Synergy - Cords

Third Contact: 1978/2013

Not sure why Larry Fast barely gets name-dropped when talk of '70s synth wizards goes down. He was right in the thick of things along with the Jarres and Hammers, even beating Tomita at the modern classical game with original compositions. Yet whereas the big ol' Vangelis gets to score classic movies like Bladerunner and Chariots Of Fire, poor Synergy manages goofy 'documentaries' like The Jupiter Menace. It's that lack of any chart-friendly material, isn't it? Too highfalutin in conceptualization as the years wore on, that was the problem.

Synergy initially started out as another kraut-prog rock project, though Fast, in a bit of piss-takery on the growing anti-synthesizer sentiment in the ‘real’ rock world, countered that his albums were “one-hundred percent guitar-free”. Even his first album’s title was a rib on rock-opera, Electronic Realizations For Rock Orchestra. It also got him noticed though, crafting a tidy decade-long career for the Synergy banner before Fast moved onto other pursuits.

Cords is the third Synergy album, where Fast (and one Peter Sobel) finally utilized guitars ...“sort of”, the liner notes clarifies. It’s also heavier on creating a conceptual whole of an LP, three iterations of a synthy fanfare titled On Presuming To Be Modern performed at the beginning, middle, and end of Cords. A two-parter titled Phobos And Deimos Go To Mars forms our proper first pieces of music, both utilizing deep pulsing synths as their rhythmic backbone - always cool to hear ‘drums’ before everyone started using Roland machines in their electronic compositions. As for the differences between Phobos and Deimos, the former is far chipper, basically space-synth in its primordial form (and style-bitten by Gatekeeper, apparently), whereas the latter goes darker, even sounding Arabic with its Moog modulations. Both work a cool yin-yang concept, and I remain baffled why no one points to these as essential tunes from this era.

The rest of Cords plays out as you’d expect a modern classical album from the ‘70s would. Good for me though, as I have the re-re-mastered version released just last year (2013), thus these synths sound big and beefy compared to how tinny releases from the time often come off. Some tracks, like Disruption In World Communications and A Small Collection Of Chords, wouldn’t be too out of place in a forest temple level of a 32-bit era jRPG. Fast also gets all Bach on us with Full Moon Flyer, a bit more proggy with Terra Incognita (hey, synthesizer guitar), then throws everything into the caboodle with Trellis.

It’s all neat sounding stuff if you’ve an ear for early synth music, but I can hear why it didn’t catch on the same way Fast’s peers did with the public. Though not unbearably obtuse, Cords’ pure classical leanings wasn’t something regular folks would get into – Hell, Tomita only got away with it by covering easily recognizable compositions. I give Fast all the credit in crafting his own music, but Cords is about as egg-headed as early space-synth gets.

Various - The Music Of Cosmos

Cosmos Studios: 1981/2000

How fortunate. I can talk about The Music Of Cosmos at a time when interest in Carl Sagan’s excellent series is part of the public discourse again, thanks to nu-Cosmos currently airing on TV. The Neil DeGrasse Tyson hosted series is pretty good so far, though tends to lack the gravitas the original held, too often bypassing the philosophical notions Sagan brought forth while explaining the wonders around us. The Alan Silvestri score sadly doesn’t help, missing those iconic musical cues that flourished throughout the original series. C’mon, mang, you did Back To The Future, you can do memorable themes. Only thing sticking so far is that bit of piano diddle in the opening credits, and only because it reminds me of the Contact score.

Right, right, this is an unfair comparison, but let’s be honest here: along with everything else, Cosmos stands peerless as a documentary because of its music. Not only did it include synth wizards of the era (Vangelis, Tomita, Synergy), but also works from classical composers (Mozart, Vivaldi, Bach, Pachelbel, Holst, Stravinsky), and even contemporary music like blues and prog-rock (Louis Armstrong, Roy Buchanan, Pink Floyd). No way could Silvestri compete with such a range of music, and one wonders why they didn’t try licensing music out like before. Surely nu-Cosmos has a bigger budget than the original. Did all the money go into those spiffy atom animations?

Whatever. Let’s focus on The Music Of Cosmos, proper original-like. The most famous pieces were the Vangelis compositions. In fact, you can’t hear the gentle piano of Heaven & Hell or synthy bell tones of Alpha without thinking Cosmos, the two completely intertwined in the public consciousness to this day. Folks probably figure Vangelis specifically wrote all these works for Cosmos, but were actually plucked from older albums. There are a couple exclusive synth works here though, both by an anonymous chap named Boydstun, whom even the mighty Lord Discogs knows nothing about. Hell, he never even made the cut on the original ’81 vinyl, though neither did several other works. Thank goodness for twenty year anniversary double-CD editions, eh?

One of the clever things about The Music Of Cosmos is how the tracks are arranged to tell a narrative of sorts, specifically of the cosmos as humanity’s come to understand it, and perhaps foresee our possible fates. Helping the tale along are sound effects bridging the music together. For instance, just before Vangelis’ Alpha starts, a massive explosion erupts from the desolate calm of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11. A supernova creating the heavier elements? I’d say so. Meanwhile on CD2, where technology’s run rampant, chainsaws mercilessly cut down old growth forest before the melancholy Prayer of St. Gegory emerges.

Not the most subtle of messages, that, but Sagan’s gift was presenting such messages as a means to inspire ourselves to become better than we are. The rich diversity of music presented in The Music Of Cosmos only proves humanity’s ability to do so.

Kraftwerk - The Man-Machine

Astralwerks: 1978/2009

Bunch of sell-outs. Sure, jump on the disco bandwagon. Abandon conceptual LPs in favor of appealing to gaudy, dolled-up dance clubs. Dear Lord, they’ve made an ode directly to one of those types in The Model. It’s that Moroder influence, isn’t it. That’s the Italians, ruining everything, and now creative German electronic Krautrock music with corny pop melodies. Have your time in the lime-light, Kraftwerk, it won’t last. Everyone will forget this travesty of an album by the next decade, and the true artists of this era, like Cluster and Neu!, will be remembered for centuries.

Said some Berlin hipster in ’78. Probably.

As for the rest of the world, those charming pop melodies in The Man-Machine finally got regular folks regarding Kraftwerk as something more than a one-hit curiosity, even getting TV time and performing as the titular machine men. While their prior albums were landmarks in showing off what electronic music could produce, this one proved it could exist just fine alongside any ol' mainstream hit and not be regarded as some novelty (re: Autobahn). Granted, The Robots or The Model weren't tearing up charts the world over, but you just know many other electronic music hopefuls were taking notes.

Debate persists over which Kraftwerk album is their best, but for pure accessibility, The Man-Machine easily tops the rest. Them Germans always had an ear for a melody, but here they craft the ear-wormiest hooks they could, sounding as naturally pop as any top hit-makers of the ‘60s (you know which ones). And sure, for all you highfalutin types out there, this album does offer a proper concept. Almost certainly inspired by the classic sci-fi film Metropolis, a running theme of future societies permeates every track (sans The Model). Whether Kraftwerk aimed to spread a poignant message of such futurism with their tunes or were content in providing simple pictures with their music is up to interpretation, but that’s good pop music for you.

The particulars of The Man-Machine, you’ve heard in some form over the years. The Robots has long been the stand-out, what with those precision-perfect rhythms, spacious sound design, succinct hooks, and wicked-awesome vocal effects (it’s also great for testing headphones and stereos!). At the other end of the album is the titular cut, a cousin to The Robots, and while not as catchy, has equally awesome vocal effects. Elsewhere, Spacelab and Metropolis get their Moroder disco on, likely inspiring a legion of future space synth and trance producers in the process. Neon Lights is the obligatory extended Kraftwerk jam, charming in its own right with shimmering synths, though you have to endure Ralf’s warbling to get there. And yes, The Model, definitely lyrically goofy synth-pop by any standard, but holy cow, that bassline, mang!

Of course, for the musically egg-headed out there, The Man-Machine contains juicy goodies aplenty to drool over (theory! gear! spawned genres!), but I’m out of space. Not time though, as this album’s as timeless as Florian’s fashion.

Jean-Michel Jarre - Chronologie

CD-Maximum: 1993/2000

So maybe I wasn't so far off in assuming Chronologie was Jean-Michel Jarre's attempt at a clubland-crossover after all. That's all it truly was when I first wrote the review for Jarremix, an assumption based on remixes of the singles and watching the Chronologie 4 video (so early '90s!). Had I properly digested all of the Frenchman’s discography before hand, I might have gleaned a clearer perspective, but as it stood I was working off the major hits. Heck, the only reason I picked up Jarremix back in the day was it was one of the few trancey albums I stumbled upon. I had no idea who ol' Jean was at that point, and even after enjoying that collection, it was many moons before Monsieur Jarre's legacy came into focus for yours truly. We all start somewhere though, and now that I have the spending cash to dig in properly, it's time to start up the Jarre collection.

Seeing as how the Chronologie remixes were my introduction, I figured it appropriate to make this album one of the first purchases (along with the only Jean-Michel Jarre album you're supposed to have, even if you're not much of a fan of Jean-Michel Jarre – but that one's all the way down in the 'O's). Chronologie 4 was also the tune that let me stop worrying and accept ol’ Jean’s sappier tendencies. Make no mistake, for as many sublime moments in his discography, Jarre has also gone full synth-pop fromage too, and anything of that sort released in the ‘90s just couldn’t hold up.

That was my long-time thoughts anyway, but the wonderful world of post-millennium space synth made me realize something: Chronologie 4 is totally space synth, in fact an expertly crafted example of such. Those charmingly dated synth tones, pumping rhythms that have you cruising the cosmos, and gloriously epic melodies, it’s what nearly all modern space synth composers strive for. Of course, this is a retroactive classification, but there it is.

That’s just one track though. The first half of Chonologie has Jarre doing the modern classical thing, including an eleven minute opener, while Part 2 ups the tempo with peppy synth-pop rhythms and church organs, sounding like his earlier works. The back half is far more early-‘90s in tone, and aside from Part 6’s groovy house vibe, is hilariously dated, especially so Part 5 and Part 8, what with hip-hop beats, freestyle orchestral-hits and fake record scratches! Dear Lord, Part 8’s what’s played during the credits of a bad comedy.

It was a poor end the original album, but in the year 2000, a Russian label got the distribution rights and, attempting to entice those who’d already bought Chronologie, included a slew of remixes of classic Jarre! Eh, cheap studio knock-offs, more like. There’s a few tracks I know in the list (Oxygene , Magnetic Fields, Calypso, etc.), and none hold a candle to the remixes found on Jarremix. Impossibly high standards set for Jarre remixes, that album did.

Jean-Michel Jarre - Jarremix (Original TC Review)

Disques Dreyfus: 1995

(2013 Update:
A little mis-information in this review, as Jarre really wasn't trying to get chummy with club culture himself. I'm pretty sure his record label was trying to do so though, hence the licensing of Chronologie out for so many remixes. Oh, any apparently the Laurent Garnier Laboratoire Mix of Oxygene was removed from later editions of Jarremix due to some kind of beef between him and Jarre. Damn, maybe that N.W.A. comparison was apt after all!

Bit of a fun-fact here: way back before I ever started writing for TranceCritic, I'd toyed with the idea of online reviews for a while already, even drumming up about a half-dozen drafts. Most of those ended up recycled into the earliest I did for the website, but I also did one for Jarremix. Never saw a point in submitting a review for this, as I figured interest in a Jean-Michel Jarre remix album wasn't terribly high. Of course, when it cropped up for a Random Review, I had no choice, but by that time, my writing'd vastly improved, and the early draft was scrapped.)

IN BRIEF: A pioneer tries to fit in.

In the year 1993, electronic music was riding high on a wave of unprecedented critical, commercial, and creative growth [2013 Edit: you hadn’t seen anything yet, 2008 Sykonee]. Dozens of fresh faces were shaping the way mainstream audiences regarded synths and sequencers (for good and ill), spurring on a cultural revolution that was quite youth orientated. As a result, many original electronic producers from the 70s were promptly being left to the dust of history. Aside from token nods or blatant sampling, names like Vangelis and Tangerine Dream were becoming irrelevant as the ‘90s took shape.

Amongst those originators being left behind was Jean-Michel Jarre, who’s seminal Oxygene and follow-up Equinoxe made him a house-hold name in the ‘70s, helping to legitimizing electronic music as something more engaging than quirky egg-headed experimentations. However, although he maintained a career throughout the ‘80s, the Frenchman was coming across as hopelessly dated in the ‘90s. He was probably looking at the house and techno producers that had usurped him as a household name, and said to himself, “Man, I started this electronic shit, and this the muther-fuckin’ thanks I get?” - except in French, and with less N.W.A. ‘tude.

Anyhow, in 1993 Jarre got it inside his head to prove he could match these ‘kids’ doing electronic dance music, as he’d already proved himself adept at the synth-poppy stuff. Thus he released the album Chronologie, which included some of his most club-friendly songs ever. Seemingly in an effort to promote the Frenchman even further into clubland, a series of remixes were also commissioned for the lead singles, Chronologie 4 and Chronologie 6. The list of names that were brought in should be instantly recognizable to anyone familiar with the era: Praga Khan, Sunscreem, Gat Decor, Slam… um, Jamie Petrie (Black Girl Rock micro-fame).

Skip ahead a couple years, and Jarre’s label compiled the best of the remixes and released a full-length CD of them. Strangely, only half of them were gathered for Jarremix (everyone but Petrie made at least two), with none from Praga Khan – thus, two from Sunscreem (the E-Motion Mix and S x S Mix for Chronologie 4), one from Gat Decor (Main Mix on Chronologie 6), one from Slam (Slam Mix 1 for Chronologie 6), and Petrie’s Tribal Trance Mix of Chronologie 4. Hardly enough for a full-length CD, is it.

Whatever was Disques Dreyfus to do then? Why, the same thing every record company does when in need of padding out a compilation: get one of the label’s sound engineers to do the job - in this case, Bruno Mylonas. A few years prior, he’d given a studio spit-shine to Jarre’s ‘best of’ release Images, so he was familiar enough with the songs to do some tinkering with them. Would he also provided credible club-ready remixes for Jarremix though? Not really, but, if nothing else, he did provide some variety to this release.

While listening through the CD, you can definitely tell which remixes have direct ties to club land and which ones seem like an approximation of what club land is about, as the out-of-house producers tend to strip the originals down and craft something fresh in the process. For instance, the not-so-subtly titled E-Motion Mix is a blissy trance affair that is pure mid-‘90s from Sunscreem, then opt for a funkier spin with the S x S Mix, making use of a deep acid bassline; each only take snippets of Chronologie 4 in doing so. Likewise, Petrie grabs a couple sounds that were only briefly heard in the original and loops them over a dark tribal beat, which would have made for a killer of a cut had he actually gone somewhere with it – instead, it makes for a nifty little transitional track. Meanwhile, Gat Decor follows suite with Sunscreem with a trance re-rub of his own. Slam, on the other hand, offer one of the more unique attempts at Chronologie 6, with interesting beats, subtle pad washes, burbling acid attacks, and other assorted mid-‘90s techno trappings; again, not much is retained from the original.

Mylonas, on the other hand, retains quite a bit of Jarre’s work for his remixes. The melodies are mostly unchanged, many arrangements don’t stray far from the originals… really, if you’re familiar with songs like Calypso and Magnetic Fields 2, you aren’t going to be hearing anything terribly different here aside from beefier beats. And even when Mylonas does remix songs with the dancefloor in mind, it comes across uncertain. Equinoxe 4 dabbles in funky breaks, but compared to what The Chemical Brothers were doing at the time, Mylonas’ offering is quite weak. Mind, the melodies are still catchy enough, but that’s based solely on Jarre’s work, which Mylonas doesn’t change.

The only Mylonas remix that seems able to match clubbing-wits with the other remixers is the one he did for Revolution, Revolutions. The original was already quite an energetic track to begin with, but here it’s given the prog-house treatment: chugging bottom-heavy rhythms, funky acid tweaks, ethnically-inclined breakdown, and a plethora of extras giving the remix plenty of vitality. If any of Mylonas’ remixes were to get used in a clubbing environment, this would be the one.

I don’t think any of these remixes did make much of an impact when they were released though – beyond the S x S Mix of Chronologie 4, I’ve seldom seen them playlisted. I suppose the notion of a Jarre club track was just as odd back in the ‘90s as it is today; club culture remains incredibly resistant in accepting the Frenchman into their ranks, as the recent abysmal reaction to Jarre’s ‘electro house’ attempt in Téo & Téa proved (and Benassi’s remix fell on equally deaf ears).

That said, Jarremix is still a fine enough full-length to throw on. Despite whatever preconceived cynicism you may have regarding a project like this, the fact remains the music here is perfectly enjoyable (well, aside from the Ambiant [sic] Mix of Equinoxe 4, which is a bit dull), either as club-rubs of the Chronologie singles, or as variations on other memorable Jarre tunes. Purists may balk, club culture may scoff, but as far as remix projects are concerned, Jarremix remains a respectable addition. (By the way, whatever happened to the Laurent Garnier remix of Oxygene 1?)

Zyron - Italo Classics: Mix 1 & 2

(~): 2004

These were a pair of mixes available from a DJ by the name of Zyron at Discogs, not an official release of any kind (and sadly no longer uploaded, though maybe he’ll offer a link if you ask). I don't review online sets here because, as there's no hard copy or proper Discogs entry, I don't count them as part of my current listening project (and Lord knows it'd add a ton more entries to the list, which I certainly don't need if I ever want to get through everything sometime this decade). However, back when I primarily listened to CDs on the go, I had to burn MP3 sets to discs, and as anyone who's done so back in the day can relate, sometimes you wanted special custom-made labels for those special CDs. I actually made several such mix CDs for myself, including a few running series for fun. Since I'm including them in my listening project, I may as well write about the music on these too, since they usually have unique tunes I won't get a chance to talk about otherwise.

Like italo disco! Oh man, is there any form of music more deliciously retro and cheesy than this one? Synth pop may have had the 'credible' groups to its name, and hi-NRG may have had the gay scene in its (front) pocket, but italo found a unique role between the two, bringing infectious tika-tika rhythms, off-beat basslines, tinny brass, and catchy hooks under one triumphant banner. Almost exclusively a European thing, the scene churned out a ridiculous number of hits that you'll swear you've heard somewhere else before (most likely recycled in following dance-pop genres).

The two mixes Mr. Johan “Zyron” Åstrand did were apparently done as a lark, but if you ever wanted a primer on the italo genre, they’re about as solid an introduction as you could ever get. So many classics are included in the mix: My Mine’s Hypnotic Tango, Baltimore’s Tarzan Boy, Scotch’s Disco Band, Fancy’s Slice Me Nice, Baby’s Gang’s Disco Maniac, Primadonna’s Angel You, Digital Emotion’s Get Up, Action... I could go on. It’s not a total italo-fest though, as a few nods to space synth – the (primarily) instrumental ‘proper musicians be here’ branch of eurodisco - crop up too, with cuts from Laserdance, Cyber People, and Hipnosis.

As for the mixes themselves, the first one is a little slower and – dare I say it in any relation to italo – funkier. The second is more upbeat for the most part, with a little ‘ballad-breather’ in the middle. Given the difficulty this music tends to be for smooth blends, Zyron ‘cheated’ by using beat-loops in mixing software, plus gave many tracks some post-mixdown shine so the low-quality nature of those old vinyls wouldn’t wonk things up track to track. All said, a solid job done for music that still has trouble being taken seriously, but who cares what scenester snobs think when the tunes are as delightfully fun as these are!

Various - Fahrenheit Project - Part Four

Ultimae Records: 2003/2007

Even as a label known for infrequent releases, releasing a mere two in 2002 is a small amount for Ultimae. Did a busy tour schedule not allow for it? Financial strains? Albums sat on for perfectionist’s sake? Perhaps that last one, as sophomore efforts from Solar Fields and Aes Dana, plus a (proper) full-length debut of Carbon Based Lifeforms were all released in 2003. Oh yeah, and the fourth installment of the Fahrenheit Project series came out too.

Come to think of it, I wonder if the young Ultimae was having finance troubles too, on account this (and the second limited Aes Dana album) initially came out as a CDr. Like most of their early material, it was reissued with new artwork, and perhaps due to the odd fashion it was first released, Fahrenheit, Part 4 had the honors of being the first receiving such treatment in ’07.

Which makes sense, as Fahrenheit 4 is easily the best of the series yet! If Fahrenheit, Part 2 found Ultimae with some swagger of confidence in their sound, this one has them in a full-on strut (no, not full-on psy …although that was growing popular too). Whereas Part 3 noodled about too much with an over-exposure of but a few producers, this one comes off focused and driven, unique music from the Ultimae mainstays rubbing shoulders with new and established talent from abroad.

Of the non-Ultimae contributors, it’s an interesting mix. Mostly on a psy dub tip, Ochi Brothers and Aural Planet were well established by 2003, and their music reflects the spectrum of organic and synthetic sound the genre could run; newcomer Puff Dragon meets them somewhere in the middle with his Chinese Radio. Also returning to the series is Vibrasphere, who, along with Spiral Trax, were quickly establishing themselves as a force to reckon with in the scene. Say, sounds like another label at the time, doesn’t it?

And speaking of Ultimae, the regulars all come correct this time in standing out from one another. Solar Fields’ Union Light finds him dabbling in space synth, while Aes Dana returns to his industrial roots with a cold bit of ethereal techno in Memory Shell. After their strong Ultimae debut, Carbon Based Lifeforms’ don’t lose a step, Epicentre (Second Movement) working a similar looping, building melody as they did with MOS 6581 while adding more instrumentation and a didgeridoo. Awesome! Not to be outdone, Cell combines the best elements of Aes Dana and CBL in the form of Audio Deepest Night, a cold yet lovely slice of bleak ambient techno; the ol’ ‘winter canvas’ sound. Also returning is Hol Baumann, closing Part 4 with another fresh take on the psy dub template. Still no Asura, though. Where’s he been, anyway?

Still, by 2003 the buzz surrounding Ultimae was growing, and I can easily see Fahrenheit Project, Part 4 converting many a curious listener back then. A decade on now, I’ve no doubt this compilation would have the same effect. It’s that damn good.