TUBULAR BELLS

A one-man band consisting of the 19-year old Mike Oldfield is delivering here something totally original. So good, that he alone was responsible for the succes of a new plate-lable called Virgin.

Tubular Bells consists of two long compositions which contain an excessive amount of instruments, which were all played by Mike Oldfield. The openingtune became welknown because of the movie The Excorsist, which used it as a moviesoundtrack. The succes of this record however is not just because of the popularity of this movie, but of the amazing quality of the music.

The styles played on this record are (pyschedelic) folk, rock, hardrock and some protometal. The mainstyl however is folk played by many acoustic instruments like spanish guitars, mandolin and timpani. The progression of the compositions are really interesting because the many changes in timescales. The maintheme comes back a several times, but always slightly different, because of these different timescales.

There are no drums on the record, but only the timpani. Therefor this record can be seen as an early example of new age music, but the compositions are more in the folkrock category. On the second composition is an early example of grunting. I don't think these cooky monster vocals have influenced the death metal scene, but Mike Oldfield certainly was one of the first examples of using vocals in a demonic way.

Mike Oldfield sounds really different then the ongoing progressive scene at the time. It's really amazing how innovative he was, while progressive rock was on it's peak. This is one of my favourite records for a long time now, because this belonged to the first records I own. I've listened to it at least a hundred times and reached some kind of overkill. But after some time I listen to it again with an enhanced stereo set and I get the same joy by listening as if it was the first time. A great record and recommended for several reasons: it's highly original, it was a boy's dream coming true and it's full of nice melodies and ideas.