AERO

Sterile, white, germ free and clinical. No... not St Mary's hospital in London, but a description of this 'Best of - Re-worked' album by Jean Michel Jarre.

On the plus side Jarre appears to have used his trusty old indestructible analogue synths from the 70's, only this time the sound is given a complete overhaul on the engineering and production front. A much beefier result is obtained, where the 'Equinoxe' tracks in particular are brought to the fore.

A compilation like this only highlights the weaknesses of Jarre's later recordings, when compared with the altogether superior 'Oxygene' and 'Equinoxe' which showed depth, atmosphere and space between tracks.

The new 'Aero' tracks (4 of them!) are even more sexless and limp than latter day Tangerine Dream, using some very uninspired drum machines and percussion. Horrendously cheesy saxophone is at the forefront of 'Last Rendez-Vous'. Vangelis' Blade Runner soundtrack proves that electronics and saxophone can work together beautifully if put in the right hands.

Just when things couldn't get much worse 'Zoolookology' slaps you on the face with a wet trout just as you are about to fall asleep. The less said about the remainder the better.

At the end of the recording you'll be left mumbling incoherently to yourself... "What was the point of it all?, Is he really so short of ideas that he has to go back and re-hash all that old material?"

Granted, you'll be hard pushed to hear a better produced and clearer electronic recording than this, but at the end of the day it's very forgettable and without character.

Now, if you fancy burning out your TV screen or computer monitor, why not give the accompanying DVD a spin? A dazzling fluorescent white covers every square millimetre of your screen, along with a pair of big eyeballs flicking left and right from beginning to end. That's all you get for over an hour. DO NOT WATCH IN THE DARK! You will go blind! In fact, if you can manouevre your screen to your window and point it towards Mars you'll probably find that the 'Curiosity Rover' can pick up the light signal. You can virtually see your screen melt with the strain as capacitors and resistors go into shutdown mode.

Away from my sniping moans, Aero's not that bad and sounds ok whilst driving or cycling and for this reason only it gets 2 stars.