One record at a time: 209. Jean Michel Jarre - Electronica 2 - The Heart of Noise

The second volume of the "Electronica" project was titled "The Heart of Noise" and featured a further fifteen collaborations and three new solo compositions. By far the best track on this album is "Brick England" which is a collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys. In my youth I would often wonder what would happen if my favourite artists were locked up in a studio together and here we have the answer. This song is magic and I wish there were more.

"Here for You" with Gary Numan is another highlight along with the Siriusmo collaboration "Circus" which both have strong melodies and a distinctive sound. Equally distinctive is the voice of Dieter Meier which means "Why this, and why that" sounds just like a Yello record (this is a good thing).

Jarre's stated his aim was to create something new by merging his sound to that of the artists he worked with, but in the case of Primal Scream, all we ended up with was a remix of a twenty five year old single. Predictably The Orb have just layered a load of speech over a track in an attempt to make it sound "ambient" and the collaboration with Edward Snowden sounds like someone is preaching to you at a bad rave. Like the first instalment, this record is a mixed bag with some gems in amongst a whole pile of mediocrity. 3/5