Air - Moon Safari: Anniversary Edition

If it ain’t broke…

JB Dunckel and Nicolas Godin were touched with an all-too rare magic on their 1998 debut. The magic had visited them before, sporadically, on three sublime 12”s on Source, and it resurfaced occasionally – albeit with diminishing returns – for the next decade.

Moon Safari, however, remains exquisite, a pure, glacial pop moment, floating far removed from the brown sludge of turgid copycat bands such as Zero 7 that followed in its wake. It couldn’t be remastered, it doesn’t need it, but Virgin sure as hell tack on the tat anyway. BBC sessions reveal essentially a session band rocking out in rebellion against the “chill-out” tag that dogged them, and demo/KCRW versions of Kelly Watch The Stars and You Make It Easy show how, as a struggling pre- Moon Safari act, some of Air’s ideas had yet to crystallise.

Director Mike Mills’ accompanying DVD is of its time, but enjoyable nonetheless, all stylised and spacious. But it’s the 10 tracks of the original that form the excitement in this package, and they haven’t changed a bit, remaining utterly faultless and untouchable.

Virgin | tbc

Reviewed by Jake Kennedy
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