Kite Rocket Whatever.

I’m not going to be coy about it, I really love Air.

Gallic charm, wonky retro synths, hushed vocals through buckets of effects. What’s not to like? For us 90’s types, Moon Safari is still revered and enjoyed to this day - even with a shedload of overplay at the time. It’s still timeless stuff.

I’d always been keen - as musos tend to be about this sort of thing - how that album, and the Air sound was made. Obviously, I’d grokked the old skool keys and Rhodes, but many of the other sounds remained a little elusive, even if various websites and Reddit had semi-cobbled it together.

Fortunately, we’ve recently had it from the horse’s mouth via the excellent

Tape Notes

podcast with band member Nicolas Godin. I’ve included the YouTube version below.

Not only is it an excellent listen/watch, but you get the full kit skinny. It’s a retro rollcall of MiniMoog’s, Juno’s and Jupiters with a dash of ARP Solina’s and Korg MS20’s. I wasn’t expecting to hear everything was run through a Peavey Classic 50 - an amp I last saw in a school rehearsal room - but hey, it was the 90’s.

Check it out.

What was brilliant about this motherload of new and approved info, was that I had the majority of the kit in software format as part of the Arturia suite. Zut alors! Time for a new Air like track.

And Kite Rocket Whatever is the result. As well as being the lead ‘single’ from Four Track Orginals Vol. 3, it’s my attempt at create something with an Air vibe using the same sort of sounds from the same (virtual) kit, without slavishly trying to emulate settings or chord progressions (frankly, that’s too boring and I’m too old).

I’m not going to lie, it was a lot of fun. It still sounds like ASMC work, but very Air-y to me, but I’ll let you guys chime in on how much.

I felt the video needed a little French charm too. As ever, Artlist to the rescue with these two winsome and Gauloises-toting youngsters looking both troubled and yet free at the same time. Probably having an existential crisis or something whilst getting their spines mashed in that car, though.

Kite Rocket Whatever is now available on

Metalabel

as part of our latest Drop - Four Track Originals Vol. 3. You not only get the audio tracks, but the videos too - neat huh? Get downloading here.

Bon.

Graeme.