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AIR - 10 000HZ Legend
When French dance duo Air burst into widespread public consciousness in 1997, with their Moon Safari album, it came as a breath of fresh air. With songs such as Kelly Watch The Stars and Sexy Boy, displaying the bands pure pop sensibilities and mixing them with a more avant garde European feel. All this came packaged with colourful pop art promo videos and cool looking sleeve art. Now, four years on and the new album, 10 000HZ Legend has arrived, and takes a distinctly darker feel than its day glo predecessor. Hints at the new darker direction can easily be traced back to the soundtrack album they wrote for The Virgin Suicides, movie last year. On this release, they set off on a more sombre and morbid route to suit the subject of the film. To sum up the new album in a sentence, it's a perfect blend of the Moon Safari and Virgin Suicides material, mixing the darkness of the latter with the light pop feel of the former. Opening track, Electronic Performers, takes a moody and haunting soundscape of synthesizers and juddering drum beats to stunning heights. For their new material, Air have been accused of turning to Prog Rock, and this is in evidence from the cover artwork to the pretentiousness of some of the lyrics. On, How Does It Feel, a Steven Hawking like voicebox talks until giving way to an over the top harmonious chorus that brings to mind Prog Rock bands of the 70's like Yes or ELP. Drafting in Lo-Fi/Country hybrid superstar Beck, on The Vagabond results in a great song, but has the downside that it sounds exactly like a Beck track, all harmonicas, acoustic guitars and beats, that it makes you forget you're listening to an Air album and ends up sounding out of place, disrupting the natural flow of the album. A film soundtrack influence is definitely in place on Radian, and it sounds like an outtake from Gladiator with an epic feel and an eastern sounding chanted vocal. The Moon Safari ear Air, rears its head on Sex Born Poison, with gentle acoustic guitars and Parisian female vocals over the usual inspired beats and sound effects. Beck, appears again on Wonder Milky Bitch, doing his best Lee Marvin husky voice impressions over a creepy country tune while Don't Be Light, takes a Sci-Fi theme tune as inspiration and gradually builds into an epic tune, full of fuzzy guitar solos and space age sound effects. 10 000HZ Legend is an album that will grow on you, and once you get past the transition into darker territory and the definite Prog Rock leanings, the melodies and hooks will find you. Air are out there doing their own thing, which is much in evidence on this album. 10 000HZ Legend is unlike anything else around at the moment and is a truly great album.