Air --Talkie Walkie V2 January 27, 2004
Okay, so you're in some "lounge," just coming off your benzedrine cloud, having a chai-mango smoothie before you take a hit of Special K and head off to the next party. Your 1.5-inch-long cell phone vibrates against you in the pocket of your black silk chinos, but you don't answer it, "cause you don't wanna disturb the bliss. You scratch the bangs of your artfully disheveled hair and think about the Rimbaud despair cycle that you just read. Now is the time to be listening to Air's new record, Talkie Walkie. Any other time or situation? Nope.
I don't know who came up with the idea of "ambient" music, but it was probably the kind of guy who buys the latest, hippest, most expensive wine de-corker as soon as it hits the market. The quiet, whispy dream-fest that Air perpetrates is so alien to any notion of fun or engaging sounds that it shouldn't even be called music. It should be filed away next to the "Forest Sounds" or "Relaxing Rainstorm" background noise soundtracks in the self-help section of Borders. Track ten on Talkie Walkie, "Alone in Kyoto," actually has ocean wave noises. I mean, come on!
Talkie Walkie is the fourth full-length from French electro "composers" Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin. Though the production has gotten more complex since Moon Safari , the concepts have not. Some of the tracks, like "Cherry Blossom Girl" and "Surfing On A Rocket," start off as if they could be backup instrumentals for India.Arie cuts, complete with looped classical guitar lines and breathy hip-hop beats. Others, like "Run" and "Another Day," sound like the slower side of Aphex Twin. Others, like "Mike Mills," which features a baroque keyboard line that my 11-year-old cousin could play on a used Casio, are just annoying.
If you get past the fact that Air's music is only appealing to mellowed-out hipsters or people on barbiturates, it might have some use. I have a few ideas, for example. If Nintendo re-issues Super Mario Brothers 2, they know where to go for the soundtrack. If you want your massage parlor to be really "chill," you know what to play when you light up to incense. Or there's always the old use-it-as-a-doorstop trick.
