From S.Norgate-ie4g9922 Sent Wed, Jan 21st 1998, 17:19
From S.Norgate-ie4g9922 Sent Wed, Jan 21st 1998, 17:19
On Tue, 20 Jan 1998, lwtcdi wrote:
> With the fashionable press foaming at the mouth over the new album "Moon
> Safari" by 'French Band' Air, one can become confused as to the merits
> or not of the music they produce.
>
> 1)Is the concept of a 'digital ELO' a good one?
No
> 2)Will you been rushing out to buy a selection of polo necked sweaters
> in an attempt to pre-empt this summers fashion craze, or is the French
> revolution really over?
No and no
> 3)Why do the French, or anybody, like the Beach Boys so much?
(sound of spluttering) What? Have you no soul? :-)! The world, as far as I
can tell, like the Beach Boys so much because they wrote beautiful,
melodic, pop music and you, me, idm should take note of some of the truly
innovative production ideas they used. Air have some good melodies and a
similar emotional sense as the Beach Boys so criticts feel bound to draw
the comparison. The same parallel has been drawn with Kraftwerk, somone
else Air are supposedly similar to.
> 4)Aren't Virgin just trying to pull another 'Daft Punk' by slipping the
> new Air CD into the executive pigeonholes of the 'beautiful people' who
> work at style mags?
Hmmm yes and no. I mean of course they want the band to be a sucess and so
they employ the usual methods, courting the press, comparing them to other
successful acts with somthing in common, and writers are trying to get
your average punter interested in somthing new try and thus describe them
in terms easily understood. However having listened to the album Daft
Punk, the Beach Boys and Kraftwerk aren't really useful comparisons. As
for pulling another Daft Punk, I don't quite know what you mean. Magazines
are sold because they have new things in them (thats why I buy them) and
if I worked at a magazine I would want to write about these people making
differnt sounding, cool new music that appeals to a wider audience as well
as purists (Bastards, I've no time for that kind of pointless snobbery and
blinkered, point-scorring, smugness that purists adopt to cover the fact
that they just don't get other styles of music and are too uptight to
really enjoy themselves. Ahem.).
>5)And, of course, is the album really any good, or is prog rock really
>the new rock and roll?
Well to be honest I flicked through the album at my favourite vinyl den
(the excellent Way Ahead in the Victoria Qtr, Leeds) and I was deeply
under whelmed. The style seemed to vary between the aforementioned Prog
Rock and a kind of lazy/easy trip-hop Jazz we've heard far to much of over
the past few years. There's a bit of electronic stuff (courtesy of a Korg
MS20 by the by) but nothing to warrant the comparrisons drawn in the
press.
The melodies for which, at the end of the day, is what they are being
lauded for were nice enough but then I did only flick through so they're
probably growers. There are also a couple of folky numbers (cheers) which
aren't to my taste but I suppose gives the album a bit of balance if you
like that kind of thing. If you read what Air cite as influences its more Sere
Gainsbourgh and the Beatles with a bit of Jean Pierre Henry than anything
else just pop with a twist as they say. It's not a shocking waste of time
just not as good as it sounded like it might be when I read about it and
not the kind of thing I generally want to listen to beyond other peoples
stereos and the radio. I don't really care what the new rock and roll is,
it won't be half as interesting as the new ....(insert name of genre yet
to be invented here). The moral of the story is to read between the lines
of what the press tell you try and find the truth about what the stuff
actully sounds like. I quite like it when the press hype things up, it
makes me feel like I might be part of somthing or somthing beautiful is
about to happen, but all too often I find it's just hot Air.
-Funky music I can't get enough.
-Know what it is?
Steve
P.S. As a general point would people mind reading their mails before
hitting send perhaps then could we sentences that because avoid sense
eliminate and the rest of us could enjoy your thoughts more.
P.P.S. This only applies to people with English as a first language of
course. No disrespect or piss taking meant. Peace.