The Air France thread

"No Excuses" is just about the fizziest, trembliest, most joyful thing I've heard, smeary piano and cascading string riffs swirling around like ambient happy hardcore.

Actually, it just occurred to me what it sounds like: Omni Trio and Foul Play! Only, like, meets both Aphex Twin's "Xtal" and Saint Etienne's "He's On The Phone".

This is the most gorgeous music ever made I think.

i like the tough alliance so i will check this out.

they're definitely using more live instrumentation here right?

i loved 'on trade winds' but i haven't listened to this all the way enough yet. only "collapsing at your doorstep" which is (predictably) fantastic.

this really doesn't sound at all like tough alliance tho

it's got the same vibe kinda, tho air france have a way more corona commercial euphoria vibe

this really doesn't sound at all like tough alliance tho

-- J0rdan S., Saturday, May 31, 2008 1:33 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

^this is @ jeremy

this sounds like jens lekman gone balearic to me

which is A+ idea in my book at least

I have no choice now but to buy Air France on site...this better live up to the hyperbole, or you guys are in trouble...

http://www.mediafire.com/?njsbtlt3r2j

ha i just paid $5 to download it

i tried to do the same actually, and, for whatever reason, the site i was going to buy it from crashed on me. so i did a google search and realized someone had posted it to mediafire. go figure. thought i'd share the wealth.

tim's st etienne comparison very on point. have been loving the last EP for a while and this is even better, i think

love how lush (lol tim f thread) and not-cheap this sounds; the airy etienne-style vocals rarely connect with me for some reason but the production is so gorgeous and smooth

"the airy etienne-style vocals rarely connect with me for some reason"

agree w this. but i am listening to this and i am def digging. i think the balearic vibe is def in place on this esp on "no way down".

ha i just paid $5 to download it

-- deej, Saturday, May 31, 2008 6:08 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

it's worth it

""the airy etienne-style vocals rarely connect with me for some reason""

Yeah this was one of my criticisms of the first EP - issue is still there but is greatly improved, and now i think the blankness is quite evocative - reminds me of Piano Magic circa Low Birth Weight.

ok, i've listened to this 3 times today. now my only complaint is that it's too short. when's the full length coming out ?

Doorstep not desktop, computer lovers.

Ha ha, what an appropriate slip I made there.

tim, have you heard boat club?

No. Fill me in!

NB. everyone you can also download Air France's (excellent) "Hold On To Me, Baby" from the Sincerely Yours website. It's "Yours0066" under the Catalogue.

Okay cutty I'm listening to Boat Club's "Nowhere" on their myspace page. It's gorgeous - midway between Air France and Studio, yeah? What are they putting in the water in Gothenburg?

I love On Trade Winds, so i'm excited about listening to this.

Big fan of Boat Club, Studio & TTA too. Essential summer listening.

i made them a wiki page haha. one of the editors keeps trying to delete it!

this is good rooftop music

oh snap they keep deleting it! argggghghghg

This is the most gorgeous music ever made I think.

^ ^ ^

far and away the best thing i've heard this year

This is great, yep. The TTA/Lekman/Studio/Boat Club comparisons are all right on. Boat Club's MySpace quote is currently "No Way Down", hmm...

really wish people weren't too cheap to pay $5 though. yay music.

okay I love this. any more stuff like this? Boat Club you say...

"Maundy Thursday" is amazing.

Never seen this thread before but any band calling themselves 'Air France' practically guarantees I'll like them.

I love that EP to death. Especially Maundy Thursday. And yeah from the minute I saw a band called Air France I knew I was bound to like them. Lucky for me they are actually quite great!

Best EP of the year without a doubt. I've spended this summer at home, working in my tiny parisian flat, with that record on constant play, and it was just like holidays!

Has anyone mentioned the Taken By Trees remix they did? Couldn't find it in the search (which of course doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Probably the most St. Etienne like thing they've done.

Plus, they're doing a DJ set at that Vice pub in London soon.

are they really? awesome.

i would like to spend a summer in a tiny parisian flat listening to this.

Well I guess it's great, if you're not spending the rest of the year in the same tiny flat !

I love this record; it's probably the best cohesive set of songs I've heard all year. And I hope I will still love it when I move back to Paris next year!

I love that on their last.fm page they're described as "the logical conclusion of all beach safari situations." It's true!

Matt, you'd love this.

Snowballing you must be me, I did the exact same thing you did and fel the exact same way!

Just chiming in to say this is also my favorite release of the year and is helping with my endless Avalanches withdrawal.

Yeah I really like this, maybe not as much as everything it reminds me of, which is a lot of things, but it's lovely nonetheless. Love how it sounds like the wisps of loads of different things drifting in and out - Xtal and Saint Etienne and Studio yeah, is it too 'lol old ILM' to say something in there reminds me of Disco Inferno as well?

Hey Jibe, isn't it great to be us ?!!
Treblekicker, thanks for mentioning the Taken by Trees remix. I didn't know it existed, and it is lovely.

wow this is fantastic!!!

"collapsing at your doorstep" reminds me a lot of "nyc smile on me" by aqua regia

all the songs are good but rly maundy thursday does owne the others

http://theairfrance.tumblr.com/post/19956285930/well-make-this-brief-because-it-hurts-too-much

We’ll make this brief, because it hurts too much.

During the first year of Air France, somewhere in the middle of the last decade, everything seemed to come so easily. At least it feels like that right now. We’d meet on friday nights to drink wine, listen to music and picture ourselves far off, somewhere on the outskirts on the big map Henrik had on his wall. The songs we made during those nights weren’t really supposed to ever leave the hard drive, but somehow they did, and somehow they took us to almost all the places on that big map we had dreamt about. We got to play records at the Rough Trade store in London, we went to the Red Square, we woke up on Iceland during a volcanic eruption, we drank beer at the cliffs of the Niagara, we spent a night in a freezing staircase in Warzaw (otherwise a fantastic weekend), we saw dolphins in the waters of LA, we got a smile from Larry David as he passed us on a street in Paris, watching us trying to open a bottle of wine, we played records for 4 hours under a blistering July sun in New York, we spent a day in the most beautiful spa in Budapest, we’ve heard our nervous voices on radio and TV, we’ve played records after two sold out Saint Etienne shows (but to be honest, only a handful stayed behind to see us), we’ve written a song together with our idol Clare Grogan (although we did managed to botch it) and we got sampled by Lil B. But it’s the little moments that has been the most dear to our hearts, like the days and nights in Brackenbury Village that we spent in our manager’s back yard with his wonderful wife and sons, who made us feel like part of the family, or being drunk on airplanes, just the two of us, and all the people we’ve been fortunate enough to get to know, if only for a night.

And we have probably produced 7 albums since No Way Down; a UK Garage record, a house record, an r ‘n’ b record… but we’ve never been able to finish anything, nothing was ever good enough. We have tried so hard, and we truly gave it all we had. And now we have decided to stop trying, even though it breaks our hearts. But for all the reasons mentioned above, and for a thousand more, we don’t regret a thing.

We wish we could thank all the people who has helped and inspired us, but we’d probably forget to mention half of you, so here’s just a big thank you to those who were involved in the making of the record: Teresa and Kajsa for singing so beautifully, Angelica of Body Language for lending her voice to a song that would have been called “I always think about you when I’m drunk”, our patron Kevin Campbell who helped us in giving this record one last chance (there are no words that can describe just how grateful we are), our Eric of Sincerely Yours, our manager David Laurie, our publisher XL, Joe for running our facebook page.

And much love to Rich Thane, families and girlfriends, sister Hanna, Henning Fürst, Marc Hogan, all of you who sent us letters, all of you who stuck around to watch us play, and all of you who opened your homes and hearts and cars and took us to water falls, big squares, beaches, record stores, monuments, valleys, mountains and zoos.

Goodbye for now. Who knows, maybe we’ll see you again in another shape. After all, we’re people that never stop dreaming.

Henrik and Joel
Gothenburg

fuuuuuuuuck

boooooooooooooooooooooo

:((((((((((

fuck

well dammit release those seven albums of material at least!

maybe they're just trying to lower expectations

Seems like a weird decision. And people made comparisons with Avalanches as well.

:(

If it's seven albums worth of really subpar material I'm happier for them to never see the light of day really. It's sad coming so soon after the Studio split, like I really expected to see these artists grow and do more amazing things.

a bearable monday wrecked, fml

they're prob just taking the "reunite for a huge coachella/lollapalooza paycheck" fast track

they should chill out, not put so much pressure on themselves

sooo

basically their music didn't meet their own standards and now they're quitting? that seems like such a weird reason to break up

bummertown

seems like the best reason to break up

they had "no way down" /caruso

Yeah, if you're not happy with what you're creating as a band, it's the best time to break up. Should be a more common occurrence imo.

I am 100% on board with their reasons, I just wish it wasn't true, feeling a bit devastated tbh

i'm not attacking their rationale it just seems so open ended and yea, uncommon

I feel like the cause of them breaking up is intimately related to the cause of their greatness - the struggle to make stuff that actually departs from established forms.

Like, with both Studio and Air France the break-ups feel premature and very disappointing in a way that I don't think I'd feel if, say, Hatchback announced he was quitting music - even though I totally love Zeus & Apollo and I would be disappointed.

The difference for me is that with Studio and Air France I feel like their music past and future is not and would not likely be interchangable with the work of other artists, that there is no capacity for others to step in and fill that gap.

Way upthread Matt made a 'lol old ILM' comparison to Disco Inferno, and it strikes me as not coincidental that Disco Inferno broke up for basically the same reasons (albeit probably with a greater amount of internal and external tensions).

really bummed out by this. These guys (and Studio/Tough Alliance) meant a lot to me circa 2007-2009 - so much musical sunshine during a very bleak period of my life. :( :(

yes, they really hit that sweet spot. Hope this thread gets bumped for solo stuff otherwise I will probably miss it.

sort of like a dream... no, better

otm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoHDlIVQp-4&feature=p­layer_embedded#at=427

at 7:05

wow thanks, always wondered where that sample came from.

woooooowwww

WAH

amazing

!!

awesome

kind of like a dream, isnt it??

ha that is (indeed) kinda surreal to see/hear.

Their No Way Down EP and On Trade Winds EP 10"s I thought were sold out until I found it suddenly available on Insound.com. I grabbed one quick because apparently they are limited to 500 copies with no repress. Anyone else order it?

― Evan, Wednesday, October 14, 2009 12:24 AM

http://collectorsfrenzy.com/details/300705915103/Air_France_No_Way_DownOn_Trade_Winds_2x_EP_LP_500_copies_RARE_Washed_Out_M83

Wow!

Just in case someone (like me, 5mins before) is missing out on this as well:
http://kickthetragedy.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/air-france-rare.html
(They are real, aren't they?)

Always noticed these two tracks in their last.fm-profile but never got round to actively search for them.

http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/articles/the-sweetness-of-air-france-120996

xp who is the vocalist on 'meet me by the pier' up there? regardless, i love it

this a crafty article. i love to hear air france riding bike

aw, i'm half drunk with a snus in my lip-- that was a great read

they dated twin sisters!!

after two lackluster years finally it's this right type of summer again. still hot and humid after 11pm, every window open to let the cool air in, blasting air france onto the dark streets.

good thing neither trade winds nor no way down or even the other stuff wears off in the slightest.

It seems to have circulated a bit, but I was unaware of this until yesterday, so maybe of interest to anyone... Quite nice.

Yumi Zouma – It Feels Good To Be Around You (ft. Air France)
http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/new-music/song-of-the-day/yumi-zouma-it-feels-good-to-be-around-you-148591

i miss them so much. "it feels good to be around you" was massively underrated upon release -- i think it got some flack for sounding a bit 'chillwave' but i know no other recordings quite like it. i'm glad they fretted over the mix so intensively because the end result is a masterpiece.

it's sad and even a bit crass to say, but i kind of feel like if it had gotten BNT that might've been all the encouragement they needed to give the album another push.

"meet me at the pier" and "please don't die" were never confirmed to be legit air france, were they? definitely inspired by, but to my ears it really lacks air france's touch.

lastly: does anyone know a better EP than no way down? by anyone? i'm not sure i know one. maybe windowlicker comes close, or (contentious choice) sebastiAn's ross ross ross...

Man I haven't thought about that band in years but they had an EP that I really loved in college

also oh man I was so so so so hard into Ross Ross Ross when it came out!! Another one I have not thought about in yeeaaaaars

yeah, that kind of dance music is very demode now, but i still thnk it holds up as a piece of work. the structural logic and execution of "ross" is insane, and "head/off" is even more exquisite. version of "walkman" on the EP is also stellar though not quite on the same level.

would still choose no way down over it, though.

New album by Southern Shores out on Sept 2nd
https://southernshores.bandcamp.com/album/loja
Two songs already released, on first listen sub-Atlantic EP, but ok. You take what you can get nowadays.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMMJ6d4DmrA

new Southern Shores album is *almost* excellent, there are a few moments where it slows down leaning into cliche "downtempo" boom-bap beats and it doesn't quite land, but the first half is so blatantly Air France that I cannot resist it