Dr_Rez

Air is a wonderful French band that experiments in electronica, psychedelic bits influenced by Floyd, Zeppelin, and many other bands of that time period. They have 7 releases out, only 2 of which of have heard, although both are fantastic.

* Premiers Symptômes (1997)
* Moon Safari (1998)
* The Virgin Suicides (2000)
* 10 000 Hz Legend (2001)
* City Reading (with Alessandro Baricco) (2003)
* Talkie Walkie (2004)
* Pocket Symphony (2007)

I suggest starting with Talkie Walkie as that's my favorite so far, and shows there improvement over previous albums. Air has a very laid back feel to them, general using electronically made beats, and experimenting with synthesizers and guitar. "The name AIR is a backronym for Amour, Imagination, Rêve which translates to Love, Imagination, Dream." (Wikipedia)

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lucifer_sam

Daft Punk is French too...

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mr dave

air was great when they started out but i'd say their only must haves are 'moon safari' and '10 000Hz legend'. i caught them on their 10 000 Hz tour and it was a fantastic show. they're a surprisingly great live band, check out any live clip of 'people in the city' or 'la femme d'argent' as compared to the album versions.

the virgin suicide soundtrack is also quite good, especially the track 'dirty trip'. same with 'les premiers symptomes' although i wouldn't get either of these releases before the first two i mentioned.

i thought 'talkie walkie' was weak, it sounded like a safe rehash of 'moon safari' to my ears. i don't mind it so much now but when it first came out it was a big let down.

'city reading' and 'pocket symphony' were plain boring. at this point if i want something similar to their old style i go for 'zero 7' and if i'm looking for their more minimalist current style i go for 'boards of canada'.

i have to say i'm really disappointed with how this band turned out. they went from a great electro-psychedelic duo to a bland lounge act. who knows, they might still have something up their sleeves but i'm not holding my breath on it.

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jackhammer

'Moon Safari' is their best release by far and exploded onto the scene. My god was it really ten years ago? Although their music sails close to 'Muzak', 'Moon Safari' has held up extremely well. Their first release 'Premiers Symptômes' was a compilation of early E.P's if i'm not mistaken.

France has produced some great music over the past fifteen years and is eclectic to boot. My latest fave French band is 'Dub Incorporation'.

Others:

Gojira (one of the best metal bands of the last 10 years IMO)
Le Peuple De l'herbe ( I started a thread and posted a comp that went nowhere)
Cassius ( a great Deep House band)
Daft Punk (of course)
Dimitri From Paris (A producer/DJ specialising in world music)
Hotel Costes (series of compilations that take in everything from Jazz to funky beats).

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Dr_Rez

I will listen to those 2 next. And im jealous you got to see them live.

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Expletive Deleted

Moon Safari is their best by far. The rest of their albums are also good, with the exception of Pocket Symphony, which is beyond boring.

I saw them at Coachella in 07. They were good, but their set started really late and by the time they went on it had gone from being a nice come-down from earlier that day to just being a little bit on the boring side. Still nice, though.

Also, Phoenix are probably my favorite French group behind DP.

4ZZZ

I agree with the OP in that Air are indeed a wonderful band though I am not sure I agree there are Led Zeppelin influences of any kind. I maybe understand a touch of Floyd but I think that they are more influenced by synth pop of the 80’s with vocal harmonies that are reminiscent at times, believe or not, of The Beach Boys.

Air are IMO the premier soft synth pop band of the last 10+ years. I have all their albums except City Reading. I had the pleasure of seeing Air live this year at the Tivoli in Brisbane on Monday 31st of March as a side show for the V Festival that was then touring Australia. They put on a great gig and the very enthusiastic reaction of the 1,600 strong crowd agreed with me in that they were truly outstanding.

IMO the best are in release order Premiers Symptômes, Moon Safari and Talkie Walkie. All three are very different from each other and show definite changes in style. I do like 10,000khz and that too is also different again though a few of the songs do not have the staying power of the other 3 albums. Virgin Suicides comes over as just a soundtrack, as it is, and is fairly disposable. Pocket Symphony is a clone attempt to Talkie Walkie and is sadly a complete failure.

If anyone compares Talkie Walkie to Moon Safari in style they are doing both an injustice. If push came to shove I would go for Talkie Walkie over Moon Safari. I had no expectations of Talkie Walkie when I first purchased it but was very pleasantly surprised and am still able to play it a few years later and enjoy it immensely without feeling any boredom at all. A few years back I was meeting work some colleagues in a coffee shop. Talkie Walkie was playing, in fact the instrumental Mike Mills, and as I ordered my coffee I congratulated them on their music selection. They were so impressed that I knew the track, let alone the album, I got the coffee on the house .

Premiers Symptômes is a very interesting album/EP. It is essentially muzak, as has been suggested, but it is a lot better than that. I have found that if I have visitors I can put this on as background music but invariably I am asked what it is and can they have a copy. My thinking is that they are catchy tunes that are better than just background music and catch the attention.

Great band.

Demonoid

Why is it 'Despite being French'
I've got a bunch of french bands myself. JH already named a few, but there's a few more prog. bands I listen to that are french.
Anyways, Moon Safari it is here as well. I've listened to it, god knows, how many times and still never gets old. I quite liked The Virgin Suicides too, but I haven't listened to Talkie Walkie yet. Need to get that sometime soon!

mr dave

how do you figure it's an injustice?

there was a departure from moon safari to 10 000Hz legend and then they seemed to take a step back. TW seems to be a collection of the pop song stylings they played with on their first two full lengths without any of the extended instrumentals featured on those albums. 'mike mills' is nice but ultimately doesn't really go anywhere. 'le voyage de penelope' is just as short yet says so much more to my ears.

i guess it's the difference between having expectations for an album vs. not.

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4ZZZ

Injustice was too strong a word but be that as it may to me they head in differing directions within the realms of the genre. I find that MS is generally more chunkier and faster in style for most of the songs, the exceptions being say All I Need that has Beth Hirsch on vocals and Ce Matin La is muzak in style and could have been of PS.

TW was actually an album that grew on me from slow beginnings. I tend to prefer this as I have found over the years that the albums that hit with a bang initially tend to lose their edge over time. TW for me heads into the more dream pop territory and that may take some getting used to for those expecting another MS. Venus, Cherry Blossom Girl, Run, Universal Traveller, Another Day are all cases in point with Biological hammering that style home. Biological is actually one of my favourite Air songs period but I just reckon it may have passed under the radar for some. Even Mike Mills has that dreamy feel with full strings. The final track Alone In Kyoto is ambient dream pop and was used to wonderful effect in the movie Lost In Translation. Surfing On A Rocket is a bit faster. The ever so slightly more up tempo Alpha Beta Gaga even has a Banjo playing along with the strings and synths and that Banjo appears again on Biological as well. I am not too sure that I remember anything like that on MS.
I also think that the production has improved as the songs to me are more sharp. Nearly all of the songs just meander along, and maybe that is what you are not too fussed on. I have just had the 2 albums out and given them a play so that has been a bonus for a Saturday morning. Nothing like being forced to focus after making a big statement .

Just out of curiosity you say "doesn't really go anywhere". This is a term that I have never understood the use of in music. What would you say that it meant?