Air

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• Genre: Downtempo
• Hometown: Paris
• Air Website

About

Originally gaining recognition for their down-tempo cocktail funk of "Modular Mix" and "Casanova 70" on the French SourceLab compilations of 1997, Air released their full-length debut the following year. An incredibly ambitious and successful melange of Serge Gainsbourg by way of Vangelis, Moon Safari is awash in strings, vocoders, analog synths, fluttering electro pulses and soulful backbeats. Everything from the rare groove of "La Femme D'Argent" to the Euro-pop of "Kelly, Watch the Stars!" is vaguely familiar, but never so successfully arranged until this point. Live, they are prone to wearing white jumpsuits while strategically placed fans blow wind through their hair, and there is no shortage of body-popping electro-funk. In the end, you are left with perfect road trip music -- assuming you're driving to the moon.

- Jon Pruett