Stegzy's Music Project

A commentary on Stegzy's album collection

Oct 29

Essential Jean Michel Jarre – Jean Michel Jarre [#432]

by stegzy

Screen Shot 2015-10-24 at 11.55.04<sigh> I really could re-use the “Essential/Essentially” gag here too as Essential is, essentially the first Jean Michel Jarre Best of Compilation. But I won’t because re-releasing old material as new stuff is so 1990s it’s unbelievable.

And lazy.

Aero, Essential is a kind of “Best of” revisited. Nice if you want to relive the cardigan wearing, garish carpeted childhood of the 1970s. Nicer still if you just want to pop some acid with your hipster friend while staring at their Mathmos glooping and shlooping about on the table.

It’s kind of thought provoking that this music evolved into Air.

 

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1983 best of compilations Jean Michel Jarre

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Oct 27

Era – Era [#430]

by stegzy

Era_Era_CoverEra are another of those bands jumping on the nu-age Enigma bandwagon complete with choral and world music overtones. Indeed, Era (or +ERA+ as they like to stylise themselves) sit nicely between Enigma and Deep Forest.
Not typically a band you’d want to listen to on repeat though. Nice for a bit of a “chill-out” session maybe, or perhaps one of those dinner parties where you intend to show off your collection of African masks and world music to bemused, easily impressed work colleagues. Or perhaps you’re looking for some music for a film set in the gritty hauntological Miami Vice  era of the eighties beset with pink neon, white linen suits and moody beach shots.

1996 Era

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May 14

Couleurs Sur Paris – Nouvelle Vague [#313]

by stegzy

Couleurs sur Paris - Nouvelle Vague When I was at University the second time round I discovered that I had very similar music tastes to the majority of my tutors.

My journalism tutor liked the same and similar folk bands to me, my audiences and television production tutors enjoyed prog on a higher more enlightened plane than I and the guy who did a bit of lecturing while he was in training to be a teacher, Jason, liked quirky European bands and introduced me to the wonders of Nouvelle Vague.

My adventure with Nouvelle Vague began  listening to their sexy French cover version songs. They knitted a kind of aural sleaze with a cheeky faux-1960s swing style over modern songs like Visage’s Fade to Grey, Joy Division’s Love will Tear us Apart and The Clash’s Guns of Brixton. 

We’ve met Nouvelle Vague previously on the Music Project but I didn’t explain much about them. This album is unusual in that it is mostly French bands they are covering using their imitable style exquisitely. Short of a cover of Vanessa Paradis’ Jo le Taxi this gives French popular music the Nouvelle Vague treatment.

Nouvelle Vague

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Aug 20

#110 – Aux Volontaires Croix De Sang – LJDP

by stegzy

Screen Shot 2014-08-17 at 18.24.20Aux Volontaires Croix De Sang – Les Joyaux De La Princesse

If it’s not Scottish chicks with guitars or hairy men from the 1970s, this project seems to dip in and out of the darker recesses of Euroculture.

This is yet another limited edition LP from LJDP. Not satisfied with having Absinthe bleeding from your ears or Aux Les Petits Enfants de France giving you frightful nightmares about goings on in Vichy era France; Aux Voluntaires Croix De Sang leads you through the even darker twisty bendy turns of dark French history.

Now here I must put a disclaimer. I like the atmospherics of LJDP. Nothing more. I don’t sit in my garret with my jackboots on saluting like a fuckwit. Nor do I burn religious symbolism, shave my head or tattoo swastikas all over my face. My political beliefs are so removed from the far right it’s down the road in the other direction, over the bridge and through the gap in the fence. I repeat, I like the atmospherics. I am mature and sensible enough to appreciate art for the creators effort, whether I share their beliefs or not and maintain detachment from anything subversive or otherwise.

Don’t have nightmares….

 

Les Joyaux de la Princesse

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Aug 17

#107 – Aula Magna – Nouvelle Vague

by stegzy

Screen Shot 2014-08-17 at 17.34.24Aula Magna – Nouvelle Vague

Nouvelle Vague are one of those covers bands who really make the music they’re covering their own. Lounge versions of popular songs sung by French ladies with sultry voices to a live audience.

Delicious.

Some popular songs have been covered here.

Nouvelle Vague

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Jun 28

Aero – Jean Michel Jarre [#57]

by stegzy

urlAero – Jean Michel Jarre

Do you remember the 1970s? Do you remember those pristine vinyl records your elders kept lovingly in their sleeves. Tentatively taking the black discs out of their paper sheaves, popping them religiously onto the turntable and carefully lowering the stylus onto the run in?

Do you remember the smell?

Do you remember?

Jean Michel Jarres music takes me back immediately to that time. I can still hear the hum from the badly earthed amplifier, the smell of the vinyl and the visualisations of the mind where I’m transported from the chintz filled sitting room to the far off reaches of outer space.

You know the type of outer space I mean don’t you? The kind that resembles cosmic Mathmos lava lamps. Nebulae, misty clouds of cosmic matter, blipping and blopping (yes they are actual verbs). The kind of outer space that wouldn’t be amiss from a remake of Barbarella or some science programme with Jonny Ball. The kind of Roger Dean outer space with weird aquatic astral creatures and bloopiness.

Aero, is a kind of “Best of” revisited. Nice if you want to relive the cardigan wearing, garish carpeted childhood of the 1970s. Nicer still if you just want to pop some acid with your hipster friend while staring at their Mathmos glooping and shlooping about on the table.

It’s kind of thought provoking that this music evolved into Air.

2004 Jean Michel Jarre

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