You can't get keep a good robot down. Despite having a fairly quiet 2008, the influence of Daft Punk remains everywhere we look. From being sampled on Kanye West's 2007 mega hit 'Stronger' and on Wiley's 2008 chart botherer 'In the Summertime', to inspiring everyone from Justice to Deadmau5, both visually and musically, and influencing legions of Kitsuné disco punkers to start their own band, these cyborgs are a force to be reckoned with. Last year, the team of Guy Manuel De Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter released their second live CD, 'Alive 2007', an irreverent, pile-driving romp through their back catalogue, re-jigging the classics and giving tracks from last album 'Human After All' an acid burnt techno re-spray. They played a smattering of festivals, performing in their LED light clad robot helmets, perched at the top of a psychedelic disco pyramid. After announcing that they would perform no live gigs in 2008, Daft Punk made a one0off appearance at the 50th Grammy Awards on 10th February alongside Kanye West for a version of 'Stronger', using four Jazz Mutant Lemur devices to trigger their electroid grooves. On the visual side, and in their most eccentric move yet, the Daft duo directed the bizarre 'Electroma' - a road movie in which their robot selves, played by actors, quested across a robot-inhabited California in order to become human. Always interested in the possibilities of film, 'Electroma' had the distinction of being the first full-length movie directed by the pair in the wake of videos for their tracks 'Fresh', 'Robot Rock' and more. Both of the Punks studiously avoided appearing on film themselves and were only interviewed with their faces obscured. De Homem-Christo meanwhile collaborated with leftfield French crooner Sebastian Tellier for the epic album 'Sexuality', a sleazy electrofunk caper augmented by the erstwhile Punk's production skills, underpinning Tellier's breathy Gallic tones. Allegedly at work on a new album - their first since 2005's 'Human After All' - anything new from the house of Daft Punk is always awaited with baited breath.