Commodore Remix

I concur, Teo & Tea is not great. The title track, Teo & Tea, is great! But the rest of the album is really non-inspiring and a almost a waste of time for me. I think its only natural that any master will fade somewhat as he ages. His past masterpieces will not be forgotten. This particular album would be better as a single.

A master only fades when he tries to keep with the times and forgets what really made him famous. I keep stating Oldfield cos he was a pioneer in his style of music and really continued keeping with that style right through to the 90's and apart from the odd album every album was a master piece. It wasn't til he started trying to be HIP or trendy that he fell of the path. He did very well from the early seventies to the late 80's early 90's producing stuff his way!

It seems from his latest admission he's realised that fact and going back to basics in leaving the computer generated stuff and going back to real instruments, that admission i applaud - It takes a lot of balls to say "I got it wrong!"

Jarre's work has always been dream like and melody was a focus. This latest album is doing exactly what Oldfield did and tried to become HIP. Hopefully Jarre will realise the error - An old man can never be HIP! Stick with what your good at!

It will be very hard though.

With all this cheap computer effects almost everybody with an inch of talent could weave worlds of sounds now like Jarre did when he was a pioneer of electronic music back then.

Nowadays he has to come up with even more spectacular effects in connection with good, fresh melodies; melodies that equal Oxygenes' spaciness or the oddity of Zoolook.

You are right; trying to be HIP is a bad idea as JMJs music doesn't work mainstream like he might think of. He found a niche in the music world; a very spacious niche. A niche big enough to house a lot of true fans.

He should forget about being Pop-popular, he should return to weave dreams we could share with him.

Let's be honest: Jarre was great in his early times because he was a pioneer and did something absolutely new, invented music and sounds people didn't get to hear til then. When I put in some Oxygene or Equinoxe track I still get goosebumps today because of that. Even Zoolook was revolutionary cos of extensive use of sampling technology which was quite new in this time, too. But more than 20 years later all this lost its fascination because music production went on and beyond. Everything can only be new once in a lifetime and this time is over for Jarre. Or e.g. after Megadeth's ingenious "Countdown to Extinction" they released more or less junk. Every artist has his time and I like it better short but good than long and mediocre. There are very few who crack this rule.

Btw: From what I listened of his new album I really think it's superfluous crap.

Is it too much to ask for a new album in the same style as the very first Oxygenes?

GeckoYamori wrote:Is it too much to ask for a new album in the same style as the very first Oxygenes?

I dont think Jarre could if he even tried....why? Cause he lost Michael Geiss who built custom items for Jarre including a Geiss Sequencer.

Perhaps his new album is "sought". That is not good. Nevertheless I enjoy variation, as long as it is stimulating and creative. Most of this new album is not so. I believe, to a certain extent, talent fades with age; as biological machines, we naturally degrade over time, until we seize to function; the mind cannot, however much we want, detach itself from this physical reality. The title track is an example of something new for Jarre which I feel is successful. I don't want Jarre to try to create new music in an old "sought" style. Let him be whereever his imagination takes him. But I'm not sure Jarre is really trying to immitate anything in particular. He is just creating, as he always has, but maybe he has put less effort into this album, or maybe he just needs to put ever more effort into creating something equally great at each succession... Anyway, just my thoughts.

By the way, I also enjoy Oldfield. Also a supertalent. I haven't heard all of his music, but his musicality still seems to shine brightly. I'm not sure of what albums people don't like. I quite like his Light and Shade album although not that acoustic. An quite acoustic album like Voyager is superb. I doubt he can beat that ever again. Tubular Bells I and 2003 is quite inferior to that, in my oppinion.

exoskeleton wrote:
By the way, I also enjoy Oldfield. Also a supertalent. I haven't heard all of his music, but his musicality still seems to shine brightly. I'm not sure of what albums people don't like. I quite like his Light and Shade album although not that acoustic. An quite acoustic album like Voyager is superb. I doubt he can beat that ever again. Tubular Bells I and 2003 is quite inferior to that, in my oppinion.

Mike's Voyager was probably the last of his best, pretty much every album preceeding that is typically mike at his best. After that he started going HIP, It was starting to show on TB3 but although far from his greatest work it still stood up well as it didn't go too far. After that Mike started going all electronic and self admitadly trying to hip - Big fans of mike feel he lost it after TB3.

Light and Shade is a good album (better than we've heard in a while anyway) but far from what we expect from mike. It's simplistic, often Lazy and the majority of it was created using samples and fruityloops and it shows quite readily.

Everyone of his albums is different upto roughly 1990, heaven knows how he's carried off so many different styles with success. from Rock, Punk, Acustic, Orchestral, pop, new wave, ethnic, dance, trance. That's what we've come to love about Oldfield - You simply don't know what your going to get - Recently like Jarre you know exactly what's coming and it doesn't play too well with your ears. I'm just so pleased that Mikes next Album is going back to longplay songs rather than singles and with real instruments, thats what mike is about.

I think this is one of the problems with a lot of music these days, It's just so easy to create that musicians like Jarre, Oldfield etc can make an album so very quickly and lazily. There are no boundries and thus you can do anything. Working within boundries means you have to get the best out of what you can. Jarre did that very well as did oldfield. Now if you get stuck in the creative process you use an effect or a quick fix instead of using your creative mind.

Wasn't it Jarre himself who said.."You get the best out of a musician when you working within boundries?" It was either him or Vangelis anyway.

tas wrote:I think this is one of the problems with a lot of music these days, It's just so easy to create that musicians like Jarre, Oldfield etc can make an album so very quickly and lazily. There are no boundries and thus you can do anything. Working within boundries means you have to get the best out of what you can. Jarre did that very well as did oldfield. Now if you get stuck in the creative process you use an effect or a quick fix instead of using your creative mind.

Wasn't it Jarre himself who said.."You get the best out of a musician when you working within boundries?" It was either him or Vangelis anyway.

My opinion is a little different: Without any boundaries to stick to, it's not easier but even more difficult to make good music (or art, or program code, or cook a meal, or whatever). If you are e.g. a SID artist, you can always say: "That damn old chip has such narrow boundaries, it's impossible for me to make any better music than this!" If there are no (or few) boundaries, there's no excuse any more. And besides: It's easier to ride a Go-Kart than to drive a Formula 1 racing car, if ya know what I mean. The wider the possibilities, the harder it gets to be good.

exoskeleton wrote:I believe, to a certain extent, talent fades with age; as biological machines, we naturally degrade over time, until we seize to function; the mind cannot, however much we want, detach itself from this physical reality.

I totally disagree with that, too. As Sylvester Stallone recently said: The older you become, the better you get. Of course, you become slower, you sometimes forget things and stuff. But you also become wiser and have a broader horizon, you see coherences where the younger only see pieces of a puzzle, you become more aware of what's important in life and what's not, and you can deal with things in a more relaxed way. Most people want to stay young forever, but personally, I'm looking forward to getting old.

So who says that Jarre is trying to be hip? Maybe he's just relaxed enough to try out new things and develop as a musician instead of trying to guess what people might want to hear from him or trying to stay successful by doing the same shit as in the 70s all them time. I believe (and hope) this UNZ UNZ UNZ album is just one single stop in Jarre's artistic development process and he'll move on to something completely different on his next album. And moving on is always good for an artist, whereas sticking to one's last is usually a not-so-good thing. My opinion!

Speaking of Quoting Jarre. Some years back when he would do some video updates on a jarre.net (Fan site).... He talked about how using ethnic samples was gimmicky etc.. and I thought to myself...WTF!!! Thats one of the things that made Zoolook a good album.

As a big of Jean Michel Jarre I would definitely listen to this new album, althought I was not pleased with his latest albums (Oxygene 7-13 is album to be remembered, after that I didn't like the sound).
I have a lot of his rarities & concerts, the best live thing I liked was in Okinawa 2001 with Arthur Clarck & especially 'Children of space' - excellent track!
From albums, 'Oxygene' & 'Equinoxe' album are the best for my taste. 'Oxygene part 2' is my favorite track, I can't believe it's done in 1976 with that quality.

Latests album I downloaded was 'Oxygene Trance Remixes' (http://www.discogs.com/release/260468) from 1994 (available via torrents).

Can't wait to hear this new album. Will sea.

Although music is easier to create nowdays, GOOD music is still as tricky to make as ever.

I hear a lot of very well produced, cleverly programmed, 'glossy' sounding synth music coming out these days from amateurs and professionals alike, but musically it is nowhere near as interesting as early Kraftwerk, Human League and of course, the good old C64 Gods such as Martin, Rob, Follin, Gray, et al.

These artists were crippled by the technology of the time, and as such were forced to get the best out of it. They had to make the melodies damn good, rather than just dressing up a bog standard melody with whistles, bells and massive production techniques as most artists do today.

Simplicity still has a lot going for it. We have made some massive sounding remixes here with great production, fabulous synth sounds, vocals etc, etc. Strange how the only real C64 related hit to date has been the embarrassingly simplistic Kerncraft 400...

Ok ok

But I do the question again. What's your problem with Depeche???

Moad'Dib wrote:Ok ok

But I do the question again. What's your problem with Depeche???

LOL! Sorry Mr. Moad - I missed your post! I must learn to read more slowly!!!

Lot's of peope rated 'Playing the Angel', but I just didn't take to it, for some reason. I should really take more time to listen as I was SUCH a huge DM fan in my youth (miserable bastard, I was) and I'm sure there is something I can get out of it!

'Exciter' on the other hand really surprised me - some great songs on it. It tends to be the DM album I always reach for nowdays, moreso than Voilator or Black Celebration, my other fav's

Condor wrote: Latests album I downloaded was 'Oxygene Trance Remixes' (http://www.discogs.com/release/260468) from 1994 (available via torrents).

I bought that CD sometime between 1994-1995 and too me it sounds like they just took the original tracks and added drums and effects to it, and some silly voice...saying something silly as well.