Intro to Jean-Michel Jarre

A friend bought tickets to see Jean-Michel Jarre tomorrow and I'm tagging along. I've never listened to any of his stuff though. What are some good tracks/albums to start with?

I'd definitely give the album Oxygene a listen if you've never listened to him. Equinoxe as well. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfS7XK5QQnU

Thanks for the recommendations. Apparently he saves his best stuff for Part 4

  On 5/17/2017 at 6:03 PM, DavieAddison said:

Thanks for the recommendations. Apparently he saves his best stuff for Part 4

He definitely hasn't saved his best stuff for last though - his recent (by recent, I mean about post-1990) stuff isn't amazing, unfortunately.

I have a soft spot for Revolutions.

Not to be a downer, but is any of his stuff amazing?

Pretty much everything I've heard by him (new and old) has been extremely corny and cringeworthy.

  On 5/17/2017 at 6:11 PM, Squee said:

Not to be a downer, but is any of his stuff amazing?

Pretty much everything I've heard by him (new and old) has been extremely corny and cringeworthy.

If you didn't grow up with his stuff, and have only ever known iddums superstars - no he's not, honestly.

the nostalgia factor is definitely strong with Jarre, I think.

In context with the time it WAS amazing. If you are looking back with today's knowledge then nothing is amazing and can sound real cheesy. But... not that you can give him credit for creating modern electronica at all, he did however do versions of many styles including IDM way way before they were born.

  On 5/17/2017 at 6:16 PM, oscillik said:

 

  On 5/17/2017 at 6:11 PM, Squee said:

Not to be a downer, but is any of his stuff amazing?

Pretty much everything I've heard by him (new and old) has been extremely corny and cringeworthy.

If you didn't grow up with his stuff, and have only ever known iddums superstars - no he's not, honestly.

 

the nostalgia factor is definitely strong with Jarre, I think.

 

I fucking hate IDM.

ok

lol

  On 5/17/2017 at 6:45 PM, Squee said:

I fucking hate IDM.

Zoolook is one of the best electronic albums ever, tbh

Oxygene and Equinoxe are absolutely essential '70s electronic albums, they're up there with similar work from Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk in terms of impact. What Jarre had was a knack for a poppy melody, which made him the most commercially successful of the three, which opened an audience of millions up to electronic music at a time when it was still largely frowned upon as not being 'real music'. 

The only genuinely noteworthy release after those is Zoolook, which is incredibly ahead of its time in terms of sampling. So those three will do give you a good idea of his most important, and best work.

I like everything he did up to Oxygene 7-13, but only Oxygene 3 since then. Certainly most of his '80s work is quite cheesy, particularly with the reliance on early digital synths over the atmospheric analogue sound of his '70s stuff. If poppy tunes aren't your thing then you'll probably struggle (although the hour long title track on Waiting for Costeau is a stunning ambient piece), but if you have any interest at all in that kind of music then Magnetic Fields and Chronologie are certainly worth exploring. Rendez-Vous and Revolutions are the two weaker albums in my view, neither adds too much new to his sound.

  On 5/17/2017 at 6:11 PM, Squee said:

Not to be a downer, but is any of his stuff amazing?

Pretty much everything I've heard by him (new and old) has been extremely corny and cringeworthy.

Corny perhaps. But so is tangerine dream kraftwerk at times. I think all of them have produced some amazing bits of sound, especially melodically.

Also his old shit is IDM as fuck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUXDrmDaoLE

  On 5/17/2017 at 6:11 PM, Squee said:

Not to be a downer, but is any of his stuff amazing?

Pretty much everything I've heard by him (new and old) has been extremely corny and cringeworthy.

Heathen! You could say the same about a ton of "respected" synth music out there. With that said, I grew up on albums like Oxygene, Equinoxe, Chronologie, Revolutions, Zoolook etc and am really biased. I still think he's a great composer. I love his cheesy, grandiose fanfares.

Among his recent albums I think Geometry of Love is worth checking out, but that's about it.

Zoolook-Revolutions-Rendezvous was his best time period imo, still a huge fan of those albums. Oh and Chronologie was lush

The show was pretty good. I listened to all the tracks you guys recommended before-hand and dug them, but they do sound pretty dated. It's not necessarily a bad thing because the melodies are still good but a lot of the stuff felt emotionless. The visuals were really great though. He had a few different screens and some cameras on stage showing off his gear. He had one on his head too and used it during one of the tracks to show how he was moving from gear to gear. At one point he used a motion controlled synth using five or six lasers, so that was pretty amazing. A lot of his more recent sounding stuff was pretty cringeworthy honestly. It felt like he listened to brostep and mainstream EDM and tried to replicate it. Overall a good show though. He played for like two hours and Josh Wink did a sick DJ set beforehand.

Yeah like I said, a lot of the appeal of JMJ is the nostalgia thing. He's always been a showman though.

Still have a home-taped VHS of his Paris La Defense gig which is heavily worn. Watched that thing over and over as a kid.