A refreshing change from the Average White Band, Air's Premiers Symptomes has it all, baby. It is so smooth... Smooth like the pina colada I'm about to order. Ooooh yeah, smooth. The sound of a lazily tapped hi-hat, chattering brushes, the shake of a maraca, all overlaid with unhurried and unobtrusive synth melodies... the bass keeping time for the horn section... did I say it was smooth?

This is free jazz lacquered with electronica, impeccably clean, lacking any sense of awkwardness or amateurism, Premiers Symptomes' only drawback is that it's merely 27 minutes long (just five tracks) and it leaves you wanting more. Perhaps that was its purpose, what with the recent release of their full- length Moon Safari. It'd be enough to make me think if it wasn't so, so smoooth. Would you like a sip? Yes, there. As I was saying, the balance between the electronic and organic is superb, craftily whetting the appetite for future treats.

-James P. Wisdom