“The big highlight of Electronica 2 - The Heart Of Noise is that we have finally find Jean Michel Jarre...He was hiding beneath his own skin!!!”
1 Part 1 ( Rone) 4:26 2 Part 2 4:10 3 Brick England (The Pet Shop Boys) 4:01 4 These Creatures (Julia Holter) 3:40 5 As One (Primal Scream) 3:58 6 Here for You (Gary Numan) 3:59 7 Electrees (Hans Zimmer) 4:10 8 Exit (Edward Snowden) 6:19 9 What You Want (Peaches) 3:27 10 Gisele (Sébastien Tellier) 3:43 11 Switch on Leon (The Orb) 4:43 12 Circus (Siriusmo) 3:09
13 Why This, Why That And Why? (Yello) 3:58 14 The Architect (Jeff Mills) 4:43 15 Swipe to the Right (Cyndi Lauper) 4:54 16 Walking the Mile (Christophe) 4:52 17 Falling Down 3:23 18 The Heart o Noise (The Origin) 2:39 Columbia | 88875196672
(CD 74:16) (V.F.)
(Electronica, techno & synth-pop)
I liked it more than not! My first attempt has stopped dead at Brick England, with The Pet Shop Boys, a thing hyper synth-pop which flooded me the ears of signals such as: I must stop here!!! And then, I had to speak about it. I wrote about Electronica 1-The Time Machine and people were asking why this silence regarding ELECTRONICA 2- The Heart Of Noise! I would answer; because it must be so! It's necessary to know how to stand back and leave the disappointment gone before writing a thing which would haunt me for years. You want to know what? Well I did well. The introduction of this 2nd volume on the way of seeing things in the world of EM by our Cyrano of synths demonstrates that a thing; Jean Michel Jarre is really hiding in Jean Michel Jarre.
Cosmic as we wish, with a progression in the rhythm which is reminiscent of Zoolook, because of the organic sequences and percussions which slam from everywhere, the segment Part 1 and Part 2 is definitively what that Jarre did best since Revolutions. The approach is very dance with a synth as harmonious as those beautiful tunes of a synth-pop is a thing which will haunt your ears for weeks to come. And then comes Brick England! I shall not speak about it because it's a thing which is not just in my musical tastes and which was never moreover. It's the same thing with Peaches in What You Want. Hip-Hop, Funk, Rythms and Blues! Name it, it's a very versatile track, but I know that the fans of Jarre's dance and pop era are shouting to the genius here...The same goes for the heavy techno-pop rhythm of Gisele. Who is Sébastien Tellier? Any idea, but that gives a lively and heavy hyper thing which can remind Kraftwerk which would have had the taste to create. The ambient rhythm as so cosmic as oniric of These Creatures made me realize that I had to go farther in this album. The voice of Julia Holter is wonderful and enchants on a finely jerky structure. As One is a big techno hyper well structured which reminds me of Chronology 4. I don't know Primal Scream, but it would seem that it's a remix of their title Come Together. Here for You with Gary Numan is a good and rather lively synth-pop which sounds very 80's, except for the arrangements of the percussions which are loaded of vitamins. Here and all over this album which is a good balance between all the styles of modern and danceable EM. The more I listen to and the more I like this song. And it's the same thing with Swipe to the Right where the voice of Cyndi Lauper seems to me unrecognizable by moments. But why not Bondie! The moods would have fit for her, but in a rhythmic envelope which is wild and full of so many elements that the hearing loses its listening abilities.
I looked forward to listening to Electrees with Hans Zimmer. It's as much poetic and cosmic, I would say even a little more cosmic, than These Creatures. The voice in less but with superb arrangements which show all the skill of Jean-Michel Jarre to toy with the secrets of cosmos. The title takes more swiftness and charges with power the heavy waves of the cosmos. I enjoyed that one too. Exit is a strange collaboration with Edward Snowden, the bell-ringer of alarms of the NSA, who seems to explain the how of the why on an evolutionary structure which twists itself between gloomy ambiences and a jerky rhythm before ending in a hyperactive rave. It let me half in earnest, half in jest! Switch on Leon with The Orb presents a rather experimental thing with some good samplings of voices (period Zoolook?) on a rhythm which has difficulty to hatch. That asks more that a listening. Circus, with Siriusmo, is a title as much dance than melodic. One would say a hit of the Popcorn years. That listens to well, even with a vocoder which irritates a little my ears. Lise asked me if it was for kids...See the genre here! Why This, Why That And Why? with Yello is a good slow and a very dark ballad which develops into a nice cosmic slow dance. A great track here! I never liked, and I tried, the very noisy trance style of Jeff Mills. And I dreaded, with good reason The Architect. It's not for my ears, who earned their pay over this album, but the real connoisseurs say that it's very good. I'm very glad to not be part of their circle... Walking the Mile is another title which spreads little by little an evolutionary approach to end into a good Electronica for Zombies marinated in a euphoric drug. That passes better after 2 or 3 listening. I didn't like the voice of Christophe which is very irritating for my system. But the music takes the top over this inconvenience. I can say the same thing for Falling Down whose voice smothered behind a machine which loses its oil doesn't manage to eliminate the seduction that we feel by this title which rocks between cosmic rock, with still very good percussions and superb arrangements, and a synth-pop galvanized by an industrial essence. The Heart o Noise (The Origin) is a slower and more experimental version of Part 2. And that still stays some great EM.
We have to admit that the technoïd vision of EM of Jean-Michel Jarre is more seductive here than the more limpid one of Electronica 1-The Time Machine. Is it because the French musician was more involved at the level of the composition? That could be it! The fact remains that ELECTRONICA 2- The Heart Of Noise goes farther by proposing 4 visions that the French musician has about EM; the cosmic rock, the dance and trance, the experimental vision and the synth-pop of the 80's. I would even add there is a small dose, much better in any case than on Volume 1, of industrial essence. But no matter, I found this album, even if clearly more danceable, more thoughtful and more sophisticated than The Time Machine.
Sylvain Lupari (September 19th, 2016) ***¾**
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