Jean Michel Jarre - precursor to contemporary dance?

Always been a fan, since a teenager. My 6 yr old daughter wanted to listen to Equinoxe tonight, so popped on No5 and No6 on headphones for her and it blew her mind A 34 year album that still sounds fresh, full of killer synth voices. Having last listened to it on headphones maybe 10 years ago i can't believe how good it still sounds. Dated - a touch, Cheesy - a little bit but still wayyyyyyy ahead of his time......no?

I am waiting for someone to mix it into something modern and boring to make the modern and boring sound better.

Have all the melodies been done do you think and what can only come in the future is a rehashed thing from the past ?

I was pleased to hear All along the Watchtower By Hendrix whilst watching season three of Battlestar Galactica, can't wait to find out the significance of it in season 4 when I get it.

I think his music was one of the pre-cursors to modern electronic music/dance music, there were many others.

As LFO say in the intro to their album "Frequencies"...

House, What is house?,
Technotronic, KLF, Or something you live in?,
To me, House is Phuture,
Pierre, Fingers, Adonis etc.
The pioneers of the hypnotic groove,
Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode and the yellow magic orchestra.
This album is dedicated to you.

House.

Click to expand...

I agree with the above. Used to love Jarre, still give him a listen now.
As for dance music, synths yes but no rhythm, bassline, 4/4 etc.

BT Brian Transeau is a great electronic dance producer if you don't know him.

I would have said a pioneer of Electronica but not dance specifically - that would be Georgio Moroder and 'I feel Love' as the blueprint for modern dance as we know it. The mechnics behind that track are astounding (16 hours for about 5 seconds of tune!).

Jarre, Vangelis and Kraftwerk and others are the pioneers of absolute Electronica music. Kraftwerk kind of whimsical, Vangelis more musical and conventional whereas Jarre was more ethereal - his early work contained few if any recognizable instruments to create musical landscapes in an entirely electronic world.

Kraftwerk were not far from that either but again, theirs had more conventional sounds as well as absolute outlandish electronics.

Take the first few of Jarre's albums and you have little in the way of recognizable instruments, very early sampling and brilliant use of arpeggios and soundscapes.

Its bland if say, you are a 12 bar blues man but back in the 1970's it was the dawn of the modern era.

grumpycommuter":3g040yy4 said:

A 34 year album that still sounds fresh, full of killer synth voices. Having last listened to it on headphones maybe 10 years ago i can't believe how good it still sounds. Dated - a touch, Cheesy - a little bit but still wayyyyyyy ahead of his time......no?

Click to expand...

Wow, I haven't heard that album in over 30 years, but I remember it was awesome. A friend of mine had it, but I never quite got around to getting it for myself. It seems that back in the late 70's I was spending a lot of my money on - um - "consumables"

I did manage to buy anything I could find by Hendrix, including 4 bootleg albums by Trip Records. I still have them, but I haven't had a turntable since forever.

Here's a few more that might spark some good memories:
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells
Happy the Man (Album of the same name)
Steve Hillage - Motivation Radio
Anything by Acoustic Alchemy
Anything by Spyro Gyra
and of course, King Crimson (April Wine does a version of 21st Century Schizoid Man that is "spot on", note for note - just amazing)

Third Ear Band, anyone remember them, I had the album Alchemy, now that stuff was different.

haha, when we're travveling my gf will set the phones playlist to all, she'll get a good does of oxgene and equinox much to her dismay :twisted: in addition to does of vai and satriani... she never learns...

...but then i also get subject to rocky horror...thats when her phone goes out the window...

In my opinion, Magnetic Fields I and Ethnicolor I (off Zoolook) are some of the best pieces of electronic music ever created. What it must have been like in the studio upon completion of those tracks must have been awesome. I like nothing better than blasting these out at ear splitting volume through decent speakers or especially headphones.

Everyone always forgets these guys.

This is from 1971!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec8BGEb7_iA