Favourite CDs

Air: Moon Safari

Moby: Everything Is Wrong

Plumb: Plumb

Air, the French duo of Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel, produce what I would respectfully describe as "elevator music with attitude" on the odd occasions that I have to categorise it. The biggest success for the band so far was the Sexy Boy single, although in many ways this is not representative of the general feel of the Moon Safari album. Supremely relaxing, and reminiscent of a bygone age but with eyes set firmly in the future - and not afraid to mix and match electronics with more traditional instruments - Godin and Dunckel's music is simply sublime and utterly recommendable to everyone.

A multi-talented vegan Christian thrash-guitarist turned anthemic techno-nutter, Moby - a.k.a. Richard Hall, the great-grandson of the author of Moby Dick - is perhaps one of the greatest yet least-known dance musicians, though his talents go far beyond traditional dance-floor thumpers. His first album proper, Everything Is Wrong covers so many genres in the space of an hour, it's like channel-hopping across the FM dial, only much higher quality! His later albums Animal Rights and most especially Play have been rightly held up as some of the best material released in recent years.

Plumb's first and eponymous album is a cracker, blending Christian rock and more technologically-driven grooves to create an extremely listenable and involving combination. Lead singer Tiffany Arbuckle is considered by many to be one of the strongest female vocalists in the Christian music scene today, carrying her distinctive voice very well as she tackles some quite difficult subjects in her songs. The follow-up album Candycoatedwaterdrops is also well worth a listen, with perhaps a slightly more radio-friendly feel than this one, but keeping all the most important attributes.