Electronic Music

[The Deacon]

HaHa!
Jammy comes on a EM thread all flossing Orchestral Manouvers in The Dark.

Wot a Hubert!

[jammy395]

Wot Still fukin here ya chunell choker.........

Everyone know's OMD are Electro Gods.
Along with Daft Punk, Ultravox & Gary Newman.

Where TF have you been Noobi.

[Fretless]

Wot Still fukin here ya chunell choker.........

Everyone know's OMD are Electro Gods.
Along with Daft Punk, Ultravox & Gary Newman.

Where TF have you been Noobi.

Too right, Jammy.

[_D_S_J_R_]

I just played 'The Man Machine' by Kraftwerk, whom the likes of those 80's electro bands worshiped.

DAFT PUNK? Effin-well wash your mouths out all you so called 'fans.' All crap keyboard bilge, a funky trendy beat and vocoders - ugh!

[Fretless]

OMD were huge fans of the Krautrock scene, especially Neu! And on albums like 'Dazzle Ships' you can hear the influence that Kraftwerk had on them.

[Fretless]

There are those who would call themselves fans of Jean-Michel Jarre - but then say that everything he did after about 1980 was commercialised crap. I know because I was one of them.
'Magnetic Fields' was the last album of his to really impress me and he moved on to work that appeared to be more and more written as a supporting soundtrack for his ever-increasingly spectacular live appearances. However, I have changed, my tastes have changed and my appreciation for JMJ's output has changed - mainly thanks to the latest round of remastered CD's.



The problems started with 'Zoolook' - an album constructed largely from vocal samples manipulated by the then-new technology of the Fairlight CMI. Simply couldn't get my head around this one at the time - if an album didn't immediately sound like 'Oxygene' or 'Equinoxe' then I just refused to like it.
A brand-new 30th anniversary edition of this disc has been released and I thought that I would give it a try. To my amazement it turns out that this mishmash of odd noises is actually an intriguing work of art with subtlety and depth that I had missed out on before. Putting my original CD copy back in the player the differences were obvious. The new edition has an openness and dynamism that gives the music room to breathe. the delicate effects and blistering power that Jarre can coax out of his synths is quite breathtaking and 'Zoolook' is revealed to be a groundbreaking effort that was an influence on the later work of Kraftwerk.

A couple of other albums that I dismissed as lacking content were 'Revolutions' and 'Chronologie' so I have ordered those to give them a fresh appraisal. Also I am trying to track down a couple of the later CD's where he broadened his approach to include lounge and Jazz styles: 'Metamorphoses' and 'Sessions 2000'.



For those wanting to hear how JMJ translated his work to a live setting, give the new version of 'Cities in Concert - Houston Lyon' a listen. This disc combines the best bits of 2 enormous events (the Houston concert had a live audience of 1.3 million - the largest ever given by anyone, anywhere). The new mastering has improved the balance of audience noise/music as the old one had a rather dull 'bootleg' feel to it and the band crack on as if they were rock-stars.
'Destination Docklands' also benefits from refreshed sound. However the torrential rain meant that a large part of the concert was mimed to backing tracks, and some of the material isn't really interesting enough for a live show.



Everyone in the audiophile community should try to get hold of a copy of 'Aero'. Jarre re-recorded some of his better-known material in a surround-sound setting with lots of spatial effects that really show off what your stereo can do. Along with the CD, a DVD version was released with the full 5.1 mix.

'Oxygene' has also been revamped along the way. Due to a disagreement with record company Dreyfuss, JMJ did a complete recreation of his debut work using the original analogue keyboards. This was released as 'The New Master Recording' and the initial package contained the DVD 'Live in your Living Room' which contains a live version of the masterpiece performed by Jarre and his band. As an extra there is a tour of his vintage keyboards where he explains how he uses them - nirvana for gear freaks!

Oh yes - and 'Electronica Part 2' comes out in April, can't wait.

[terrybooth]

Due to a disagreement with record company Dreyfuss,

What, did JMJ think they were selling his secrets to the Germans?

[Fretless]

[Fretless]

Just had a JMJ evening. Working backwards through 'Magnetic Fields', 'Equinoxe' & 'Oxygene'.
Utter genius.

[jammy395]

This un gets some very good reviews Fret........And features a host of great guest appearances.

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I will need to check JMJ further.