Air: Talkie Walkie

By REBECCA BARRY

(Herald rating: * * * )

They turned easy listening into an art form when they released their innovative debut album Moon Safari in 1998 but French duo Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin also inspired a legion of bland knock-offs -- and the unfashionable title now known as chill-out.

Since hair salons and cafes took hold of the genre by its horns, Air have faced the daunting task of renovating their sound. Thankfully, with the help of Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, they've achieved it, although Talkie Walkie is still spacey and gentle enough to warrant a stereo in the bathroom.
With its grand, plonking pianos, dreamy extra-terrestrial themes and stark, glacial soundscapes, they once again conjure up images of bright yellow sunlight melting blue ice, venturing into pop only on the Hope Sandoval track, Cherry Blossom Girl.

Elsewhere, most of the album features Dunckel and Godin themselves, occasionally obscuring their voices with the spooky, computer effects that characterised Kelly Watch the Stars, but otherwise harmonising au naturel as though they're Simon and Garfunkel.

As the title suggests, Air have employed full use of their studio equipment as well as their imaginations -- on Alpha Beta Gaga for instance, they pair weird, futuristic effects with merry whistling and hill-billy ukulele.

The result is intriguing, slightly unnerving and occasionally funny but you have to wonder if it will be the general public or film producers clambering to buy this one.

(EMI)