BvtO Album Pick: Air France - No Way Down EP

Air France

No Way Down EP

@myspace

Air France are a duo from Sweden that craft simple, sweet, upbeat electronic music that can be used alternately on a dance floor or waking up in the morning.  I seem to use it more for the latter.  Particularly useful is the track "Collapsing at Your Doorstep" from the short but effective No Way Down EP, which was released in early 2008 (not actually available in the US yet).  I have found myself actually waking up with the "no...better...sorta like a dream" sample looping through my head; an equally soft and confusing way to start another day of consciousness.  So, if dreams often feel as real as life, is life also a dream?  What people do awake they also do in their sleep.  How can we prove that life isn't a dream?  Like I said, the song is effective.

Luckily, "No Excuses" is an antidote to the pedantic arm chair philosophizing caused by the previous song: a sunny beat with an optimistic melody, proposing that we should enjoy life while we've still got one to ponder about.  Fair enough.  Below you can find music videos of the above songs and I'll post others in the Becca Vs. The Octopus Radio side bar soon.

Happy dreaming!

PS: You may not be dreaming, but your brain is in a vat!

No Way Down - Air France

"Collapsing at Your Doorstep"


"No Excuses"

Video: The Walkmen - "Four Provinces"

The Walkmen's You & Me did not exactly elicit a fervor in me, but "Four Provinces" is a stand out track on the album. Directed by Bruno Levy, the video follows a young girl around the apparently gorgeous Kagbeni Mustang region of Nepal. Anybody know someone with a couch to surf on in Nepal?

Video: Fleet Foxes - "Mykonos"

Well, for a music video director, you really can't go wrong with flying shapes. In fact, I see far too many paper cut out shapes in music videos these days! So, it's a bit regretful that the video for Fleet Foxes' song "Mykonos" off their Sun Giant EP includes such stand-by creative tropes. Luckily, the song is anything but typical; quite beautiful really! And in a way, the animation melds nicely with the song. In the meantime, let's hope that bands take a stand against flying shapes in the future.

Video: Animal Collective - "My Girls"

The video for Animal Collective's "My Girls" from their recently released album Merriweather Post Pavilion definitely aims to discredit my belief that the band is more pop than psychedelia. It's a typical band-rocking-out-on-camera video, only the band is blackened out, and their stage appears to be in a hallucinogenic aquarium of some kind. It's certainly fitting. Though the song holds up completely on its own, with or without flying shape bubbles.

The band recently posted a tour schedule on their myspace page. Giggity giggity!