration from Daft Punk and its ilk but turns tradition on its head with skittish, light beats and irreverent titles such as the direct-reference “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House” and the catchy “Drunk Girls.” Whoever’s playing, make sure you turn up the bass.
