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The Amazing Electronic Music Thread


A24

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

I eventually became a Jarre completist and have seen him live 5 times.

Were you at the Concert Pour La Tolerance at the Eiffel Tower in 1995, by any chance?

It was my second live concert of his (the first being Wembley in London - 1993 as part of his Chronologie tour).

If you were at either of those two, that would be pretty amazing. :D

I was booked on one for 1994 in Dusseldorf, which they eventually cancelled (I still have the flyer for it)

Funny, I was seriously into Jarre's music in my teen years, and all of a sudden it ended around 1996 as my life went in another direction and I completely lost track of what he was up to. Following that, I really couldn't get into his work from 2000 onwards. Prior to Wembley 93, I use to watched his concerts on VHS (China, Lyon, Docklands, Houston, Paris) and stil have those VHS in the house, plus my own footage of Concert Pour La Tolerance from among the crowd. I keep coming back to the China Concerts in the sense of that film itself being a truly fascinating work of art in its own right, the narrative of historical build up, the capture of everyday footage of China during Jarre's visit which is now almost vanished. Later I visited China a few times myself, and that film certainly inspired me to see what is out there in the world.

....but there are some other great artists in the ambient genre too, like Shamen (a long lost love of the 90s).

Being mischevious, I used to wear a t-shirt in my first workplace bearing McKenna's narrative from Re-Evolution.

It used to amuse me when they began to read it out with much puzzlement.

Imagine their expression :

"What's that you say? History is the shockwave of the Eschaton? History is the shockwave of Eschatology? Ok, but can you work on today?"

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Sadly, I was not at the La Tolerance concert in 1995. My first Jarre concert was in Oslo in 1997, during the OXYGENE 7-13 tour. Wish I could have, though. I have some video footage of that concert, and looks spectacular.

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Sadly, I was not at the La Tolerance concert in 1995. My first Jarre concert was in Oslo in 1997, during the OXYGENE 7-13 tour. Wish I could have, though. I have some video footage of that concert, and looks spectacular.

In the Wembley stadium concert (ticketed) of 93, everyone had a great view because of being on seats (unless they chose to go down to the field and be even closer, as many did once there, but I stayed about halfway up and had a great overall view of everything and felt the audio was fantastic there) and it all felt much more close and personal to Jarre, but Paris 95 provided a taste for me of what the La Defense 1990 must have been like - in the sense of it being quite a bit wilder, far less contained, plus your position of view altered as the crowd moved, etc. Both kinds of concerts had their plus points and drawbacks in those ways. I felt distant from Jarre on stage in 95, though getting the overall wide angle of the Eiffel and Fireworks / Lasers.

One thing I remember clearly to this day about Wembley 93, was Chronologie 1 starting the whole thing off. I am not exaggerating when I say it was like some kind of religious experience, that bass rumbling through the stadium then the epic unfolding of that gem. Imagine how irritated I was when they released that VHS compliation later of the Chronologie tour from various spots, and ommited Chronologie 1 as the starter. It was utter sacrilege.

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Hard to say since the field has become so compartmentalized into different "genres." But I think Jarre, Daft Punk, and Zimmer are some of the most exposed, consistently active practitioners of it as a whole.

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If this was the seventies, Richard, I would say: Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, Klaus Schulze and JM Jarre. Who are the most important electronic music artists of today? Umm ... The Dance guys? The Dupsteppers? The Hip-Hoppers? It's really not my era so I don't have a clue.

Alex

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Years back, I'd immerse myself in the oddities of this CD with headphones on, lying on a bed in a dark room :music:

Headphones is the way with this album. It takes you places........................................................................................

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwC_0atsYCI

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If this was the seventies, Richard, I would say: Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, Klaus Schulze and JM Jarre. Who are the most important electronic music artists of today? Umm ... The Dance guys? The Dupsteppers? The Hip-Hoppers? It's really not my era so I don't have a clue.

Alex

I'm with you on that list, and I would add Peter Baumann, Walter Carlos, and Larry fast (for his collaborations with Peter Gabriel).

There is really no-one making the sort of electronic music which was heard in the 70s. it has sort-of morphed into what you describe. I do like Disclosure, though.

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I have always loved Michael Stearns's Planetary Unfolding:

http://youtu.be/4tueVu2GTQ8

And Encounters:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS1iRpAelof3B1ACUmlFB2K0E0aszgCRj

Excellent spacey and dark music.

These are old favorites that I've been away from for way too long.

Years back, I'd immerse myself in the oddities of this CD with headphones on, lying on a bed in a dark room :music:

Headphones is the way with this album. It takes you places........................................................................................

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwC_0atsYCI

This is new to me. I've been meaning to look into The Orb for a while now. I see that name referenced all over the place.

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If this was the seventies, Richard, I would say: Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, Klaus Schulze and JM Jarre. Who are the most important electronic music artists of today? Umm ... The Dance guys? The Dupsteppers? The Hip-Hoppers? It's really not my era so I don't have a clue.

Alex

I'm with you on that list, and I would add Peter Baumann, Walter Carlos, and Larry fast (for his collaborations with Peter Gabriel).

Peter Baumann is Tangerine Dream, Richard. I don't see how Larry Fast was one of important ones, not when we're mentioning such iconic names.

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This is new to me. I've been meaning to look into The Orb for a while now. I see that name referenced all over the place.

Worth checking out. As with Jarre, my following of their work suddenly got put on hold (and still is) in the mid 90s due to taking quite a new direction in life so the last album of theirs I bought was their 'Orbus Terrarum' (not the most memorable of the three I own, it has to be said). Wiki shows 9 other albums since then. Haven't listened to any Orb for yonks, but was reminded of them with this topic.

Overall my favourite album of theirs was U.F.Orb, their second one, as it is so utterly bizzare at times (the prank call somewhere on the disc to the LWT security desk asking to speak to Haile Selassie, is an example). The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld, their first album, is popular because it is so accesible in terms of structure. It has late 80s early 90s sound stamped all over it, including the hit - "Little Fluffy Clouds" (see below) which is fun, but also plenty of - "put on the headphones in a dark room and floooat away" tracks too.

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  • 1 month later...

I just made an absolutely gorgeous patch with Zebra2... I swear I don't work for U-he, I just think they produce the best software synthesizers available. Anyone interested in electronic music should have this.

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Pretty amazing that no one even MENTIONED the passing of Edgar Froese two weeks ago in this thread or anywhere else on the forum.

Now that you mention it, I did briefly make a note while online some words about a death and a mention of Tangerine dream.

However, I didn't follow it up and wouldn't have recognised the name Edgar Froese.

As for Tangerine Dream, I can't claim to know much of their music but have always loved this classic (and the film) .

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They're only, like, some of the biggest pioneers in electronic music EVER -- and founder Froese basically WAS the band from beginning to end!

But it's never been the same cred in liking them as Kraftwerk, for some reason. Weird. I've always been a big fan -- both of their scores and albums, and both of their experimental 70s period as well as their more poppy 80s sound (of which RISKY BUSINESS is an example).

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In the end, I'm pretty sure that Eno has a lot of respect for Williams' musical talent and abilities. He merely doesn't understand why he, with such musical powers, keeps on doing them 'shallow' Hollywood scores. Lucas, Spielberg, Ridley Scott, all these giants could do whatever they want but they somehow seem to be trapped in their own success. Well, Lucas freed himself, he said he wanted to go back to his experimental roots (Eno would approve of that) but we haven't seen anything yet.

Anyway ... synth on!

Alex

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Eno, Schmeno.

I'm so annoyed by the lack of knowledge and appreciation of Tangerine Dream here and elsewhere that I'm going to do my next Celluloid Tunes program on them! :)

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There's no lack of knowledge or appreciation. I recall some good discussions about them last year. Though I suppose it was from a technical perspective and only a few of us like that.

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I bought a few Tangerine Dream LPs in my time. I liked them but I never became a fan. Sorta like I never became a fan of JM Jarre either.

AH! Now you're talking sacrilege! JMJ is one of my alltime favourite composers regardless of genre. Have all of his stuff, seen him live 5 times.

In seriousness, though, it's fine. :) To each their own.

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I know this is mostly thought to be too sappy or NewAgey here, but it's an absolute classic in my mind.

You're not alone. 'Classic' is perhaps not the word I'd use, but as a stand alone project it was an interesting and enjoyable work.

I read Clarke's novel some years before Oldfield's work, and it was interesting to hear Oldfield's homage to it in music.

Overall I'm still more of an Ommadawn and Hergest Ridge man, but nearly all of his works over different eras have gems within them.

Aaaaannnnyyway, it's time for some serious...... :w00t::rock::w00t:

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