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Air ‎
Talkie Walkie

Parlophone

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$39.00 SGD
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About

A TAV Curator’s Pick.

Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin have an uncanny ability to continually coax a magical range of tones from the wide array of instruments - analogue and digital - that they turn their hands to. Their third full-length, Talkie Walkie might not feature the stellar cast of collaborators that 10,000 Hz Legend gathered, but it certainly doesn't relinquish their tight grip on unashamedly synthetic postmodern pop.

Tracks like "Venus" and "Cherry Blossom Girl" recall the skewed pop of French pre-cursors Indochine. Dissonance, flipped melodies and synthetic held tones - that hold up to scrutiny against the high points of progressive rock - form the backbone of Air's ensemble moments. "Alpha Beta Gaga" - it's title forms an apt summary - encapsulates their talents precisely. Five minutes of collision-fun featuring: trickling analogue pulses, synthesized whistles and finger picking banjo in a context that amply demonstrates the (artificial) intelligence that forms the cornerstone of their prodigious output. – Press Release

Which makes the overwhelming beauty and longing of Talkie Walkie that much more stunning. No longer are Air's sincerities lost in translation. The album title (no, they're not being cute, that's just how they say it in French) knowingly acknowledges this fact. Like the communication devices, Talkie Walkie sounds intimate, yet distant and distorted. Hope Sandoval nailed "Cherry Blossom Girl" on a demo, yet in forgoing guest vocalists for the first time, Air unerringly personalize their songwriting. Stomping piano and opiated gospel handclaps march "Venus" in a brutal funereal pace through keyboards that break like dead, pale winter sunlight and falling ice. Tolling bells and crickets take the song into twilight. Somehow it's numbingly romantic. Atonal music boxes, Plutonian pings, and digital fugues create a Side One that evokes purgatorial drifting, running out of oxygen, and passing into the light after a Space Walk disaster. – Pitchfork

Item description:

Artist:

Air [ French Band ]

Title:

Talkie Walkie

Label:

Parlophone

Format:

Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, 180g

Pressing:

Europe

Release Date:

This reissue: 2015 | Original - 2004

Genre:

Electronic

Style:

Downtempo, Synth-pop, Ambient

Catalog No:

72435 966001 1

Condition:

New