Thursday 16 February 2012

The 2kDozen 500: #61 - Air, "Le voyage dans le lune"

I should really be watching the movie at the same time; but I'm too stingy to spring for it off iTunes as well and too impatient to hunt it down for free. So I'm going to go from memories of the sci-fi classic from the eaarly stirrings of cinema and my impressions of the album as an audio experience alone; then try and work out at what point the rocket sticks in the Moon's eye.

Liquid bombast for fuel from the off; which is surely a crucial ingredient. Queen soundtracked "Flash Gordon" for the sake of fuck, and that ought to be illustration enough.

"Moon Fever" sounds like classic Air. Indeed, there's a kind of lunar delirium that lurks behind a lot of their music. It also sounds a piano was fused to the skeleton of "Right Here, Right Now" by Fatboy Slim and buoyed up with enormous flatulent keyboard swirls. Then things get right progressive with "Sonic Armada" with the sound of a race of wasp aliens trying to communicate through interpretive dance exactly how we could improve the universe. It shudders nice.


"Decollage", I've just learned, means "take-off" in French, but there must be some conceptual overlay with the idea of creating new art by ripping pieces off some other piece. Or maybe not. I'm wading in waters outside of my easy knowledge. "Cosmic Trip" has the mustard of a driving paranoid rhythm track that represents the queasy momentum I'm sure I'd be feeling moving through space. I certainly don't need a large, echoing, professorial voice talking about "enormous mushrooms", thanks.


"Lava" sounds cool and serene - much more as in lamp than as in eruption. Although there are some banjo tectonics some of the way in. Banjotronix.

I've loved Air even since seeing "All I Need" on MTV in a front room in Belgium late at night with headphones on. This kicks in no heads, but I like it. I will bring this when I travel to the starosphere.

Rating: Jazz Warp out of Lunar Orbit

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