Music - Jean Michel Jarre is a fraud

When I think of beautiful music I think of the sort of thing that would make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up on end, the sort of music that would make me think of things beyond where I was. It transports me to somewhere, and often somewhen, else.

Would you like to know more?

In the case of Jean Michel Jarre's Oxygene that place was the year 3093 and the situation was the 'really not a civil war' setting of London - now a sprawling cityscape that covers most of what we know as England. Here there was the 'Precinct' in nordwestengland that changed hands on a virtually daily basis and formed the main patrol route of the paramilitary Police force in the area known as Ground Five. Our hero was Michael Bradshaw, an ex-member of one of the forces struggling for total control of the city, and the nation, that went by the name of Flying Panthers. He served under his commander Andrew Griffin, several times decorated for bravery in the tail end of the last war and a fully qualified pilot. They did battle with many gangs and factions every night in high tech weaponised patrol cars and tanks.

This alternate and terrible future was beautiful in my imaginings because it was so clear. I cannot begin to describe how the snowstorms and electrical storms looked over the ravaged and broken cityscape, nor what the smells were or how they triggered things. Basically, the Oxygene album evoked, in me, a thing of terrible and raw beauty that I still look back on with affection and I don't know how. Listen to it and see what it does for you, even if Jarre is a fraud.

Ahem, this reminds me...