French cool has never been so evident as on Moon Safari. It marks a return to form for synth based melodies and luxurious beat manifestos. Together with Daft Punk and St. Germain, Air consistently poke fluffy marshmallows in the eyes of the mainstream and alternative scenes. Who cares anyway, when Moon Safari can transport you beyond the normal patter of song writing layabouts?
'La Femme D'argent', the 7-minute plus opener, is all hushed keyboard wizardry, background music to catch the attention, the thinking elevators choice. It could almost be a tune conceived in 1969 San Francisco but comes complete with a plush update that makes it come across as perfectly contemporary.
'Sexy Boy' received a lot of airplay when it was released. It utilises mooged out vocals that sound positively refrigerated and a whooshing beat that fills the air like lingering cigarette smoke. It is a latter day classic of the genre and will likely sway heads for years to come. You can bet an innovative advert will be made putting it to good use to promote its exclusive deodorant range.
For most of the time, there is a distinct lack of straightforward vocals on Moon Safari. This means that when the elegant grace of Beth Hirsch's voice swoons on 'All I Need' it sounds refreshing. Hirsch returns on 'You Make It Easy' to sound almost glacial once again. For the rest of the album, the vocals sound like they have travelled through several kilometres of copper wire.
At times Air's musical fantasy reaches higher summits. Like on 'Remember', a song that could have even the disinterested salivating without warning. It coils around like an unstoppable flubber, dazzling everyone with its string gestures, nondescript organic vocals and that incremental stairway. Wow, it's enough to take your breath away.
'Ce Matin, La' also has its sight set on the past. Filleting great brass slabs of ingenuity and a mouth organ flutter that is delightful, studies have shown that sales of the Renault Cleo go through roof when 'Ce Matin, La' is given a airing in car showrooms. Subtle and sublime hardly seems sufficient. 'New Star In The Sky' is loud enough to wake a newborn baby but is so soft and clever the disturbance won't have him rattled, rather, just eager to grow up and sip a tasty cappuccino.
Some of the sounds in "Moon Safari" can also be heard in their previous album "Premiers Symptomes" but in "Moon Safari" they are more refined. It is almost as if "Premiers Symptomes" is an earlier stage of ideas through which "Moon Safari" has evolved. This music is stylish and tranquil; it is a very special collection of music.
Even if you don't like the music, Air's videos are a revelation. 'Kelly Watch The Stars' pastiches Atari games using live hosts and is funny, sexy and damned wacky all at once. 'Sexy Boy' resembled a cartoon film with a teddy bear making inopportune appearances at will. Didn't make a blind bit of sense but then nonsense is sometimes more entertaining than sensibility.
Air creates music of a very distinct French sound. In their highly individual use of conventional instruments combined with electronic sounds they have created their own niche within the ambient sub-genre of electronic music.
Moon Safari has an effortless grace about it, layers of instruments combine to give a sumptuous listen. While a spacious living area with wooden floors and glass coffee table is not essential, this is where this type of music belongs. This is not to be snobby at all, it's just that Air create classy sounds that would seem altogether out of place blaring out of a bedsit window. Air's grand plan is there for all to see, it's up to you to figure out if they have it sussed.
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Wow, that's how I want to be able to write. (They used "All I Need" in an advert for a bank in Germany, by the way. I guess, that's why my friend changed his...)
peppermint 30.11.2001 19:23
Excellent op ;)
rob_potter 29.11.2001 22:23
real indepth review nice piece of writing. Am not a huge fan of the band but are ok if in the right mood
Moon Safari, the first album proper by this pair of middle-class Frenchmen, easily ... more
survives unscathed from its billing as that most deadly of sub-genres: dinner party music. True, Moon Safari, with its blatant bliss-provoking easy listening chimes, sit...
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