Air: 'Moon Safari - 10th Anniversary Edition'

Flippin’ heck, it doesn’t feel like ten years (TEN YEARS!) since us Brits discovered how much silky smooth Gallic synthpop could enhance a good snog. Suffice to say, if you haven’t got ‘Moon Safari’, buy it - your partner will thank you.

Back in 1998, the world fell in love with this French duo whose names we couldn’t pronounce – Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel – and never looked back. Tracks like ‘Sexy Boy’ and ‘Kelly Watch The Stars’ became immovable parts of the British aural landscape, with the album selling two million copies.

To celebrate this anniversary, Virgin have cashed in with a limited edition 3-disc package, wrapped up in a case bound book. There’s ‘Moon Safari’ itself, which we ain’t going to review here, along with a disc of remixes, rarities and radio sessions, and the hour-long ‘Eating, Sleeping, Waiting and Playing’ DVD by Mike Mills, filmed on their first tour.

In terms of the remixes, Moog Cookbook breaks out the funk manual for a remix of ‘Kelly Watch The Stars’, which comes on like Starsky & Hutch. Beck does ‘Sexy Boy’ with a dirty bassline, crisp eating, and snippets of the Test Match tune. (It works.) David Whittaker, composer of some of the original string arrangements on the album, does ‘Remember’ like a soundtrack to a wild and windy walk.

Radio Sessions are from the BBC, with a couple of early demos (‘Bossa 96’, ‘Kelly Watch The Stars’) and a number of live tracks showcasing Air’s ability for both Zen-like simplicity (‘J’ai Dormi Sous L’Eau’) or total wig-out (‘You Make It Easy’). C’est supercool!

Released on 14th April 2008 by Virgin.

Written by James Farrell.