AIR
Moon Safari (reissue, 1998)
PARLOPHONE/WARNER MUSIC
9/10
Remaster with rarities for downtempo landmark
At a time when a lot of electronica seemed to be proudly displaying its determination to stare into the emotional and aesthetic abyss, the debut album from this Versailles pair seduced like two stargazers’ sweet dreams. One might have expected the vocoder revival, which Air surely helped kickstart with a record predating Cher’s Auto-Tuned “Believe”, to have long ago sunk back into anachronism by now, but the way Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel use it to weave space-age pop tapestries here is timelessly beautiful, like the sci-fi soundtrack to a future that will always be tantalisingly out of reach.
Extras8/10: A nine-track rarities disc, highlights including “Dirty Hiroshima”, showcasing a more brooding makeover of the main album’s signature sound, a house-facing take on “New Star In The Sky” and a live cover of Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain”, with Eddie Hazel’s guitar excursions reimagined via freewheeling Moog madness. JOHNNY SHARP
BLUE ÖYSTER CULT
Ghost Stories
FRONTIER MUSIC
7/10
Archive trawl reaps rewards
Following tours to mark their 50th anniversary, the Long Island rockers have raided the vaults to give a selection of rare-ish fan favourites a proper home. The idea was spawned during rehearsals for the aforementioned tour, sifting through tracks recorded between 1978 and ’83 but subsequently shelved. Founding members Eric Bloom and Donald Roeser returned to the studio to remix the material and add overdubs where deemed necessary, while aiming to stay faithful to the source recordings. It’s raucous rock from the get-go on the opening double-whammy of “Late Night Street Fight” and “Cherry”, before the psych-lite of “Supernatural” and “Don’t Come Running To Me”, the latter graced by an opening riff that recalls their biggest hit “Don’t Fear The Reaper”. Jazzy piano hues dominate the intro to “Shot In The Dark”, its spoken narrative reminiscent of Tom Waits’ earlier Asylum output, while a live reading of MC5’s “Kick Out The Jams” rattles along nicely. TERRY STAUNTON
