Air release debut album Moon Safari

First posted 4/2/2008; updated 9/13/2020.

Moon Safari Air

Released: January 16, 1998 Peak: -- US, 6 UK, -- CN, 24 AU Sales (in millions): 0.39 US, 0.6 UK, 2.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: electronica

Tracks: (Click for codes to singles charts.) La Femme d’Argent Sexy Boy (2/21/98, 13 UK) All I Need (11/21/98, 29 UK) Kelly Watch the Stars (5/16/98, 18 UK) Talisman Remember You Make It Easy Ce Matin La New Star in the Sky (Chanson Pour Solal) Le Voyage de Penelope Total Running Time: 43:35 The Players: Nicolas Godin Jean-Benoît Dunckel

Rating: 4.201 out of 5.00 (average of 14 ratings) Quotable: “Pushing the barriers of what ‘electronica’ could or should sound like.” – John Bush, All Music Guide Awards:

About the Album: French electronica duo Air burst out of the gates with “a thoroughly appealing, otherworldly debut album.” AMG All Music Guide’s John Bush said the album “delivered the emotional power of great dance music even while pushing the barriers of what ‘electronica’ could or should sound like.” WK “A cavalcade of analog synthesizers, organs, electric pianos, and processed voices populate Moon Safari.” AMG Mixmag’s Alexis Petridis called it a “superbly inventive” WK album that “creates a soundworld in your living room, a world where everything’s more shiny, chic and sophisticated than reality.” WK “Most of their dance contemporaries push the boundaries of trip-hop or jungle, Air blends Euro-dance with new wave. Any futuristic element on their album feels strangely outdated, since they’re borrowed from the early ‘80s, which gives their music an odd, out-of-time feeling. The waves of gurgling synths beneath the spacious, colorful chords and melodies give the impression that the music is floating in space. For all the atmospherics and layers of synths, there’s a distinct pop sense to Moon Safari that makes it accessible and damn near irresistible.” AMG

Resources and Related Links: Air’s DMDB Encyclopedia entry AMG Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide WK Wikipedia

Aphex Twin released Selected Ambient Works 85-92

First posted 8/19/2010; updated 9/9/2020.

Selected Ambient Works 85-92 Aphex Twin

Recorded: 1985-1992 Released: November 9, 1992 Peak: -- US, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US and UK) Genre: electronica

Tracks: (Click for codes to singles charts.) Xtal Tha Pulsewidth Ageispolis I Green Calx Heliosphan We Are the Music Makers Schottkey 7th Path Ptolemy Hedphelym Delphium Actium

Rating: 4.625 out of 5.00 (average of 6 ratings) Quotable: “A watershed of ambient music.” – John Bush, All Music Guide Awards:

About the Album: This was Richard D. James third release, but his first studio album under the pseudonym of Aphex Twin. WK This collection consists “of instrumental, occasionally radio-friendly songs that were mostly beat-oriented.” WK Most of the work dates back to his pre-club DJ years of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, WK but it was exposure on the club scene which garnered him enough of an underground following to prompt this album’s release. As a “watershed of ambient music” JB the album “reveals no influences and sounds unlike anything that preceded it, due in large part to the effects James managed to wrangle from his supply of home-manufactured contraptions.” JB “The songs are faster and more percussion-oriented than many of the earlier ambient creations of other musicians such as Brian Eno.” WK “Selected Ambient Works 85-92 is a desperately sparse album: thin percussion and several haunted-synth lines are the only components on most songs.” JB However, there are exceptions. We Are the Music Makers includes a sample of “a line of dialogue from the movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.” WK “Xtal has samples of female vocalizing as well as alternating ambient sounds, both repeated intermittently throughout the song. Tha has clips of several people…talking, while Actium has samples of what sound like squeaking shoes in a hallway.” WK “Green Calx contains samples from RoboCop” WK and “a faint sample of the vocal from ‘Fodderstompf’ by Public Image Ltd, as well as from the opening titles of John Carpenter’s 1982 film The Thing.” WK “The sound quality is relatively poor; it was recorded direct to cassette tape and reportedly suffered a mangling job by a cat.” JB “The prodigious James would preview new material to his friends on cassette as they drove around Cornwall. A few tracks on the album have apparently been mastered from these cassettes, resulting in truncated beginnings and endings and a low fidelity sound.” WK Remasterings have given the album a better overall sound quality. “David M. Pecoraro of Pitchfork Media calls it ‘among the most interesting music ever created with a keyboard and a computer.’ Rolling Stone called the album ‘majestic,’ and the Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll claims the album was received by critics as ‘an ambient masterpiece comparable to work by The Orb and Brian Eno.’ Warp Records has billed this as ‘the birthplace and the benchmark of modern electronic music’ and has stated that ‘every home should have a copy.’” WK

Resources and Related Links: Aphex Twin’s DMDB Encyclopedia entry JB John Bush, All Music Guide WK Wikipedia

Depeche Mode released Violator

First posted 2/21/2012; updated 2/15/2020.

Violator Depeche Mode

Buy Here:

Released: March 19, 1990 Peak: 7 US, 2 UK, 5 CN, 42 AU Sales (in millions): 3.0 US, 0.1 UK, 8.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: synth-pop

Tracks: (Click for codes to singles charts.) World in My Eyes [4:26] (9/17/90, #52 US, 17 MR, 17 UK) Sweetest Perfection [4:43] Personal Jesus [4:56] (8/28/89, #28 US, 31 CB, 3 MR, 13 UK, 44 CN) Halo [4:30] Waiting for the Night [6:07] Enjoy the Silence [6:12] (2/5/90, #8 US, 1 MR, 6 UK, 14 CN, 71 AU) Policy of Truth [4:55] (5/7/90, #15 US, 1 MR, 16 UK) Blue Dress [5:41] Clean [5:32] Song (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) All tracks written by Martin Gore. Total Running Time: 47:02 The Players: Andrew Fletcher (keyboards) David Gahan (vocals) Martin Gore (vocals, guitar, keyboards) Alan Wilder (keyboards)

Rating: 3.929 out of 5.00 (average of 14 ratings) Quotable: -- Awards:

About the Album: Violator was Depeche Mode’s “most mainstream chart-climbing album” AZ and, “the crowning glory of the boys’ black-leather period” RS as far as many DM fans are concerned. It “is a quintessential benchmark of pop, rock and electronic music…because it [seamlessly] marries dance, goth-rock and synth-pop with good ol’ fashioned Motown funk and rock n’ roll.” SL The group originally came out of the new romantic period in the early ‘80s, but soon veered toward a darker sound. Violator “continued in the general vein of the previous two studio efforts by Depeche Mode: Martin Gore’s upfront lyrical emotional extremism and knack for a catchy hook filtered through Alan Wilder’s ear for perfect arrangements, ably assisted by top English producer Flood,” AMG who also produced and engineered albums for U2, Erasure, and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. TB Violator “was slicker and more accessible than the band’s previous efforts” SL and “song for song…[is] simply the best, most consistent effort yet from the band.” AMG It was “heavily influenced by techno-pop” AZ with half of the tracks “tailor-made for the dance floor.” AZ It was “conceived when dance-club DJs were gaining recognition alongside original composers.” AZ Lead single Personal Jesus was “the group’s most striking single yet” TB yet was also “the unlikeliest of pop hits.” SL It is “a cynical jab at organized religion and televangelism.” SL Musically, it as “perversely simplistic, with a stiff, arcane funk/hip-hop beat and basic blues guitar chords, and tremendous, thanks to sharp production touches and David Gahan’s echoed, snaky vocals.” AMG “The bluesy guitar line Martin Gore lays down on top of the synth-dominated grooves” AZ is “a particular highlight on this fantastic album.” AZ Enjoy the Silence was “a nothing-else-remains-but-us ballad pumped up into a huge, dramatic romance/dance number, commanding in its mock orchestral/choir scope.” AMG It remains the group’s only U.S. top ten pop hit. “Beneath its grand synth-pop exterior, though, lay a gloomy pessimism that’s strung throughout the whole of Violator,” SL “like a corpse with a passionate pulse.” ZS Third single Policy of Truth was “a low-key Motown funk number for the modern day with a sharp love/hate lyric to boot.” AMG A “theme of lies and consequence continue, but this time Gahan/Gore is less compassionate than he is outright jaded: ‘You’ll see your problems multiplied/ If you continually decide/ To faithfully pursue/ The policy of truth.’” SL “The shuffling beat of Sweetest Perfection (well sung by Gore)” AMG “intertwines sex and addiction” SL and “the guilt-ridden-and-loving-it Halo build[s] into a string-swept pounder.” AMG “When Gahan takes the mic, it’s hard to believe he didn’t write the words coming out of his mouth: ‘You wear guilt…like a halo in reverse.’” SL On World in My Eyes, “chief songwriter Martin Gore’s voice pads lead vocalist Dave Gahan’s, and then quickly mimes him.” SL That song, as well as “Sweetest Perfection” and “Halo”, “turn teen angst and sexual obsession into grand synth-pop melodrama.” RS The ethereal Waiting for the Night” AMG features “cyclical tinkling bleeps and a minimalist pulsing backbeat percolat[ing] underneath layered voices and haunting vocal harmonies.” SL The “electronic swing number” SL Blue Dress “is at once profoundly sad, sexy and creepy, as Gore croons ‘put it on’ (referring to the titular dress) repeatedly throughout. ‘Something so worthless serves a purpose,’ he sings. ‘It makes me a happy man.’” SL “The cinematic final track” SL “Clean wraps up Violator on an eerie note, all ominous bass notes and odd atmospherics carrying the song. Goth without ever being stupidly hammy, synth without sounding like the clinical stereotype of synth music, rock without ever sounding like a ‘rock’ band, Depeche here reach astounding heights indeed.” AMG “No other Depeche Mode album has been this captivating and sophisticated.” SL It “remains the group’s defining work.” TB Notes: A 2006 reissue added tracks “Dangerous,” “Memphisto,” “Sibeling,” “Kaleid,” “Happiest Girl,” and “Sea of Sin.”

Review Sources: Depeche Mode’s DMDB Music Maker Encyclopedia entry AMG All Music Guide review by Ned Raggett AZ Amazon.com review by Beth Bessmer RS Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time SL Slant Magazine’s Vital Pop: 50 Essential Pop Albums by Sal Cinquemani (6/30/03). TB Thunder Bay Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings. Thunder Bay Press; San Diego, CA. (2005). Page 253. ZS Zagat Survey Music Guide: 1,000 Top Albums of All Time. Coordinator: Pat Blashill. Music Editor: Holly George-Warren. Editors: Betsy Andrews and Randi Gollin. Zagat Survey, LLC: New York, NY. (2003).