full moon safari

Full Moon Safari: Night Game Drive Glowing Review

Unlike anything I’ve experienced before, a full moon safari was spectacularly hair-raising! In truth, the African wilderness after dark is an entirely different animal. Once the night sky blankets the landscape, your heart can’t help but beat faster. The thrill of what lies in the darkness takes over your senses. Evening safaris pull back the curtain of darkness and leave you feeling delightfully meek in the grandiose of Mother Nature.  

Why Venture on Safari at Night?

Void your assumptions that nighttime equates to nightmares. For an African safari in the night is far from bleak and haunting. Think of it as a full theatrical set change, where the cast of wild characters rearranges to take to the stage of darkness. Lethargic lions come alive and patrol their territory in search of intruders and feasts to prey on. Nighttime safaris can shock you with secretive animals that only emerge in the evening for their nighttime routines.

A majority of my time on night safaris has been in South Africa’s Kruger National Park. Scenes from those fruitful drives live rent-free in my memory, even a decade later. During those ventures, I luckily observed aardvark, civet, spotted eagle owl, and even black rhino near Skukuza Rest Camp. More recently my husband and I ventured on an evening game drive during our honeymoon safari while in Masai Mara National Reserve.  There we were reminded of the goosebump sensation of being vibrated by the powerful roar of a male lion. Venturing on a safari into the night certainly gifted us the opportunity to absorb the African wilderness as it came alive in the evening! 

Full Moon Glow on a Night Safari

What should have been a pitch-black drive through the Kenyan wilderness, instead was an illuminated scene of nature under the glow of a full moon. Typically, night safaris are entirely lit by a red filtered spotlight scanning the landscape. But in this case, our timing couldn’t have been better at &Beyond’s Kichwa Tembo Tented Camp as we enjoyed the evening under the bright moon. For this night safari near Masai Mara National Reserve, our visibility wasn’t limited by the darkness whatsoever. The true magic came from turning off the jeep and cutting the lights, allowing our eyes to adjust to the evening glow. After a few moments, our eyes discovered the grassland around us was easily seen without the help of a spotlight. The grasses were illuminated, granting us an easy view of the wildlife. During our adventure, my eyes caught a reflective glow lumbering through the plains. It took a moment to process, what the shining moving mound was. When in fact, it was hippos fresh out of the Mara River still dripping wet on their nocturnal graze through the darkness.  If nothing else a safari under a full moon will certainly grant you a new perspective of the African wilderness you thought you knew.

Staying Safe During a Night Game Drive

Once again, I repeat, do not assume nighttime safari means nightmare safari. Trekking into the African wild after sunset is a perfectly practiced art when led by professional guides. These highly trained individuals ensure their guests are safe and that the animals are respected.

Our intimate night drive with &Beyond was entirely private. In fact, my husband and I were pleasantly outnumbered by the staff in the vehicle. Behind the wheel was our fearless safari guide, Lorna , who led all our adventures within the Mara. Under her guidance, we were also joined by a skilled tracker and an additional guide. Unlike our daytime safaris with Lorna, this second guide was armed for our protection. Contrary to what you might assume, most activities on safari do not include an armed staff member. This safety measure is most common either on foot or after dark in the African wilderness.

Ethical Practices on Night Game Drives

Our ability to discover Kenya’s wildlife after dark was dependent on the private concession property that the &Beyond company owns. This private land surrounds their Bateleur Camp , Kichwa Tembo Tented Camp , and the shared airstrip. The property borders the Masai Mara National Reserve and the Mara River, allowing wildlife to freely move about unrestricted. Like most other national parks throughout Africa, the Masai Mara National Reserve is strictly closed at sunset. This limitation helps to protect wildlife, allowing them to behave undisturbed throughout the night. Rules like this support wildlife within popular parks that host high volumes of daytime visitors. But as the other safari vehicles returned to their camps from the Mara, ours was able to instead venture into the private concession to continue exploring after dusk. This &Beyond property is one of the only places where guests can experience an ethical night game drive near the Masai Mara.

3 Tips to Make Your Night Game Drive Ethical 

1.) Respecting wildlife is the top priority! Some species can be easily irritated by bright lights, especially since they are trying to rest and stay vigilant of predators. Instead, night drives should focus on observing nocturnal species that are active! 

2.) Leave the lighting to the professionals! For an ethical experience, leave it to the professionals to use the outer beams of their red filtered spotlights to create less disturbance to wildlife. Safari guides are highly trained to identify species-specific behaviors and will make sure to move on if an animal is getting disturbed by the vehicle’s presence. Generally, most animals are habituated to these ethical safari activities, often unphased by the company. But if something doesn’t feel right or makes you uncomfortable, be sure to speak up and let your guide know you want to partake in more ethical practices.  

3.) Skip the Flash! Bursts of light disturb the animals and can sometimes frighten them. Make do with taking darker, spotlight-lit photos with the help of your safari guide. The well-being of wildlife is far more important than the pictures you snap!

Night game drives can be both exhilarating and ethical as you observe nocturnal animals in their element. Be sure to soak in the adventure of it all, and when the time is right just listen to the sounds of the African night!  Assuming you can hear past the pounding of your racing heart from the thrill of what the evening brings.  

Additional Resources for Your Safari:

• Female Safari Guides: The Women Leading Africa
• What to Expect from an Ethical Night Game Drive Safari
• 10 Practices for Ethical Wildlife Photography

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Leave it to the French to turn retro-leaning lounge music into space-age scores.

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Leave it to the French to turn retro-leaning lounge music into space-age scores. Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel achieved just that, announcing their arrival with their debut album, Moon Safari by Air “French band” on January 16, 1998.

Labeled an electronic act, Air was light years away from their Gallic contemporaries Daft Punk. Instead, they crafted the perfect post-club soundtrack with dreamy, spectral soundscapes, and a jazz-like sensibility that washed away all memories and substances from the night before.

This new incarnation of “chill-out” music in electronica was also decidedly analogue, a study in contrasts that felt both nostalgic and futuristic at the same time. Armed with old Roland drum machines, vintage synths, a Rhodes piano, and even some bongos, Air oozed 60s kitsch. Some likened it to camp, others an homage, but to a young audience who didn’t grow up going to key parties and listening to Francis Lai, it felt wonderfully exotic and revolutionary.

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Listen to Moon Safari now .

Before they became purveyors of ambient pop, Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel were just two students from Versailles who worshipped at the altar of rock in a country that was historically blasé about the form. They played in an indie band in university before forming Air and released two EP’s in ’95 and ’96 that ended up on their Premier Symptomes compilation. Blending Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson samples with trance music, the duo already proved themselves masters of mood, but it wasn’t until Moon Safari where they showed their chops for pop craft as well with the singles, “Sexy Boy” and “Kelly Watch the Stars.”

With the exception of artists like Serge Gainsbourg , Johnny Hallyday, or Jean-Michel Jarre, not many French acts had been able to crack the international charts, but in the mid-90s, downtempo acts such as St. Germain, Daft Punk, and La Funk Mob were reinventing the French music scene and people were taking notice. As Godin recently told The Guardian , “Before we came along, French pop was synonymous with Sacha Distel. I hated it. But electronic music meant you could make cool music without being a rocker.”

Arriving during the swan song of Britpop, Moon Safari instead embraced theatricality, with its vast symphonic arrangements that borrowed equally from Burt Bacharach as it did from Pink Floyd and ELO. When it came time to record, Godin and Dunckel took a cue from their muses and recorded the string sections at the legendary Abbey Road studios with noted arranger David Whitake, who’d worked with everyone from Serge Gainsbourg to France Gall, The Rolling Stones , Jimmy Page, and Sylvie Vartan. In contrast, the rest of the record was recorded on an 8-track machine and purposely retro gear, not only for aesthetic purposes but also to challenge the duo musically.

Starting a record with a track that has a 7-minute plus running time is a bold move, but “La femme d’argent” is the perfect opener for the sonic odyssey that is Moon Safari . Beginning with soft rain over the Blaxploitation sample “Runnin” by Edwin Starr, it builds into an exquisite musical montage that proves you don’t need a bass drop to feel catharsis. This electronic crescendo is then quickly followed by the album’s breakout single “Sexy Boy” that single-handedly relaunched the vocoder into pop culture along with their other hit, “Remember.” But Moon Safari is not all android disco a la 70s Herbie Hancock. Two of the tracks including “All I Need” and “You Make It Easy” feature American singer-songwriter Beth Hirsch, whose honeyed vocals float over the acoustic and ambient lounge arrangements.

From the galloping bass line of “Talisman” to the tuba solos of “Ce Matin La,” Moon Safari is a mosaic of retro references and yet Air never limits themselves to just references, instead they create their own universe and a soundtrack to a movie that never existed. That’s what happens when you get two studio obsessives with a love of astrophysics and staying in. Moon Safari is the ultimate armchair exploration, all you need is a shag rug and decent speakers.

Following their debut, Air quickly became a critical darling worldwide and was praised for putting French pop back on the map and yet reception in their home country was not as enthusiastic. Moon Safari peaked at No. 21 on the French album charts and No. 6 in the UK. They were similarly a massive success stateside, landing a US tour, ad placements, remixes, and glowing reviews. Just a year later, they were scoring the soundtrack to Sofia Coppola’s tale of 70s suburban ennui, The Virgin Suicides , with their atmospheric opus.

Now 20 years later, it’s clear how Air profoundly changed the cultural perceptions around not only French music but electronic music in general, pushing the boundaries of both to create something wholly unique and often replicated in the decades that followed.

Purchase Moon Safari here .

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Air play Moon Safari review: Spectacular, unique, and still revolutionary

W hen Air released their 1998 debut Moon Safari , there was nothing else like it. The French duo – Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin – had conjured an electronic masterpiece full of refined retro-futuristic pop and gentle psychedelia that became essential listening across all sorts of disparate groups, from comedown ravers to the middle-class dinner party set via Radio 1 and film soundtracks. It was utterly of the moment, inspiring countless imitators. That it was all conducted with a chic Parisian insouciance only added to the allure.

But if the record was a unique achievement, it is similarly hard to think of anything quite like their spectacular recreation of the album on the UK debut of a belated 25th anniversary tour. Last night in the opulent setting of London’s magnificent Coliseum, Air brought to life their grand statement in thrilling, emotive, transformative fashion.

Ever the aesthetes, the staging was immaculate. In keeping with the album’s themes – nostalgia for the pair’s 70s childhood and the promised new space age that never materialised – Air, dressed all in white, performed from inside a white rectangular box, a sleek and sophisticated base from which tasteful lighting and otherworldly visuals could emerge. It often brought to mind Kraftwerk recreating 2001: A Space Odyssey .

The immersive setting enhanced the sense of wide-eyed wonder in the music. Air were joined by an impressively agile and powerful drummer and Moon Safari ’s inventiveness came to the fore. Opener “La femme d’argent” began as a lounge track, unfurling leisurely above Godin’s typically precise yet loose bassline before Dunckel added layers of noise. By the end, it had become a swirling psychedelic onslaught.

The hits – a sumptuous “Sexy Boy” and giddy “Kelly Watch the Stars” – sounded invigorated. It was a reminder of how ahead of the curve Air were: at the time, vocoded vocals were still rare in popular music; Moon Safari pre-dated Cher’s “Believe” by nine months. That said, Godin used a vocoder to sing the luxurious ballad “You Make it Easy” (its original singer, Beth Hirsch, was absent), and it was the only moment that didn’t enhance the feeling of the record (the cut-up sampling of Hirsch’s voice for “All I Need” worked far better).

If past Air concerts were a bit too nonchalant for their own good, then last night a sense of occasion brought out, if not quite showmanship, a certain personality that hasn’t always been evident. Dunckel, stationed between two sets of keyboards, often faced the crowd and played both at the same time in an impressively offhand manner. For his part Godin strayed around the stage as he swapped guitars, all smiles and lost-in-the-moment grooves. When an excited audience member shouted “we love you!” during the twinkling intro to “New Star in the Sky”, it could have killed the moment stone dead. Standing at his keyboards, Godin smiled and raised a fist in salute. After album closer “Le voyage de Pénélope” – a wavey, frantic finale – the pair could barely contain their joy at the standing ovation.

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After the success of Moon Safari ,Air were so desperate not simply to remake it that, in recording the divisive 2001 follow-up 10,000Hz Legend , they locked all their previous equipment in a cupboard and threw away the key. A wisely chosen second set, then, plucked the highlights from the rest of their catalogue (notably nothing later than 2004). The melodious alt-pop songs of 2004’s Talkie Walkie – the wistful “Cherry Blossom Girl” and guitar-led “Surfing on a Rocket” – are some of their very best; from 10,000Hz Legend , the Krautrock-goes-prog “Don’t be Light” was exhilarating, as was the closing Kraftwerkian manifesto “Electronic Performers”, which ended with an onslaught of dark noise.

But it’s the Moon Safari set that will live long in the memory: an extraordinary performance of an extraordinary album.

Air perform Moon Safari at the Royal Albert Hall on 30-31 May. Then touring

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AIR to Perform ‘Moon Safari’ in Its Entirety During Fall North American Tour: ‘This Album Is a Little Bit Medicinal’

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French electronic duo AIR will bring audiences to space this fall during a North American tour honoring the 25-year anniversary of their beloved 1998 debut, Moon Safari .

The pair, Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel , will play the album in its entirety during the 19-date tour, which starts Sept. 25 in Vancouver and ends Oct. 30 in Austin, Texas. See the complete schedule below.

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Presale tickets go on sale March 7 at 10 a.m. local time, with general tickets on sale 10 a.m. local time on March 8. The tour will hit largely 2,000- to 5,000-capacity venues and follows AIR’s current sold-out European tour behind the anniversary. The tour announcement follows last Friday’s release of a demo version of Moon Safari ‘s “New Stars in the Sky.”

Released in January 1998, the album marked a breakout moment for the electronica genre and earned wide critical acclaim.

While making it, Godin says that “my obsession was to do something timeless, so I focused very hard not to put things in the music production that would date the album. And during the process, many times we felt we were visited by something magic, we felt blessed during some takes; and also when I was listening to the radio, I couldn’t figure how people were making hit singles. It was not in my skills so if you can’t make a hit, the best other option is to make a classic.”

“Before we decided to do this tour, we went to a rehearsal room for three days to see if it was technically possible to perform the entire album,” Godin continues, “and as soon as we started to play the first notes of ‘Kelly Watch the Stars’ or ‘La Femme d’Argent,’ we had a thrill.”

The tour will not feature Moon Safari vocalist Beth Hirsch, who helped forge the album’s dreamy, sexy atmosphere on “All I Need” and “You Make It Easy.” But Dunckel says the pair has “made some arrangements to deliver the soul of these tracks” through their use of a vocoder. “I think that the new arrangements are working on stage,” he continues. “We feel the singer singing without her singing.”

Reflecting on the album’s legacy, Godin says the soothing nature of the album is another reason it’s endured. “We are extremely blessed to have recorded this music, and to be able to share it with the audience so long after its release is a gift of life for us,” he says. “In these troubled times, it’s a nice time capsule from the last century when we were more innocent and optimistic.”

“I think this album is a little bit medicinal,” Dunckel adds. “It heals people’s wounds. Like the wounds I had at the time we made it. That’s what melancholic music does to you isn’t it? The melancholia into the music swallows the listener’s melancholia because the musician and the listener are talking to each other as in a therapy conversation or in a dream.”

Of the original tour behind the album, Dunckel recalls realizing the album “was really working when we toured in the U.S., and in Spain. People were really enjoying the shows and they were so happy to see us for real. I felt it in the audience voices.”

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AIR to play classic ‘Moon Safari’ in full for first time at UK and European shows

Tickets for the "one night only experience" across eight cities go on sale later this week

AIR have announced a 2024 UK and European tour that will see the French duo perform their debut album ‘Moon Safari’ in its entirety for the first time.

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Having celebrated its 25th anniversary earlier this year, Air will tour their ‘One Night Only’ experience for ‘Moon Safari’ in February and March, which will include a show at London’s Coliseum.

The tour – which will be the first time ever the duo have performed the 1998 album live – will kick off at Anitgel at Victoria Hall in Geneva, Switzerland, continuing on to Milan, Vienna, Belgium, Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam, before concluding in London.

Pre-sale starts this Thursday (November 16) at 10am local time, while general sale goes live Friday (November 17) at 10am local time. You can buy tickets for the London show here , and all remaining dates here .

“We were a duo doing some electronic thing, dreaming of selling 10,000 copies and being recognised by other musicians as cool,” said Jean-Benoît Dunckel of the record in a press statement. “Then suddenly, we met the world.”

‘Moon Safari’ featured singles ‘Kelly Watch The Stars’, ‘All I Need’ and ‘Sexy Boy’, and sold millions of copies around the world.

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Dunckel described his album as “a deep, universal spell, full of love and mystery”, while his sidekick Nicolas Godin said that, to him, “Moon Safari is perfect”.

Air’s ‘Moon Safari’ 2024 tour dates are:

FEBRUARY 24 – Anitgel @ Victoria Hall, Geneva, Switzerland 25 – Fabrique, Milan, Italy 27 – Wiener Konzerthaus, Vienna, Austria 29 – De Roma, Antwerp, Belgium

MARCH 02 – Theater Des Westen, Berlin, Germany 07 – L’olympia, Paris, France 08 – Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands 24 – London Coliseum, London, UK

News of the tour comes after Air announced a 25th anniversary vinyl reissue of ‘Moon Safari’ back in January . They also celebrated  20 years of its 2001 follow-up ’10 000Hz Legend’ with a reissue in 2021.

Air’s last studio album, ‘Le Voyage Dans La Lune’ , came out in 2012.

Asked by  NME  in 2019 whether there would be another record, Godin said that he was concerned about ruining the band’s “magic” by releasing a “substandard album”.

“If we’re able to find that magic, we’ll go into the studio,” he continued. “But if not, we’ll move aside and let other people make those magic records.”

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Air’s Moon Safari Atmos Mix, reviewed

How good is the spatial audio mix on blu-ray.

By Paul Sinclair

Jonathan Cornell on the new 25th Anniversary Dolby Atmos mix

Moon Safari was French electronic duo Air’s debut studio album, originally released in January 1998 through Virgin Records. The album was a massive success, achieving a double-platinum certification from the RIAA in the UK and spawning the top-20 hit single ‘Sexy Boy’. Though core members Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel handle most of the instrumentation heard on the album, Moon Safari also features contributions from several outside musicians including American singer/songwriter Beth Hirsch and British composer David Whitaker.

Even though Air were a popular act signed to a major label in the early-2000s (when the industry-at-large began to heavily invest in 5.1 surround sound music), surprisingly neither Moon Safari nor its successors – 2000’s The Virgin Suicides and 2001’s 10,000 Hz Legend – received multichannel releases in Super Audio CD or DVD-Audio format.

The band would go on to finally embrace immersive audio in 2021, when a new Dolby Atmos mix of 10,000 Hz Legend was commissioned for the 20th anniversary 2CD+Blu-Ray reissue from Warner/Rhino. Air’s layered electronic soundscapes lend themselves perfectly to the format, and the mixing team of Bruce Keen (who engineered the original album back in 2001) and Gilas Lointer succeeded in delivering a demonstration-worthy immersive interpretation of the album.

To belatedly celebrate Moon Safari ’s 25th anniversary, Keen and Lointer have once again been tasked with creating a Dolby Atmos mix from the original multitrack recordings. Though the Atmos mix has been available to stream since November 2023, the lossless Dolby TrueHD/Atmos audio presentation on the Blu-Ray disc is undoubtedly the best way for audiophiles to experience the album. Some may bemoan the lack of a dedicated DTS-HD 5.1 audio option (as was included on the 10,000 Hz Legend Blu-Ray), but I found that the Atmos mix translates very well to a traditional six-channel home theater setup.

As one might expect given the experimental nature of this music, the new Dolby Atmos mix makes creative use of all speakers to fully immerse the listener. Though main elements such as the rhythm section, lead vocals, and Dunckel’s Rhodes electric piano (the lead ‘voice’ on many of the instrumental tracks) typically appear assigned to the front stage, additional layers like the like backing vocals, synthesizers, percussion, and Whitaker’s gorgeous string arrangements often appear isolated in the surround or height channels.

‘La Femme D’Argent’ opens with percussion traveling from rear-to-front as it fades in, giving way to the electric piano percolating largely from the front left speaker. A second synthesizer part soon appears centered in the rear speakers, hovering directly behind the listener’s head.

Bass synth fills up the side surrounds for ‘ Sexy Boy ‘, with the cymbal wash traveling overhead. Sequencers pulsate all around the room to very entertaining effect, while the different female vocal harmonies are divided between the top and bottom array.

From there, we move into ‘ All I Need ‘ – the first of two songs to feature Beth Hirsch’ vocals. After a synth pan from front-to-rear, Hirsch’s voice enters from the front ‘phantom’ centre along with an acoustic guitar in front right. Backing vocals (“all in all, there’s something to give…”) predictably answer from behind. There’s a particularly great moment at around the three-minute mark where the electronic piano in the front right speaker emits its delay diagonally to the side left channel, giving way to the wah-wah bass synth sound rising from the rears up into the height array and back around again.

Synth and electric piano alternate front-to-back for ‘ Kelly Watch The Stars ‘, while laser-like synth effects fly past the listener. Bells chime overhead, with more piano popping up in the side left speaker and the vocoder-processed vocals switching to the sides just before the end. ‘ Talisman ‘ introduces David Whitaker’s strings, which sound absolutely incredibly spread between the front and side surround speakers.

Dunckel’s Rhodes piano moves to the sides for ‘ Remember ‘, with the distorted drums dominating the front stage. The vocoder vocals switch off between the fronts and front heights, while strings fade in from the rear and shakers appear overhead. Hirsch then returns in ‘ You Make It Easy ‘ again featuring piano largely in the sides and showcasing the strings from all around.

Brass highlights trade off right-to-left upfront throughout ‘ Ce Matin-La ‘, with the sonar-like synthesizer sound echoing all over the listening space. Acoustic guitar fills the front channels for ‘ New Sta r’ while the vocoder alternates between the front and rear height speakers. Moon Safari then concludes with the atmospheric ‘ Le Voyage De Pénélope ‘, where the lead synth amusingly hops between the centre speaker, sides, rears, and tops. Piano again fills in from the sides, with handclaps in the rear and organ overhead.

The Blu-Ray disc additionally contains a bonus orchestral mix of ‘Remember’ (the ‘David Whitaker version’), which isn’t available to stream in Dolby Atmos. For two-channel listeners, the package also includes a 192 kHz/24 bit rendering of the original 1998 stereo mix. Overall, this packed-yet-inexpensive reissue comes highly recommended to fans of Air and immersive music.

Review by Jonathan Cornell for SDE. Read more of Jonathan’s reviews at ImmersiveAudioAlbum.com .

The 25th anniversary 2CD+blu-ray edition Moon Safari is out now via Rhino. It is available via the SDE shop . Use this link or the button below.

Tracklisting

Moon Safari Air /

• La femme d’argent
• All I Need (feat. Beth Hirsch)
• Kelly Watch the Stars
• You Make It Easy (feat. Beth Hirsch)
• Ce matin là
• New Star in the Sky (Chanson pour Solal)
• Le voyage de Pénélope
• Neneh Cherry – ‘Kootchi’ (Air Remix)
• Crustation – ‘Purple’ (La Femme D’argent Mix)
• Dirty Hiroshima (Demo)
• New Star in the Sky (Demo)
• Ce Matin Lá (Demo)
• Maggot Brain (Live)
• J’ai Dormi Sous L’eau (BBC live session)
• Sexy Boy (BBC live session)
• Kelly Watch The Stars (BBC live session)
• Kelly Watch The Stars (Extended Version)
• Remember (David Whitaker Version)

“Moon Safari” Dolby Atmos Album

Bonus track, official videos in hd.

• Kelly Watch The Stars
• Le Soleil Est Prés De Moi

Eating Sleeping, Waiting and Playing – Documentary by director Mike Mills

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SuperDeluxeEdition.com  helps fans around the world discover physical music and discuss releases. To keep the site free, SDE participates in various affiliate programs, including Amazon and earns from qualifying purchases.

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Lions have sex on top of safari truck full of people, wild video, roaring sex lions get busy on top of safari truck ... tourists take it all in.

A couple of lions felt the love so much that they started banging on top of a tourist safari truck ... and the people inside certainly got an eyeful and then some.

A group of tourists partaking in a South African safari were recently left stunned as 2 randy big cats made themselves at home atop their vehicle.

The male lion is seen mounting a resting female lion ... confirming their boinking session with a couple of growls. The jeep noticeably shakes from side to side as they do it ... sparking laughter and gasps from the tourists seated below.

The lions' intimacy didn't last too long ... with the lioness lying tired to the side as the king of the jungle eventually disconnected.

While the encounter may have given some tourists the ick on the spot ... it's significantly less scary than the African elephant attack from earlier this month -- which ended in a death.

No one died here ... just a couple of kitties getting laid!

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Old news is old news be first.

China just sent a secret mini-rover to the far side of the moon on its Chang'e 6 sample-return probe

A tiny, previously undisclosed lunar rover has been spotted strapped to the side of China's moon-bound Chang'e 6 lander in newly released pre-launch photos. The true purpose of the rover, which is scheduled to land on the moon's far side, remains a mystery.

China's latest lunar mission is carrying a secret rover to the moon's far side, new photos reveal. Eagle-eyed observers spotted the mysterious spacecraft strapped to the side of a lander that is scheduled to touch down on the moon next month — but the roaming robot's purpose remains unknown.

On Friday (May 3), the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) successfully launched an autonomous Long March 5 rocket into space. This was the first step in the country's Chang'e 6 mission, which aims to be the first-ever mission to collect samples from the moon's hidden far side and carry them to Earth. 

The main payload of the moon-bound rocket is a lunar lander that is expected to touch down on Earth's largest satellite at some point in early June. There, the spacecraft will collect samples from the surface and then launch them back to Earth in a return module — similar to the Chang'e 5 mission, which landed a spacecraft on the moon in 2020 and successfully returned lunar samples to Earth several months later.

Video: Watch China's Chang'e 6 probe launch to the moon on a Long March 5

Little else was known about the Chang'e 6 mission before launch, other than that it would also carry undisclosed payloads from France, Sweden, Italy and Pakistan to the moon, SpaceNews reported . 

However, following the successful launch, CAST released new photos of the lander , and people quickly noticed a small gray object with wheels strapped to the lander's side. 

"Yeah, okay. That looks like a previously undisclosed mini rover on the side of the Chang'e-6 lander," journalist Andrew Jones, who closely follows China's space program, wrote in a post on the social platform X.

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Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

The suspected rover's primary task on the moon remains unclear. However, a subsequent translated statement from the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, which provided several components for the Chang'e 6 mission, revealed that it has an infrared imaging spectrometer although its purpose is unclear. Due to the size of the robot and the conditions it will face on the moon, its mission will likely be short, SpaceNews reported.

CAST already has the Yutu-2 rover on the far side of the moon, which landed in 2019 as part of the Chang'e 4 mission — the first mission to successfully land a spacecraft on the far side of the moon. Yutu-2 has already made some big finds, including the discovery of small glass spheres on the lunar surface . 

This is not the first time that China has surprised the world with undisclosed payloads. During the country's Tianwen-1 mission to Mars in 2021, several spacecraft, including a Mars orbiter and the Zhurong Mars rover, released secret mini-cameras to take selfies on or around the Red Planet, SpaceNews reported. 

— China reveals most detailed geological map of the moon ever created

— Haunting photo of Earth and moon snapped by China's experimental lunar satellites

— Watch a Chinese rocket booster fall from space and explode

In the past, CAST has also been secretive about other operations including the demise of the Zhurong Mars rover and an incident in 2022 when a Chinese rocket carrying an undisclosed object crashed into the moon's surface .

CAST's ultimate goal is to put humans on the moon by 2030, and the agency will start to test-launch a new type of large reusable rocket next year . However, like with the new rover, the details of this mission are being kept closely under wraps.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Harry is a U.K.-based staff writer at Live Science. He studied Marine Biology at the University of Exeter (Penryn campus) and after graduating started his own blog site "Marine Madness," which he continues to run with other ocean enthusiasts. He is also interested in evolution, climate change, robots, space exploration, environmental conservation and anything that's been fossilized. When not at work he can be found watching sci-fi films, playing old Pokemon games or running (probably slower than he'd like). 

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• Meteoric Marmot A secret Chinese rover... maybe carrying an anti-spacecraft weapon to establish Chinese dominance in the area? (Just kidding, but...) Reply
• billslugg So far, China dominates but the Yellow Sea and not real well. Reply
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