Air

So earlier today I sent my friend Guilllaume (he’s French & lives in Paris, OMG) a short list of songs by Air, since he didn’t really know them. Regardless, he is completely full of awesome (& cute : ). Some people are just into other types of music, other types of things. I won’t write about him too much bc I get the feeling he wouldn’t like that, but I’ll say that he’s one of the top people I met while I was in Paris. He's a friend I made. & I think the person that I kept in touch with the most afterwards. Anyways I figured I’d do a post on Air, who NME Magazine hold responsible for reinforcing "international stereotypes of Frenchmen as nothing more than muss-haired playboys stroking a woman with one hand & an analog synth with the other". THAT'S HOT.

Back in high school I had the idea (prejudice) that electronic music totally sucked. I’d only really heard it @ clubs, & I did not really like clubs or going out. In fact, in 2001, I went dancing a grand total of twice, while everyone else I knew went every bloody weekend & seemed to enjoy. I didn’t have much fun in general that year, & the circle of people I knew was quite small, yes, but...moving right along.

Things changed one night in 2002 when my cousin Sebastian came over. He’s a musician & also full of awesome. I remember clearly: my dad had ordered Armenian food for dinner. @ some point, my dad disappeared & the two of us had a long & deep conversation about many things. He’s one of those people who can wow you with their knowledge of bands/ artists/ producers. I remember sitting there with a scrap of paper & a pen, taking note of all the artists he mentioned & recommended. I later became a huge fan of many of them.

That night, I learnt that electronic music was not just the awful shit they played at clubs. It was an ENTIRE UNIVERSE full of subgenres. There was electronic music not even meant for dancing! I still don’t know much about genres in general, but...once I downloaded what he’d recommended (via Soulseek, which I still use)... my perception of "electronica" changed completely & forever. This happened mainly @ the hand of three artists: Air, Cornelius & Underworld. Three artists I now list among my favorites. DJ Shadow too, actually.

I knew Air, I’d seen their “Sexy boy” video on MTV & I hated the song. I STILL DO. But then I heard the album Moon Safari & it blew my mind. It took me places, it made me feel things. I recall listening to it while primping 4 the Creamfields Festival that November...an event that revolved around electronic music. Maybe that night changed my life, that Creamfields. The theme song that year was by Underworld, who I was also heavily getting in2.

Without further adue, a list of my fav songs by Air, whose sound is described as “a variant of the classic disco sound coaxed into a relaxing Prozac vision of the late '70s, looked back to a variety of phenomena from the period -- synthesizer maestros Tomita, Jean-Michel Jarre, and Vangelis, new wave music of the non-spiky variety, and obscure Italian film soundtracks” (allmusic.com).

- REMEMBER I was lucky enough to see the band last November & when they played this song, I got THAT FEELING, bc I really like it. Maybe bc I’m a very nostalgic person.

- ALL I NEED - This one reminds me of two friends I made around the end of high school & kept for a couple of years. Sitting on one of their balconies in Caballito during summer nights, looking up at the sky. Good times.
- Mer du Japon – Not all Air songs have vocals, I’d say only 50% of them do. This one is among that 50%. Often the vocals are kind of roboty, computerized. Which again, I’d say is the case 50% of the time : P The lyrics don’t say much, but they’re hypnotic & catchy... J’en perds la raison dans le mer du Japon. I lose my mind in the sea of Japan.

- You make it easy – Ditto. When the vocals aren’t as I described before, they’re a strong but soft feminine voice...like on this track.

- Sing Sang Sung – From their most recent album

- Be a Bee – From their most recent album. I can totally imagine a groovy bee speedily flying among flowers with this music playing : P

- Eat My Beat – From their most recent album

- So light is her footfall – Also from their most recent album, which I REALLY loved. They played a bit of this song once on “Gossip Girl” xD

- Left Bank – It’s sad & reminds me of a sunset. But life is like this sometimes. For me, anyways.

- Cherry Blossom Girl – Very dreamy. A good friend did modeling for some time & once I went to watch her walk in a fashion show. This song played & all the models were wearing pink, white, super flowy, feminine clothes, & there were flower petals all over the catwalk. It also makes me think of someone on a swing, swinging slowly. Where I grew up, in Washington DC, there were lots of cherry blossoms.

- Modular Mix – This one is totally outer-spacey. In Uni we had Public Speaking class & had to do presentations. I did one on Astrology & played this as background music.

- LE VOYAGE DE PENELOPE - from their debut Moon Safari. Totally trippy. Makes me think of laying down & sliding through the sky like the letters at the beginning of Star Wars.

- LE FEMME D'ARGENT- also from their debut Moon Safari

- ALONE IN KYOTO I thought Guillaume might dig this one since he’s into Japan

- PLAYGROUND LOVE From The Virgin Suicides, a movie I’m always trying to get Guillaume to watch.

- CE MATIN LA Also from The Virgin Suicides, although it doesn’t seem that way to me...I perceive it differently from the rest of the soundtrack, for some reason. I can’t quite explain it for the moment though.

- Dirty Trip – also from The Virgin Suicides. A very haunting track.

Wow, that’s a lot. Anyways I only sent Guillaume the ones in capital letters. In general I tried to send him tracks that were the most representative of the band. I’m too lazy to link all the rest, sorry. But surely they can be found on YouTube, Grooveshark or Deezer.