I still want to talk about Daft Punk...

...but I ended up listening to Annie's debut album Anniemal instead of taking notes (it's all about the detail with Daft Punk) and loving her fizzy pop. It seems to have been released last year but I only saw 12"s in the shops in the last couple of weeks. That's what happens when they release stuff on CD only; I don't even find out about it. We've loved her stuff (what little there was) since The greatest hit which, according to all the web bios was released in 1999. Maybe, but you try buying it outside Norway before Summer 2000 when I did. Unfortunately her producer/partner Erot died and nothing else was released apart from I will go on which I got on a 2002 release on Loaded.

I always had a thing for breathy girly pop like St. Etienne or Dubstar, and the most played songs on my iPod are cheesy pop (including a couple of Richard X things and he produced the first single from Anniemal), but I can understand that others find it cloying. Nothing on this album has, for me, the sonic impact of greatest hit with it's solid house beat allied to silly disco toms and serious sonic manipulation undermining the pop melody. If you listen close you can hear lots of sounds that appear to have been recorded inside the mouth or very, very close amped up, looped, and multiechoed. The track has a sonic richness allied to glossy melodic pop that you rarely find.

That, and I listened to some of the How to kill the DJ part two, so no in depth examination of Daft Punk's attempt to bring a live rock dynamic to their programmed dance, how they dirtied their beats, and yet, how they haven't stretched beyond one of the many microgenres Arling and Cameron invented for themselves to very little success. It's hard not to feel a little jealous of Optimo, like they're stealing your thing by putting out these releases full of records that you know and love, and that a certain community know and love. But hey, they do it, and they do it better than I could!