MUSIC FOR SUPERMARKETS

'Music For Supermarkets' has an interesting genesis. The print run for this album was one copy, which JARRE auctioned to raise money for French artists, after first destroying the master tapes. No, I don't own that copy. The album was broadcast on AM radio, and it is a copy of that broadcast I have listened to.

Given you can't buy it, and the only recording in circulation is low fidelity, is it worth pursuing? No. The sound quality is appalling, and the music is pre-'Zoolook', fairlight-dominated synth with an industrial feel. Despite the Eno reference in the title, this is not an ambient recording! The most interesting tracks were reworked slightly to appear on Zoolook and Rendez-Vous, as follows. Part 3 reappears as 'Fifth Rendez-Vous Part III'; Part 5 is the fun 'Blah Blah Cafe' from 'Zoolook', and Part 7 is music from 'Diva', from the same album, but minus Laurie Anderson's vocals (which in this case is actually a good thing). Apart from this, only Part 1 is worth listening to, and it would actually make a good transition piece in JARRE's canon between 'Magnetic Fields' and 'Zoolook.'

There's barely thirty minutes of music here, only half of it unavailable anywhere else. Don't bust any valves getting this: no matter how big a fan you are, your life is complete without it. I doubt the winner of the auction got ten thousand quid's worth of enjoyment from it, but JARRE certainly got his money's worth of promotional mileage from the stunt.