If Air were British, they'd have walked away with the Mercury Music Prize for their breathtaking album, Moon Safari; but then, if Air were anything but French, they'd never have created a record of such ineffable beauty and naive charm. But can the synth-wizard duo of Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel recreate the magic onstage at the Olympia? Not really, but sometimes they manage to hit the perfect wave form and surf gracefully on a sea of moogs, vocorders and theremins.
Dressed all in Persil white, and sporting foppish 1960s hairstyles and pencil mustaches, Godin and Dunckel looked out of place and out of time, and when they played the squelching synth notes of Talisman, they sounded like JeanMichel Jarre's mutant offspring. The classically-trained pair were backed by two additional synth players, plus a bassist and drummer, and when the band went full-tilt into Remember and Le Soleil Est Pres De Moi, they evoked conflicting images of vintage Pink Floyd and best-forgotten ELO. Just to remind us that it's a funny old postrock world, the band took their paean to Charlie's Angels, Kelly Watch The Stars, and turned it into a punky Plastic Bertrand workout.
