MIND OF MOUSE

starslinger:

Star Slinger, Air France, Lil B?

Yazzur

A conversation between Star Slinger and Lil B. Star Slinger had a hand in mixing Air France’s last single “It Feels Good to Be Around You.”

Daily Inspiration: Air France Forever

“Despite the sunny percussion and the lapping samples of beach waves, the emotional weight of Air France has always been a sort of near-paralyzing nervousness, like their music is the black-out, out-of-body experience you have while finally conquering your fears.”

Duncan Cooper wrote a tribute to Air France for the FADER when the duo announced their end. Read it here or click the photo above for the link.

theairfrance:

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

In 2012, Henrik Markstedt and Joel Karlsson called an end to Air France and left this heartfelt letter/Tumblr post as a final dispatch.

As we will go through it this week, No Way Down is one of a kind. The textures and feelings seem familiar but you can’t quite place your finger on where you heard it from, You can name similar bands but it’s not quite the same. That feeling of ambiguous familiarity is one of the strongest magic Air Frances lays on wax in the EP. It’s blissful and another world entirely.

Since release, No Way Down has been praised very positively but as you can read from the post, a follow-up never surfaced. The closest work that may count is the 2011 MP3 single “It Feels Good to Be Around You,” which soon followed with the duo providing a FACT mix. The single is rich in samples and sunny as their work found in No Way Down, a promising preview of what was next to come (You can hear James Blake’s voice sampled from “The Wilhelm Scream” tucked in there).

Earlier this year, music blog The Line of Best Fit published an awesome history story of Air Frances as told by the Best Fit founder Rich Thane, described as die-hard fan and longtime friend of the duo (you can read that here). It has been a year, the story recaps. And it has been five years since release of No Way Down. Imagine what could have been. Air France may have signed off but at least their music still lives on energetic as ever.

Music Club — Week 18
No Way Down EP by Air France (2008)

For this week in Music Club, I give you one of the most beautiful electronic albums No Way Down by Air France. It’s a sweet and short listen of 6 tracks. Hope you guys like this one. Let’s have a good time listening to this one for this week!

*Listen to No Way Down on Spotify!

If you want to share your thoughts on the album throughout the week, feel free to message me or submit a post!

*As always, I’m open for album suggestions for future weeks of Music Club! Just shoot me a message!

Have you guys already listened to Air France? What do you think of their stuff?

*Couple Thoughts on Speak Now:

Before the chorus kicks in, Taylor Swift’s Speak Now starts with the deep thought “wondering why we bother with love, if it never lasts.” Although the song, “Mine,” closes in somewhat of a happy ending, that’s a pretty loaded question. And tuck that into more tangible and bleak realities like fights, responsibilities (bills), and drifting away from the initial thing you set foot on. To remind you, “Mine” was a single and although the couple make up, it’s a tragedy more than romance.

Taylor Swift seems to poke at darker subject matter this time around and it’s not surprising. Being saddled with great fame and attention from millions to see what she would do next, Taylor Swift carried around a lot of stress around this time. Also, add in the fact she’s entering adulthood with different relationships, romantic and platonic, with different people. Inevitably, something blunt and heavy was bound to seep into her creative work around this time.

It’s bit of a bummer hearing some of the songs in Speak Now because her optimistic perspective on life seems shattered. “Never Grow Up” and “Innocent” is a darker version of “Fifteen” with Taylor Swift at the other side of aging, whispering a dark secret to teens that growing up isn’t pretty. Swift soaks in her own misery a little too much and gives up melodic sweetness, but in exchange she gets to directly speak to her fans through those two songs. Even if it may sound like moping, hearing Taylor Swift defeated with the guitar sounds painful.

“Never Grow Up” and “Innocent” throbs a bit too open. The difference between those two and the singles are Taylor Swift’s ability to arrange tragedy and sob stories into a sweet melodic narrative that carries listener away from the pain inside. “The Story of Us” is almost misleading if you don’t follow along closely as Swift breaks the fourth wall charmingly (“Next chapter”) and the upbeat power-pop chorus section twirls her words joyously. Bad thing on my part but when I heard it, as Taylor Swift concluded saying “the end,” I assume her and her lover was together happily ever after. But it’s a story of being distant to the point it’s uncomfortable to be even in the same room.

“Speak Now” is sort of misleading too as Taylor Swift basically steals a groom from his wedding because she thinks she’s better fit for him than the bride. I can’t confidently conclude whether “Speak Now” is Swift realizing her fantasy of a situation gone wrong or if it’s a song about doing the right thing even if it’s the “wrong” thing to do. Both options are selfish to a degree, but Taylor Swift convinces me well that this is the thing to place all bets on.

But before you start pointing fingers and bringing the content behind “Speak Now” and “Better Than Revenge” as proof of Taylor Swift’s negatives, don’t forget to listen to “Back to December,” one of Swift’s best singles. She admits wrong, which breaks away her publicly perceived tendency for vengeance. It’s a genuinely written apology song, a peaceful one at that.

If I had to pick a song similar to “Fifteen” — a core song that summed up Fearless quite well — for Speak Now, it would ironically be “Enchanted.” Although the song uses more of fairy tale image of the Fearless-era, it puts the storybook narrative in a different and more somber perspective. Taylor Swift is uplifted by a charming man as she lives in a mundane and exhausting lifestyle. Sounds typical, but the love and affection is temporary, and Taylor Swift is aware of that. Uncertainty lingers throughout with Swift unsure whether the moment will last, but instead of focusing on its end, Swift treasures the time she has.

Speak Now has Taylor Swift focused on, well, the “now.” Not only does the record expresses the problems and stress she was dealing then more specifically, but also finds a profound feeling for them too. Happiness and relief come from focusing more on the present amidst the struggle. “Back to December” hopes to mend a relationship by ridding of all regrets and grudges. “Sparks Fly” is an uplifting moment of love froze in time. “Mine” finds solace in forgetting past troubles and not minding what lies ahead.

Taylor Swift doesn’t find a solid answer for her big questions. She’s just getting by hoping to find them. And that’s a journey of adulthood I can relate to.

What did you think of Speak Now?