1293820 Responseshttp://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/03/29/jean-michel-jarre-calypso-lsd-nightmare/Jean+Michel+Jarre%27s+Calypso+LSD+Nightmare2009-03-29+18%3A46%3A47synthhead to “Jean Michel Jarre’s Calypso LSD Nightmare”  

1. 1 confusedmachine on Mar 29th, 2009 said:

   I felt queasy watching that.

2. 2 Joe Maffei on Mar 29th, 2009 said:

   All LSD jokes aside… I watched this video for the first time when I was 9, just before Christmas one year — they used to broadcast these Jean-Michel Jarre videos in Brazil around the holidays, for some odd reason. When this came on, I popped a tape in the VCR and recorded it. I only had part of it, but I watched it over and over. That Christmas I got a tiny Casio for my “Santa Claus” present. Those two events made me a synth geek

3. 3 Roedrev on Mar 30th, 2009 said:

   Holy Crap! Looks like they have an awful amount of fun. Why leave someone out of that?

4. 4 Rob P. on Mar 30th, 2009 said:

   I think it’s a combination of the repetition of the song parts and the blair-witch style camera work. It works, I think, in a Brazilian Carnivale kind of way. Not my favorite piece from JMJ though.

   I always found this piece, in contrast to the rest of the album, odd (this piece being hyperactive and the rest being ketamine-stupor-slow).

   Honestly though – he put on a dynamite show like no other.

   I WANT that custom curved keytar.

5. 5 St. B from DEAD PANDA on Mar 30th, 2009 said:

   No way… LSD is MUCH cooler than this!

6. 6 Georg on Mar 30th, 2009 said:

   St. B

   Maybe if you were on LSD this might have been cooler!

7. 7 St. B from DEAD PANDA on Mar 31st, 2009 said:

   LOL! No… I think it would bum me out. I have taken it at a Legendary Pink Dots show, that was intense. I also did it at a Download show (Cevin Key from Skinny Puppy, Gen from TG/PTV, etc) WAY BONKERS!

8. 8 thorn on Apr 1st, 2009 said:

   Huh. As both a synth nut and a steel drum player, you’d think this would be right up my alley. Instead, I just feel a little disturbed.

9. 9 crotchety bastard on Apr 14th, 2009 said:

   Do you really need that many people to make such an unimaginative sounding song?

10. 10 phil j. on Apr 15th, 2009 said:

    Over 1 Million people turned up for this concert so it couldn’t have been that bad.

11. 11 BlueBrat on Apr 25th, 2009 said:

    If it's such an unimaginative song, why is he able to do such a huge live production like this for it? COMMENT FAIL.

12. 12 css on Apr 26th, 2009 said:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOD4DZUhd4A

    Do you feel queasy watching this?

13. 13 Louis on Apr 30th, 2009 said:

    Did you notice that the steel drums had no mic's on them? I play pans and keys, and I know that steel drums can't get that loud without amplification.

14. 14 synthhead on Apr 30th, 2009 said:

    Louis – it also doesn't sound like a pan orchestra – it sounds like one sampled steel drum.

15. 15 thorn on Apr 30th, 2009 said:

    Oh yeah. There's no way those pans would've been that audible without some serious amplification. Even a full-sized panorama band would've been hard-pressed to cut through all that. I did see mics on a couple of pans around 4:44, though.

    While I thought I could pick out some real pan somewhere around the 5:30 mark, there was definitely quite a bit of electronic pan action coming from at least one of the keyboardists. (Sounded more like MIDI sounds than samples to me.)

16. 16 peter on Jul 17th, 2009 said:

    I used to like Jarre but never ever thought his live performances were for real… what part of the song is he even trying to fake in this?

17. 17 Gordon on Jul 17th, 2009 said:

    It's a profound sonic meditation on the deepest essence of silly frothy fun, methinks.

18. 18 sylvia on Jul 17th, 2009 said:

    Jarre's a master at doing these big, over-the-top, shows. This crazy showmanship is why he plays in front of a million people instead of bands like Kraftwerk.

19. 19 dragonworm on Oct 29th, 2009 said:

    I was at this concert in la defense district (14/07/90). This tune was one of the highlights of the night – it got the audience jumping and cheering. It attracted an audience of about 2.5 million and was, at the time, the world record for the largest public performance. (previously held by JMJ and subsequently broken by JMJ). Yes, parts of the concert was play-back (eg, laser harp).
    Was it a nightmare? Well, 19 years later people are still commenting on this tune at http://www.synthopia.com – It was REMEMORABLE!

20. 20 stradivarius on Oct 29th, 2009 said:

    Agreed!

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