Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[plate of chips]

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JEAN-MICHEL JARRE - A REAPPRAISAL?

TV show in the UK in approx. 1999 when “French Touch” .... if they were influenced by anybody it was Kraftwerk (cue snippet of Trans Europe Express video).

...

So 25 years’ on, last Sunday night in Paris, was (for me) a sort of validation. That the “French Touch” scene – that publicly rejected the suggestion he had in anyway influenced them – actually invited him to open and close the show.

Kraftwerk appropriated Black music then took the accolades whilst keeping quiet.
Karl Bartos is the only Kraftwerk member to admit heavy influence of James Brown and Funk upon Kraftwerk.

Various white journos white musicians gleefully latching onto Kraftwerk White appropriation of Black music.


Influence of James Brown and Funk upon Kraftwerk is clear :

Autobahn 1974 title track Drum Rhythm Bass is
Funky Drummer 1970 synthesised, simplified;

Trans Europe Express album 1977 on every Drum Rhythm Bass track
with title track Trans Europe Express the most stark example of what James Brown named The One on the Beat that untold Funk bands were doing before Trans Europe Express;

Computer World album 1981 all every of the Drum Rhythm bass;

Tour De France 1983 all every of the Drum Rhythm Bass ;

Electric Cafe album 1986 all every of the Drum Rhythm Bass.

[Kanta]

[Richard-Eastham]

Has anybody got a link to the laser harp part of JMJ's performance on Sunday at the Stade de France? I saw his first appearance on the Channel 4 catch up service in the UK but the network didn't show the laser harp section. Nothing coming up on You Tube - has it been blocked by IOC rules?

[shadow]

It's towards the end of this stream, it starts at 3:02:13

[nexxxus]

This evening I'm trying an upload (via wetransfer) to share a homemade video of JMJ's performance for the closing ceremony.
I used the image of the stream via the official Olympic YT channel with improved sound sync from France 2 TV where commentators stop talking just in time fortunately.
There are the 2 performances and in between I kept a few seconds of the "official" signature music of the games as a reminder of the event.

[Jarrepeggiator]

Has anybody got a link to the laser harp part of JMJ's performance on Sunday at the Stade de France? I saw his first appearance on the Channel 4 catch up service in the UK but the network didn't show the laser harp section. Nothing coming up on You Tube - has it been blocked by IOC rules?

[Richard-Eastham]

Has anybody got a link to the laser harp part of JMJ's performance on Sunday at the Stade de France? I saw his first appearance on the Channel 4 catch up service in the UK but the network didn't show the laser harp section. Nothing coming up on You Tube - has it been blocked by IOC rules?

Merci!

[nexxxus]

https://we.tl/t-2Xras48p7t

Enjoy !

the link will expire, so if anyone can share it another way that would be great.
(valid only for 3 days)

[Jarrepeggiator]

but doesn’t he just love Zero Gravity (Above & Beyond) remix? A collaboration to start with, and then a remix so far removed from the original as to be a brand new piece. And he’s played it in almost every conceivable occasion since 2016. It just doesn’t work for me, it doesn’t feel like a JMJ track, and I don’t much like it as an EDM/Trance track either. Anyway, his call, his show.

To be fair, this is not exactly the same Above & Beyond remix. This is a rework of the actual A&B remix, listen to their actual original remix, JMJ used their remix and heavily restructured it, added several elements from the original, it's much less repetitive, just compare the two.

You know, it's funny, many of 'those fans' we mentioned previously, those who don't know much about the electronic music of the last 30 years often say "EDM Jarre" or that he makes EDM now. They are of course totally incorrect, almost none of his newer songs are actually EDM. But in this case, it is EDM.
Basically, it's the only actual commercial EDM track. anything from Oxymore was as far from EDM as it possibly can, but also, Stardust is more like classic, melodic trance, The Architect is more percussive techno, Detroit techno kind of music, Exit is more of a psytrance kind of song, Glory is just an electropop song, etc. But his one, this Zero Gravity track is actually classic EDM, dance music, it even has an EDM "drop".

I used to have similar feelings about it, but then I went to the Starmus concert and saw how this track makes literally everyone dance. Everyone around me started to jump and dance when this track came, even children who came for Brian May. JMJ clearly likes to see the crowd's reaction and he probably doesn't mind to show new listeners that he is not some old guy who can't keep up with the energy of dance music. And to be honest: I started to dance as well. I just could do anything else, it was totally different to hear it from the front row there. Now, I actually started to like it as a live track.

[Jarrepeggiator]

--
JEAN-MICHEL JARRE - A REAPPRAISAL?

TV show in the UK in approx. 1999 when “French Touch” .... if they were influenced by anybody it was Kraftwerk (cue snippet of Trans Europe Express video).

...

So 25 years’ on, last Sunday night in Paris, was (for me) a sort of validation. That the “French Touch” scene – that publicly rejected the suggestion he had in anyway influenced them – actually invited him to open and close the show.

Kraftwerk appropriated Black music then took the accolades whilst keeping quiet.
Karl Bartos is the only Kraftwerk member to admit heavy influence of James Brown and Funk upon Kraftwerk.

Various white journos white musicians gleefully latching onto Kraftwerk White appropriation of Black music.


Influence of James Brown and Funk upon Kraftwerk is clear :

Autobahn 1974 title track Drum Rhythm Bass is
Funky Drummer 1970 synthesised, simplified;

Trans Europe Express album 1977 on every Drum Rhythm Bass track
with title track Trans Europe Express the most stark example of what James Brown named The One on the Beat that untold Funk bands were doing before Trans Europe Express;

Computer World album 1981 all every of the Drum Rhythm bass;

Tour De France 1983 all every of the Drum Rhythm Bass ;

Electric Cafe album 1986 all every of the Drum Rhythm Bass.

Let's just say this whole "Kraftwerk or JMJ" debate was ended by Jarre around maybe 40 years ago with Zoolook......

JMJ said this 2 years ago:
"I have a lot of respect for what Kraftwerk did, but for almost 30 years, they've been exploring the existing catalogue, like a piece of museum. And I'm not really interested by doing that".

This says it all. No matter how revolutionary Kraftwerk used to be back in the 70s, they stopped making new music, now they are nothing but a nostalgia project for the old generation. A little bubble of 1978. A club where they can relive their early memories, away from this modern world. They are still in the 70s to be totally honest, even the 80s left them standing. And again, I love the music they've done, because I like music from every decade, but compare them to JMJ who kept evolving and innovating several times since the 70s and he keeps doing it even in the 2020s with projects like Oxymore and all the VR and AI things.
Kraftwerk is a 70s band, Jarre is a 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s artist.
And even if Zoolook or Chronologie or Metamorphoses or Electronica are not as influential as Oxygene was, you know, at least they EXIST. Unlike more modern Kraftwerk albums. Something is more influential than nothing.

[plate of chips]

Let's just say this whole "Kraftwerk or JMJ" debate was ended by Jarre around maybe 40 years ago with Zoolook......

No matter how revolutionary Kraftwerk used to be back in the 70s, they stopped making new music, ....even the 80s left them standing.

After doing a mini research of Electronica 1930s-2020s I consider Zoolook to be the most experimental innovative album in history of Electronic music.

During my research I did an album by album breakdown of Kraftwerk.
Kraftwerk copied other Electronic musicians on all their albums.
Kraftwerk did nothing original.
Radioactivity is the album Kraftwerk copied the least.

During the 80s hardly anybody thought anything of Kraftwerk.

It was JMJ single handedly bringing instrumental Electronic music to everyday people worldwide, single handedly keeping instrumental Electronic music in the news in the 80s.

JMJ originality albums .... Oxygene, Zoolook, parts of Revolutions.

After these Amazonia, Oxymore nearly original, Sessions 2k parts of it nearly original, Metamorphoses blending all those styles nearly original, Waiting for Cousteau title track nearly original.

[plate of chips]

I went to the Starmus concert and saw how this track makes literally everyone dance. Everyone around me started to jump and dance when this track came, even children who came for Brian May. JMJ clearly likes to see the crowd's reaction

This is reason Universe selected JMJ to be the torch bearer for instrumental Electronic music ....
because JMJ likes to give to people musically Worldwide.
This is reason Universe chose JMJ to bring Electronic music to everyday people Worldwide.

Due to Universe choosing JMJ,
every other Electronic musicians bands success
Vangelis, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Depeche Mode, PetShopBoys, Prodigy, Chemical Brothers,
all the Electronica based hit singles,
movie films Electronica scores success,
raves,
various Electronica genres success techno trance hardcore industrial chillout downtempo drumnbass ambient synthwave success,
can be traced back to what the Universe did through JMJ.

[shadow]

I'm sorry, but bringing the succes of those others purely down to Jarre is the most insane take I've seen in ages. You're telling me, that Vangelis, the man who made some insane bangers years before Jarre ever managed to do Oxygène owes his succes to Jarre?!

[Kanta]

[Jarrepeggiator]

Let's just say this whole "Kraftwerk or JMJ" debate was ended by Jarre around maybe 40 years ago with Zoolook......

No matter how revolutionary Kraftwerk used to be back in the 70s, they stopped making new music, ....even the 80s left them standing.

After doing a mini research of Electronica 1930s-2020s I consider Zoolook to be the most experimental innovative album in history of Electronic music.

Zoolook is just a perfect masterpiece, my favourite Jarre mostly depends on my mood, but if I really have to pick one, Zoolook is my favourite album of all time.
I hate how some people dismiss it saying "yes, a great sampling album from the early 80s, people liked this sampling thing at the time", because yes, there were many artists, including Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Depeche Mode, David Byrne, Yello, Laurie Anderson, The Art of Noise, etc. who used these early samplers, but what people don't seem to get is that in most of these cases, the samples were just added effects, sounds to the sound design of conventional songs, rock or pop songs to achieve a 'psychedelic' sound, that's why this style is called 'sampledelica'. But in Zoolook's case, the approach was totally different, on Zoolook, the samples are the backbone and the main focus of the album, that's why it sounds different, these is no convential song stucture or normal vocals or normal drumming, anything like that. In fact, the more 'organic' elements that Jarre uses, the parts by Marcus Miler, Adrian Belew, Laurie Anderson, the jazz, funk, worldbeat (Wooloomooloo) and avantgarde pop elements are so heavily processed and edited that they basically become the effects compared to the samples that make a melody or rhythm. And that's so amazingly creative and original that it's hard to describe.