Jean-Michelle, Vangelis

[Dave.Peachey at natwest.com]

Hi List Members,

Bill Layer asked . . .

> What are your favorite JMJ and Vangelis records? Why?

 . . . and others responded at length, as will I.  After much consideration
(actually, I was running through a bit of JMJ last night anyway), I'd
compile my list as follows (albeit in no particular order):

Jean Michel Jarre
1)  Oxygene (both 1-6 and 7-13 nicely consistent given the twenty-odd year
gap)
2)  Equinoxe  (probably the best of the bunch)
3)  Magnetic Fields  (because, I enjoyed it as a good follow-up to Oxygene
and Equinoxe)
4)  Zoolook  (early all-d*g*t*l fun and frolics with Laurie Anderson adding
strange vocal noises)

I'm not so keen on the later stuff - too much noodling (particularly Waiting
for Cousteau - last night I had to give up after the first 13 minutes of the
46 minute title track although I have listened to it all when I've been in
the right mood) although I'm sure that's just my own personal opinion.

Vangelis
1)  Albedo 0.39/Spiral  (my earliest introduction to Vangelis - happy
memories and some good thumping sequenced bass lines)
2)  Beauborg  (although it's not my absolute favourite, it shows what one
man can do with a CS80!)
3)  Opera Sauvage  (love the Rhodes piano on Reve)
4)  See You Later  (primarily the last two tracks with the Jon Anderson
vocals and more Rhodes piano)
5)  Invisible Connections  (alright, it is a mass of noodling but he managed
to get a record out on Deutsche Grammaphon!)
6)  Direct  (the last really good album - although I'm still working on El
Greco which is looking promising)

As Bill L opined, both of these artists can be variable (albeit Vangelis is,
to my mind, the more consistent of the two) and, if I had to choose just 75
minutes of each for  a compilation, I'd probably be selective with tracks
from these and other albums by each of them.

Now, if we're going to start on Tangerine Dream . . . actually, better not,
I'll be here all day and will probably get onto Klaus Schulze at some length
as well ;-)

Cheers for now

> Dave Peachey
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