Dressed in black and stationed at their metallic posts, the French electronic legion prepares to do sonic battle on the Olympia stage. Leading the assault are Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel. Dunckel wears a long black cape which, with the bank of synthesisers in front of him, gives him a Rick Wakeman-like appearance. All five band members sport youthful good looks and 1970s hairstyles, and for one scary moment I could have sworn they were the Osmonds.

Luckily, Air didn't launch into Crazy Horses, but delivered a cryogenically cool blend of future lounge, Floyd-lite and proto-Kraftwerk, gleefully indulging in some sonic archaeology, but wisely holding back from the prog-rock abyss. There's an unfinished sheen to songs such as New Star In The Sky, People In The City and How Does It Make You Feel, as if Air were unwilling to take their array of ideas too far, and thus ruin the crafted ambience. It would all have been a little one-dimensional, if it wasn't for Air's very own sexy boy, bassist/vocalist Jason Faulkner, whose presence pulled the band's fragmented sound together. Faulkner has been part of Air for the past year, and his performance on Playground Love and La Femme d'Argent lifted the show above the pot-noodling level.

Their "difficult" second album, 10,000 Hz Legend, starts to make sense in a live setting, Radian and Don't Be Light giving the band a chance to cut loose. You wonder if Godin and Dunckel are taking the electronic exploration thing too seriously, but then they do Sexy Boy and Kelly Watch The Stars, and you remember when Air were light as a feather floating on a lunar landscape. They'd better not lose the sense of humour - it's the only thing keeping them from sinking beneath the sine waves.