OXYGÈNE

It's indeed interesting to see pure electronic stuff such as JMJ and Klaus Schulze in progarchives, I was thinking why they weren't here anyway! Had this Electronica sub- genre not been added, I was thinking of suggesting the site editors to put at least more proggy (whatever that means!) albums by JMJ, Vangelis, Schulze etc. -and TD and Kraftwerk had already entered from Space Rock and Krautrock respectively- Oh, this is Oxygene's review, right! Well, I don't have much to say but to criticise some of the critics above:

First: Not only JMJ had put all of his eggs into the synth basket, this thing was done well before him, by Tangerine Dream (some 2-3 years ago) and resulted in their expelling from the stage under agg and tomato rain! Check out their site. Even after reverting to conventional instruments for a brief time, they turned back to complete electronic usage every now and then, like Logos, for instance. What I mean is, using synths all over doesn't keep an album from being a timeless classic. Normally I would have considered this album as having nothing to do with prog, but after understanding the idea of what "prog" really is, and estimating the value of projects such as Phaedra, Heaven and Hell, some Kraftwerk stuff etc. (where no guitar is used, contrary to the assumption that it's a must in rock music...), I believe that this too is prog. And since I heard most parts (part one and two as a suite, part 4) in many places since my childhood, I believe this had already become a classic... Not to mention its influence in Turkish pop (which was largely based on prog acts at the end of seventies) in both melodies and sound effects!

Second: Prog-zilla, FYI Vangelis is also represented in this site! And contrary to the current situation - only three JMJ albums are featured by the time of my review!- Vangelis' basic albums are all here...

Conclusion: you might not like the ideas and music inside, but this album is both innovative and progressive IMHO. And it caused even an ex-metalhead like me (though I wasn't into thrash acts such as Slayer and Overkill, I really used to like Metallica and Iron Maiden better than anything else!) to appreciate the value of electronic music. Keep a copy, it's valuable!