(fax) Air 5

[Trevor Cordes]

Air 5:

Very first listen, didn't much like it.  Mediocre.  Some annoying bits.

Boy, was I wrong!  This one didn't take much time at all to take off!

T1 miffed me at first.  More 60's India-crazed sitar drug music.  But the 
sitar is actually fairly subdued and the sweeps are quite mesmerizing.  
The melody is very... something... early FAX?  What does it remind me of?  
Interesting Silence 1 beats.  Not a skipper as I at first thought.

T2 is the "wacky French" track, like t4 on Air 4.  But this one is sultry 
& swanky and a bit more mysterious.  WTF is up with that doorbell?  Crazy!  
This track is probaby the best wacky French thing in the whole series.  I 
like it!  The only bad thing I can say is the voice isn't quite as nice as 
the previous in the series.  Maybe because it's more front & center?

T3.  Wow.  What is this like?  It's hard, noisy, buzzy and ravey, like 
some mid-era Namlook live solo work.  The beat is driving and gripping.  
Eastern melodies on top.  Trancey simple melodies later on.  Near the end 
we get some great mid-era (someone pin this down for me) Namlook wacky 
beats that really make this one a gem.  May seem a bit long, but it 
changes so much and is really quite catchy.

T4.  Totally unimpressed on first listen.  Totally love it now.  Total 
opposite of what vocal tracks are usually like: catchy at first, boring 
later.  We were all scared for nothing: Tiffany's vocals are as 
unobtrusive as you can get and very well done.  The Orb's vocal tracks 
should be as good!  The background synths are rich and dark and some of 
the builds and sweeps are astounding.  The quirky staccato background 
melody really works.  The bleeps work.  The PK solo lead synth 3/4 through 
is wonderful.  There's so many layers: like 3 different melodies happening 
at once.  Good to be played loud or in headphones.

If this track is the reason for the long delay, it was well worth it.  
Perhaps Tiffany "tied" up Namlook!

Now for a total fanboy over-analysis: listen at around 3:10.  We hear the 
strange distortion effect used so much in the Move D / Namlook 8-10.  I 
swear it's being applied to a vocal and I swear it's PK saying 
something... can anyone make it out??  Or am I completely nuts...

T5.  Again, fanboys, what does this remind us of?  It's Re:sonate!  It's 
like the radio dance remix of Re:sonate.  No surprise I like it.  OK, so 
the beat is one of the most dance-happy things PK has done in 10 years, 
but I have nothing against dance beats when mixed with other useful 
goodies.  In fact, the choice of beat is quite bold and daring.  The 
Re:sonate synths are wondeful.  The Re:sonate piano lead melody is 
wonderful.  The sweepy Re:sonate synth melody on top of the piano is 
brilliant!  Might be _the_ track of the album!

This goes to show how long PK was working on this release: he obviously 
was inspired to this track around the same time Re:sonate was being made, 
given his penchant for temporal-similarity.

T6. Like 2 but less wacky and much nicer melody and supporting echoic 
synths.  Forget about "reprise", this is a distinct and worthwhile track 
in its own right.  Potential hats-off to JM Jarre for the inspiration?

Total: quite a ride!  The range of styles on this album is vast yet the 
whole thing seems cohesive, which is quite shocking and seemingly 
impossible.  The clear, and surprise, winner of this round.

DTS: really comes alive on this one.  Need a chance to play it LOUD!