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Mike Oldfield - Exposed CD (album) cover

EXPOSED

Mike Oldfield

 

Crossover Prog

3.94 | 120 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Sebastianmoto
5 stars As I begin writing this review I am only partway through 'Tubular Bells Part 1' and yet I am compelled to write a review. The original Tubular Bells is THE album I have listened to most throughout my life, too many times going back too far to even begin to count. I would listen to it on my dad's second gen iPod every night from sometime between the ages of 4 and 6 and it is permanently ingrained in my brain. That said, this double live album starts with Incantations, and so will I.

The first disc is an abridged version of Mike Oldfield's album Incantations. Whilst I feel the length of Incantations is one of it's great strengths, and a testament to the brilliance of Oldfield, the shortened version here retains the core of each of the sections of the original whilst providing some excellent changes and additions with some harder, rockier sections. As on the original album, Pierre Moerlen plays here too, providing his excellent vibraphone and percussion alongside his brother Benoit. Pekka Pohjola also plays here, who I recognise from his album Keesojen Lehto, on which Mike Oldfield appears (as does Sally Oldfield), and in a similar vein, Mike Oldfield also plays on the track 'Downwind' from Pierre Moerlen's Gong around the same time. I enjoy when artists play together like this and they both bring some jazzier sections to Oldfield's well known tracks.

The strive for a more hard-rock oriented sound continues on the second disc, where Tubular Bells starts with it's familiar opening before delving head first into hard, progressive rock with percussion! Something you may not have dreamed about when you heard the original. As Part 1 continues, you can feel all the same physical, mental and emotional response that the studio version gives, but the rock instrumentation just makes you jam along. I don't know whether I'm soaring in heaven or headbanging in hell, but it's a perfect purgatory all the same.

The second side of disc two begins with Tubular Bells part 2, and again this is a wonderful interpretation, complete with Sailor's Hornpipe. The known heavier part of the original album is here in much the same manner as it did in the studio, and amongst the rocking parts of the rest of the disc it is almost the lighter part, but all of it's charm is present and flows excellently along. The track flows through sections that certainly remind of other artists, with instrumentation reminiscent of Camel, and a section that almost feels lifted from Pink Floyd's Echoes or Atom Heart Mother epics, but here that truly makes for a fantastic experience, melding the feeling of some of the best British bands of the time into one of the best tracks ever, continued to be helped by the talent of Pierre Moerlen and Pekka Pohjola.

There is no way to replace the original, but this version can absolutely sit squarely next to it as a perfect version for when you want to listen to Tubular Bells and the more established sounds of progressive rock at the same time.

The final track, Guilty, is so much better than the original single. Starting with the familiar disco-esque sound, it morphs along into various styles, ending with a leitmotif taken from Tubular Bells, but applied to Guilty's backing, which is initially based on the same progression as Incantions. and this provides a fantastic closer to the album by relating back to the main event.

If you've never listened to Mike Oldfield, I would recommend you start with the first 4 albums at least. The magic that is in those albums is poignant and impactful. When that feeling is in you already, this album and it's excellent renditions pleases more than you could believe.

If you've listened to Mike Oldfield and love him, this is a must listen.

If you've listened to Mike Oldfield and somehow did not love him, then this album will probably be more up your alley with it's overt progressive rock sound, and having percussion in each tracks.

I would easily put this alongside ELP's 'Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends' as one of the best live albums (of pre-existing material), that can display some of the best pieces of recorded music in a new light, and give you more pleasure from your favorite pieces. Like ELP's album, this also removes some of the 'fluff' as some may call it that stops them from listening to the studio albums so much (not me, I love Jeremy Bender). Absolutely 5 stars.

Sebastianmoto | 5/5 |

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