MP3: It Feels Good To Be Around You by Air France

Air France has been teasing us for a while now. They quietly stepped into the scene in 2006 with a four-song EP. Two years later, they released a six-song EP. In the next three years, they released one other song. And that’s about it. Eleven songs in five years. That’s a tough pill to swallow when you make the type of addictive, celebratory blissed out jams that Air France specializes in.

Eluding the grasp of traditional pop descriptors, their music has been described as “post-rave bliss”, “beach pop” and “Balearic disco.” And while these hybrid genre denotations give the reader little help in imagining the band’s sound, the general “vibe” they intend to convey does seem to run through most Air France songs. Sampled vocals layered over synths and strings, steel drums, and disco beats are ever-present.

On the new track “It Feels Good To Be Around You” the band keeps the beach disco thing going but brings in just a little less bounce and a little more groove. There’s a little less snare and a little more kick, a little less sun and a little more moon. And just a hint of dubstep, no doubt due in large part to a short but emotionally piercing vocal sample from James Blake’s “The Wilhelm Scream.”

Download “It Feels Good To Be Around You” by clicking here. It only gets better with repeat listens.