Music to make 'Playground Love' by

It is sometimes troublesome that electronic bands so often fall into the trap of being too sterile, too emotionless and lacking the organic power of music played by live musicians. Kraftwerk, of course, turned this problem into an attribute and launched a movement. But Air, with its newest album, Talkie Walkie, seamlessly binds electronically produced beats with samples of live instruments, creating an effective indie-pop/electronic blend.\nThe record's opener, "Venus," begins with a deliberate piano line and to-the-beat hand clapping, then the vocals come in -- smooth and subdued, with lyrics that are borderline cheesy. But that isn't really the point; the vocals are not always at the forefront of the song. That is the beauty of an electronic duo such as Air -- they have the liberty of mixing the vocals down because the music is not centered around the duo. \nTwo later tracks, the cute and pulsing "Surfing on a Rocket," and the banjo-laced "Biology" -- which is reminiscent of Stephin Merritt's band the Magnetic Fields -- take this philosophy to another plane; production is undoubtedly the center of these songs. Of course, there is "Cherry Blossom Girl," which is the single and features indie-pop chanteuse Hope Sandoval laying down sugary voc als over guitar and flute samples paired with space age synthesizers.\nThe album's most dancable track is "Alpha Beta Gaga," and it too features guitar samples and fast, quirky beats. Only this time the song builds itself up from a log cabin to a skyscraper. The sound gets larger and louder, until the climax -- strings come in, the guitar loop stays and it becomes impossible to sit still. \nIndie-pop falls prey, at times, to a sugary sound that is too sweet, too sleepy and generally lacking in vision, as all genre-driven music can. The wonderful thing about Talkie Walkie is that Air fuses underground electronic and indie-pop almost perfectly. If Four Tet -- with his organic folk-hop Rounds -- featured the vocals of the Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser, it would sound remarkably like Air's latest. \nTalkie Walkie is engaging and, if not entirely innovative, an impressive feat. The production is solid and the vocals never feel out of place. It is quite possible that this record could be the soundtrack to someone's life; it has melodrama, suspense, elegiac love and upbeat songs that make the listener forget all about themselves for forty exciting minutes.