Awesome – the argument ‘for’ Analogue Synths is won!

Setting the scene

Along with Tangerine Dream, Vangelis and Kraftwerk, Jean Michel Jarre formed my basic schooling in electronic music. I remember like it was yesterday, blasting out “Oxygene”, “Equinoxe” & “Concerts in China” on a friends parents large tacky looking 80’s Amstrad Hi-Fi system. I didn’t have much electronic music at that time so all his albums got serious airplay

I have followed his musical career ever since, buying all the standard items plus some pretty rare stuff too but I have always felt that in addition to the above, “Magnetic Fields” and “Zoolook” completed the set of his finest albums. I enjoyed "Chronologie" and "Oxygene 7-13" a lot but “Aero”, is in my opinion the best of his ‘recent’ releases – superb and innovative too. His music has been a big influence on me and remains one of the main groups I have collected for many years

I think he was brave to allow his music to be remixed by other artists (something Tangerine Dream for example has only done very few times) and applaud his obvious interest in the dance scene but I think his popularity probably waned after doing so. Without exception I would say that his original material was better than any remix – I guess that’s nearly always the case though

The last and only time I have seen JMJ in concert was the epic ‘Destination Docklands’ gig in 1988 – memories from that event will remain with me forever but as his tours are ‘so’ infrequent and hardly ever in the UK I guess I took my eye off the ball and missed subsequent brief visits to the UK. I nearly fell off my seat when by complete accident I found out that JMJ was touring in the UK this year!

The trouble is, no matter how important JMJ was to my formative years listening to electronic music, I follow so many groups it’s just impossible to spend all day glued to ‘all’ the forums looking for announcements. I’m sure it was broadcast on the official website and fan sites in good time which is fair enough, but as one of the most important electronic artists ever I am surprised there wasn’t more mainstream promotion for the tour

Anyway, the thought of even seeing him live again let alone it being “Oxygene” using all his old Analogue Synths was amazing! So I duly booked tickets pronto – at great expense I might add, £71 is a lot of money but it was a no brainer whether to go or not – Oxygene LIVE on original gear!!! Err yes please…

Venue

Birmingham Symphony Hall is one heck of a nice venue and one I have only been to once before to see Tangerine Dream in 1997. It’s quite a large building with high balconies but actually only holds around 3000 so it’s a fairly intimate venue. We even found getting there and parking quite painless and eateries nearby too.

Merchandise

Pretty standard merchandise was on offer, loads of T-shirts, caps, a mug, a keyring, a poster, and a bag but only 1 Oxygene CD which is already available to buy online so bit disappointing that there was no Ltd Edn ‘tour only’ music to buy (seems to be the norm with most gigs these days)

Intro

Not sure why the time that gigs start and 'who' the support act will be, is always so vague but this was no exception. Tickets said 8pm start plus support, the ticket vendor’s ‘SEE Tickets’ website said starts at 7:30 with no support – hmmmm.

The reality was that there was ‘no’ support and JMJ started at about 8:15pm after a fairly long wait in our seats listening to ‘Waiting for Cousteau’ to set the scene (nice that the background music was actually relevant for a change).

The lights went down and …..Nothing happened! for a few minutes at least, and there was an eerie silence whilst I wondered if there was a rather large technical hitch, but all of a sudden a spotlight was beamed on stage left to reveal a white egg shaped object – after a dramatic pause it swivelled round and was clearly a 70’s style retro seat which JMJ leapt from onto the stage to rapturous applause. From what I could see – he still looked the same! dressed in black and somehow defying the aging process

Being renowned for lavish shows it seemed quite reserved for him to start with talking to the audience, but that’s what he did. He said that Birmingham was special as it was twinned with his hometown of Lyon and that he had been looking forward to sharing Oxygene as a live show with his original gear for many years. You could really sense he just loved those analogue Synths and I can see why, they looked and sounded amazing.

Although JMJ is a solo artist I always forget that he tours with extra musicians, (it stands to reason that he would need about 20 sets of hands to pilot all that gear on his own really) so before starting the gig proper he introduced each of the three additional musicians, Dominique Perrier, Claude Samard and Francis Rimbert, all experienced in the dark art of analogue technology

Analogue Synths have a habit of going out of tune a lot, and the voltage changes with temperature so all in all they need a lot of TLC (I believe Tangerine Dream had no end of trouble with gear whilst they performed their Poland concert in sub zero temperatures). JMJ mentioned this fact before the gig started and explained that the first sounds we would hear would be them ‘tuning up’. He also said that could at any time be some unexpected moments which they would share with us due to the ‘old ladies’ they were using

And their off

What a start!! the tune up was amazing!! The sounds were incredible, sounding like menacing ancient machines hissing and cracking then hitting you with commanding bass and lush chords. I have heard plenty of live electronic music but this brings it home that the difference between digital and analogue ‘really’ is audible.

The sounds were ‘so’ powerful, so crisp and clear reinforced by the venues great acoustics. The mellotron sounds were authentic because it was a real mellotron! I could have listened to the tune up all night and gone home happy – truly superb.

After about 5 minutes the familiar sounds of the start of Oxygene drifted into our ears – I really never thought I would see this – it was as near to being in 1976 as I guess I’ll ever see live – few people (if anyone) goes on the road these days with all analogue kit and no computers. Ok for the train spotters out there I noticed a “Moog Little Phatty” on the kit list which ‘is’ new but I guess we’ll let him off!

Techno Babble

Regardless of how expensive the ‘virtual’ analogue is, I feel that 'sound wise' there is no substitute for the real deal. I own both and whereas they can each sound excellent – there is something inherently fatter / warmer / more powerful about analogue kit. I also use VST’s (virtual Synths) which again can sound stunning but there is always that certain ‘something’ extra that analogue kit seems to provide.

Saying that, digital clearly gives you portability and reliability and for many people the difference is not worth the hard work maintaining old equipment. I’d be the first to admit that, I would prefer to use mainly analogue gear but most of mine either goes out of tune all the time or has some other fault and nowadays it is cheaper to buy new gear than to pay specialists a lot of money to fix old gear. If you had a collection like JMJ however, it ‘would’ be worth it!

I’m sure Synth fans could debate the analogue vs. digital argument all day long and I would agree the difference is getting smaller and smaller but all I can say is the sound coming from that stage was something else!!

The Main Set

Was it an exact copy of Oxygene? Well not exactly ‘note for note’. To me it seemed like a very genuine attempt at playing the album live with only modest restrained improvisation, separated by some new pieces of music. This was a nice balance as it allowed us to hear the original material live but added a subtle twist. I would imagine that the unpredictable and random nature of the gear made it very difficult to sound ‘identical’ to the original anyway

If I 'had' to be picky I think I would probably have preferred the new material at the end of the set to keep the original 'flow' of the album intact. I must have listened to Oxygene literally hundreds of times in my life and any deviation from what my brain was expecting to hear was instantly recognised and served only to prevent me from re-living Oxygene in it's entirety

If however, you were to listen to the new material on it's own, it would stand up well as it was as excellent and did seem as though it could have been from the Oxygene era  

Some of the new tracks sounded like a Klaus Shulze sequencer fest – absolutely excellent – it was what I grew up with – pure electronic sequencer music and actually being played on real analogue kit. It must be said though that the theremin section was pretty manic!!

I also noticed JMJ returning to one or two particular machines for white noise / crashing wave sounds and my trainspotter ears told me that it was ‘exactly’ the same sounds used on Vangelis seminal album “China” (also one of my favourite albums ever)  – the gear and the album were all about the same era so that stacked up too, I’m sure a bit of research on Vangelis kit list would probably show up the same instrument. Either way it made me think I was hearing a bit of vintage Vangelis live too so another bonus!

Sound Quality

The acoustics at the Birmingham Symphony Hall are outstanding, crystal clear and well defined though in this case I felt it could have been played a bit louder. We had pretty central seats in the upper tier so high up & further away than I’d have liked but we had a good overall view. I was surprised to see that downstairs at least there seemed to be seats left – shocking – I could have been near the front!!!

Visuals

The set comprised of piles of all the analogue kit you could dream of, bathed in multi coloured lights and in the background was a huge mirror set at an angle so the effect was doubled.

I would say the visuals were ‘good’ but not amazing. I’m sure the point of the tour was the ‘music’ so the gear and JMJ should quite rightly be the centre of attention, but with such a strong reputation for lavish shows I naturally assumed the lightshow would be something special

I wouldn’t expect him to recreate the Houston skyline in a small hall, but with his pedigree and presumed wealth I am surprised other electronic shows I have been to in small venues have managed to do it better

Two examples spring to mind; ‘OMD’, also legends in their own right had stunning visuals to accompany their recent tours, really futuristic and brilliant quality. Karl Bartos (ex-Kraftwerk) also managed very high tech visuals (to be expected really) at the tiny London ICA a few years back.

Those comments aside, I am generally underwhelmed by light shows at most gigs – it seems to be an afterthought and all you end up with is a load of coloured lights and sometimes a slideshow of seemingly random images.

In the ‘olden days’, Tangerine Dream were renowned for their amazing laser shows at gigs but this was literally decades ago and the visuals for their shows as the years have progressed seem to have got less adventurous too.I was too young to witness any of the famed ‘laser’ shows

In my opinion with a bit of effort and creativity, a good lightshow and / or moving visuals can really boost an electronic music event. They have always had criticism levied at them for being boring to watch; a case of a few people barely moving in front of their increasingly shrinking arsenal of kit.

The 'most bizarre visuals I have ever seen at a gig' award, would definitely go to 'Chris & Cosey' performing at Lotus Electronica '86 - weird and in places pretty dodgy to say the least! I remember the look on the audiences faces! the music was brilliant though. I digress...

Shortage of gear was not something the Oxygene tour has a problem with. For any fans interested in Synths, the stage was like Aladdin’s cave and as the music was ‘so’ good the visuals weren’t a big issue for me despite some of the harsh comments I have read. They weren’t actually ‘bad’ at all and certainly didn’t lessen my enjoyment of the gig; it was just that I expected something a bit more adventurous or high tech.

The Audience

The atmosphere was ok, but considering what we were witnessing I feel it could have been better. It’s not a get up and dance sort of gig so I wouldn’t expect much standing up but more enthusiasm would certainly have been welcome – it seemed more like ‘gentle clapping’ at a play rather than a music concert

Encores

Again, a surprise at how restrained the applause was and how quickly it subsided. For one moment I wondered if we were going to get an encore as it had gone quiet so quickly,  but we did. Only ‘one’ track though, Oxygene 13 and fairly short too – shame we didn’t get more. It did seem like quite an abrupt ending.

I was hoping for “Arpegiator” or something from "Magnetic Fields" even if it wasn't from the same era.  After the encore JMJ finally got all the musicians on stage together to take a bow and the gig drew to an end at about 9:50, so 90 minutes in total

Bloopers

None that I picked up on by JMJ or his fellow musicians, the playing was great but there was a moment where what sounded like mobile phone Interference came across the PA, a real shame as that was not something they could do anything about. It didn’t last too long – but I did wonder after a while if it was an ancient analogue Synth slowly dying…

That aside, the musicianship was excellent and a good mix of instruments were used including the spooky ‘Theremin’. This was of course none of your cheapo £50 affairs but a 'full on' vintage one looking like a lectern that had been wired up by a mad professor!

Irritations

My main irritation was ‘cameras’ – not people taking pictures, but me not having my camera and having to use a crappy mobile phone to take pics! The position is so unclear – tickets say no filming at all but venue staff said ‘no problems as long as you don’t use flash’.

From our position on the last row at the back of the upper circle you would need a good zoom and a mobile phone is pretty much useless, so excuse the quality of my pics. UPDATE: A few days after the gig, JMJ released a press statement saying it was ok to take whatever pics you wan't!!!! grrrrrr if only I'd known that in advance I'd have taken my proper camera...

On the ‘people talking’ & ‘constantly getting up’ front, it was great - a very civilized crowd who obviously wanted to be there and I heard plenty of fans talking loudly about past gigs and analogue Synths before the show started. I guess the expensive ticket price limits the number of people who just want to go back and forth to the bar all night and talk through the whole thing J

Summary

What can I say? It was a great night and one I nearly missed by not hearing about the tour until pretty late on so I am just pleased that I didn’t miss it - JMJ’s visits to the UK are very few and far between.

Judging by the quality of the new material we heard, Jean Michel could easily compose a stunning traditional electronic ‘Berlin School’ style of instrumental album.

Although I am a big fan of all sorts of electronic dance music, something more in keeping with his roots would probably please a lot of the ‘old school’ electronic music fans, especially being performed on such amazing equipment and by someone who has truly mastered how to use them

For plenty more reviews of the tour head over to the Aero magazine site of the JMJ forum

http://aero-magazine.com/

http://www.jarreforum.com/showthread.php?t=1595

Review copyright Mat McKenzie www.hypnoticbeats.co.uk