given that air are about to release an expanded 10th anniversary edition of their debut, moon safari, (and for the complete story on that particular package thats well worthy of your pocket money if you’re a fan of th band, head over to the official site : here), i thought i’d dig out a little known remix they did back on 1997, under a not so difficult pseudo.
of course, back in the day, the music world was awash with downtempo pop acts all doing the smooth vocals over gentle hip hop based beats, and i’d be a liar if i didn’t admit that i was a sucker for a fair old chunk of it (hello mono, lamb, rare, baby fox etc etc).
one of the bands that were lumped in with this genre was crustation.
at the time, the late night moods and sultry vocals really hit my playlist hard, and so waited for the band to take over the world.
in hindsight, the band were one of many, and so proved to be nothing special, despite the fact that the album is a pleasant listen.
anyways, for their purple ep, they managed to draft in quite a few well known people to play around with their late night moods, mr scruff, a tribe called quest, and the best of a ragged bunch of lazy beats and ambience, future cool french pop heros, air.
the changed musical backing is very typical of early air productions and somewhat more enjoyable than the original, rich and detailed electronica, with a synthetic warmth often missing in the genre. a definite indicator to the excellnce that was on its way.