I liked the medley of hits he put together for this show. It was fun, and it was the sort of occasion when he didn’t have to take himself too seriously. Great to hear RV4 in the mix and Brutalism was a surprise, 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.
The whole “was it live, wasn’t it live” debate – this doesn’t bother me, but I am worried about how wet his hardware got. Seriously soaked, leading to a big repair job back in the studio?!
Given this was broadcast live to a global TV audience and on a strict time schedule, I’m guessing there was no way the IOC, its broadcast partners and whoever else was involved would allow the risk of a live performance. So playback it was.
But the downloads should be a good quality souvenir of his involvement in a global event, but they are rushed. The medley doesn’t include the interesting opening, with the radio tuning effects, and snatches of Les Mots Bleu which was integral to this idea of telling a story of French electronic music. No attention to detail and the artwork is poor too. A missed opportunity for something special.
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JEAN-MICHEL JARRE - A REAPPRAISAL?
I recall a TV show in the UK in approx. 1999 when “French Touch” was really taking off. Daft Punk were big and so were Cassius and Air. The presenter went to Paris to interview producers, DJs and people involved in the scene to explore why this music was becoming so big in the UK. It was an hour long documentary on Channel 4, part of its T4 show (I cannot find it on You Tube) and I remember watching, thinking Jarre will definitely get a mention. I had been a fan of JMJ for over ten years by this point.
I’m thinking, how can you produce an hour long show on French (largely instrumental) electronic music and NOT mention him, and then they came to a part which said something like, “Of course, all this is not new. Back in the 1970s, the French had a synthesizer superstar called Jean-Michel Jarre (cue snippet of the Oxygene 4 video) and his music was a hit in the UK. Did this influence the current wave of French stars?” and then back in the studio in Paris, all the people being interviewed, laughed out loud, said JMJ was terrible and if they were influenced by anybody it was Kraftwerk (cue snippet of Trans Europe Express video).
I was quite upset at this, this sort of deliberate disassociation from Jarre, like they didn’t want to be considered naff in the way he often was considered naff by the British music press.
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.
A reappraisal, indeed.
Last edited by
Richard-Eastham on Tue Sep 10, 2024 11:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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