tunequest

From the album Nothing's Lost (2004) Belgian composer Styrfoam is a consummate bedroom auteur, accomplished in the so-called "indietronic" genre, effectively wielding his laptop to weave a kind of downtempo electronic pop music. His early work is more ambient in nature, peppered with influences of 8-bit game-style accents. As his music has progress, however, he's become ever more audacious in his compositions, fleshing out his sound with ...

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For these past couple weeks, tunequest has been counting down to Air's fifth full-length record, Pocket Symphony, which was finally released a few days ago. I've had it long enough to give it a handful of thorough listens and I can tell you that this thing oozes craftsmanship. The numbers don't lie and after rating all the songs on the album, I'll confirm that this is ...

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After being somewhat let down by 10000 Hz Legend, I'd have thought that my interest in Air would had wained, but when Talkie Walkie was released in 2004 I was surprised by how eager I was to get a hold of it. When I did, my surprising anticipation was validated, in spades. I'll just come out and say it: Talkie Walkie is a beautiful record. In direct ...

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Several degrees of Air. Or, what's it take to get Air to remix a Beck song? Air gets Beck to remix Sexy Boy and provide vocals on Don't Be Light and the Vagabond. Beck dated and is married to Marissa Ribisi. Marissa Ribisi has a twin brother: Giovanni. Giovanni co-stars in Lost in Translation. Lost In Translation is directed by Sofia Coppola. Sofia Coppola also directed The Virgin Suicides. The Virgin Suicides' score ...

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This post is part of the countdown to Air's fifth album, Pocket Symphony, which will be released March 6 in the U.S. If Premiers Symptomes found our protagonists as the house band at "Le Casino dans la Lune," then Moon Safari surely finds Air on its titular sojourn, casting off the confines of the lounge scene and setting off on a mission of exploration. This, Air's first album ...

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Air [french band]'s first album in three years, Pocket Symphony, will be released in a handful of days. In preparation for that event, I thought it would be fun to take a trip through the French band's back catalogue, starting with their earliest works, which range from the 1996 early singles to 1997's debut album Premiers Symptomes. :: Imagine it's 1969 and your thoughts are aimed toward the ...

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If you happened to miss the listening party, you can get your own small preview from the album's first single "Once Upon A Time," which is available from the iTunes Store. Alternately, you can pre-order Pocket Symphony from the iTunes Store and receive 2 bonus tracks (The Duelist and Crickets) plus a PDF of artwork. Update March 6: Pocket Symphony has been released. Get it. :: Today is the first ...

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In addition to their world-sized beats, The Chemical Brothers are generally known for their world class videos. I stumbled across this video to Star Guitar from the duo's 2002 release Come With Us while perusing the ol' Google Video/YouTube library this afternoon and was quickly fascinated. It was directed by noted film dude Michel Gondry, who's done some impressive work, including intriguing videos for Bjork, Beck, Radiohead ...

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Ah, it's been a while since we actually talked about music here at tunequest, so let's pick up where we left off: Susumu Yokota. I recently posted about my discovery of his music via an Amazon recommendation for his 2001 exploration of ambient minimalism, Grinning Cat (perhaps a reference to Alice in Wonderland?). Having piqued my interest to the extreme, I started researching the man and ...

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