Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[Jote]

Nice, an alternative tracklisting... with 8 tracks? Three tracks on side one. Mabye Ethnicolor or Diva was split up later? Or Moon Machine was planned to be on side one?

There are 7 tracks (3 + 4).

Side 1:
Do you speak in colour?
Alien Romance
Media Mania

Side 2:
Zoolook
Tactics
Zoolookologie
Do you see in rhythm?

The eighth track rinogurr listed is obviously a translation of the last one.

Anyway, the first two are likely Ethnicolor and Diva and the last one side two is Ethnicolor II. I'd say Media Mania is Blah Blah Cafe.

Sigh. This is the stuff that should be in the 40th anniversary edition. Complete with the whole story - where the titles came from, why were they changed. And so on and so forth. Instead we're just finding out by accident and can only wonder.

Interesting thing about those track names is that only the French and English translations seem to match. "Do you speak in colour" in German is "And why not?", in Spanish "Miller's dance?" (WTF?). "Do you see in rhythm?" in German is "What was it like with conductors?" and in Spanish it's "Song of the will-o'-the-wisp". Maybe they were just "lorem ipsum"-like placeholders - the Japanese translation is all over the place, even "side one" and "side two" look completely different and ideally they should differ by one character only. Here's the Japanese translation (according to Google Lens):

Poem of sunset: <-- this is what "side one" was translated to
In charge of composing
Is it the composer?
Goddess

Fruit and abundance: <-- this is what "side two" was translated to
Zoolook
Ancient times
Zoolookologie
Changing emotions

[Richard-Eastham]

I wish I'd read the last three pages of this thread before I handed over £10.39 to Qobuz about half an hour ago. I will listen to my dreadfully compressed MP3s on my Sony earbuds while walking the dog this weekend. That's my audio quality test.

[Domestos]

I've never heard anything this bad

Then you must have missed the Rendez-Vous remaster from 2014 (IIRC)

On a related note, I noticed recently that RV has gone from Spotify - anyone know why? I figured something rights related, but why RV in particular?

[Jote]

On a related note, I noticed recently that RV has gone from Spotify - anyone know why? I figured something rights related, but why RV in particular?

It happened approx. 2 months ago, nobody knows why. F* streaming.

[shadow]

About that absolutely botched Rendez-Vous CD Remaster, is there any way to recognize that specific release? As I said years ago, honestly, I genuinely want to have it purely as a perfect example of remasters, quality control and just general lack of respect for the audience.

This one is blatant robbery, and I am quite surprised that jarre let this pass.

Wish I could say the same...

-snip- photos of the Insta covers -snip-

The alternate track listing is super interesting and I'm surprised (well not really in hindsight) that this is the way these came to light. And I genuinely think this went out (not the alternate cover, just the alternate titles) by pure chance because they probably just did not bother checking the text on the cover. Question by the way, I've seen all the alternate colours, all except for the green/red one, has that ever been released before? I really like the colour scheme and will probably change the cover on my digital copy.

On a related note, I noticed recently that RV has gone from Spotify - anyone know why? I figured something rights related, but why RV in particular?

This happened a while ago, no statement still, even emailed them about it, but never received anything back. Not even a simple confirmation about the email. Nothing. So fuck if we know at this point.

[Dr_Jones]

About that absolutely botched Rendez-Vous CD Remaster, is there any way to recognize that specific release?

The matrix number (according to Discogs) of the CD is A0102416645-0101 15 for the wrong one, A0102467490-0101 12 A00 for the corrected one.

[Domestos]

SIDE ONE

DO YOU SPEAK IN COLOUR?
ALIEN ROMANCE
MEDIA MANIA

SIDE TWO

ZOOLOOK
TACTICS
ZOOLOOKOLOGIE
DO YOU SEE IN RHYTHM?
CANCION DEL FUEGO FATUO?

Where did this come from, please?

[Jote]

SIDE ONE

DO YOU SPEAK IN COLOUR?
ALIEN ROMANCE
MEDIA MANIA

SIDE TWO

ZOOLOOK
TACTICS
ZOOLOOKOLOGIE
DO YOU SEE IN RHYTHM?
CANCION DEL FUEGO FATUO?

Where did this come from, please?

JMJ's Instagram. It's in this thread.

BTW. "CANCION DEL FUEGO FATUO?" is not the eighth track, it's a placeholder for the Spanish translation of the "DO YOU SEE IN RHYTHM?"

[Robi83]

All these are clearly show that his professionalism is getting to be a legend; it's used to be....has been.

[exotica]

this album cover was a proposal at that time the different songs certainly did not have their final names yet, that's why they put these song names, before validating the work and putting the final names.
that's simply it, no need to look further.

[Jote]

no need to look further.

Thank you, but I have a different opinion on that matter

[Pat Gleeson]

This one is blatant robbery, and I am quite surprised that jarre let this pass.

It pains me to say this, but ... JMJ sold the rights to his Polydor era releases to BMG a while back. He doesn't give a rats ass what gets pushed out. A quick buck making exercise, and the job's a good 'un.

[Pat Gleeson]

Recent history is replete with shoddy reissues for a long while now. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the source material is missing / wiped for whatever reason. I can't believe the masters for any JMJ album could be in such bad shape so what we were subjected to yesterday was the best that could be done. Absolutely lamentable. Any fans who have expressed disappointment have been simply ignored.

[Pat Gleeson]

This is rough, it is like releasing a vinyl with a great scratch across it.

Just like the built in scratch on the recent CiC vinyl remaster.

[Jote]

This one is blatant robbery, and I am quite surprised that jarre let this pass.

It pains me to say this, but ... JMJ sold the rights to his Polydor era releases to BMG a while back. He doesn't give a rats ass what gets pushed out. A quick buck making exercise, and the job's a good 'un.

He hasn't been giving a rats ass for a while now. I mean those 2014 remasters (which we have a 31-page-long thread about) which he was giving Perreau a praise for.

Maybe it's time to swallow the red pill. That's why we're not getting extra material. That's why the re-releases are low effort. That's why the remasters are botched. That's why we're not getting digital-only releases of unreleased material, which is practically a zero effort endeavor. I mean put yourself into those shoes: you have a loyal fanbase, you know what they want, you know it costs you almost nothing. What do you do?