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Kingsnake View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 18 2016 at 13:20
I'm putting some Mike Oldfield on my smartphone this week. I feel the urge for some 80's poppie stuff by the maestro.Thumbs Up
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 18 2016 at 19:58
Originally posted by Kingsnake Kingsnake wrote:

I'm putting some Mike Oldfield on my smartphone this week. I feel the urge for some 80's poppie stuff by the maestro.Thumbs Up

don't forget "Pictures in the Dark"!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 23 2016 at 04:25
I just listened to Ommadawn for the first time in a few years. This album still blows me away, and I still think it's Oldfield's best.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 23 2016 at 10:08
Originally posted by SteveG SteveG wrote:

I just listened to Ommadawn for the first time in a few years. This album still blows me away, and I still think it's Oldfield's best.
 
I think he stripped away any ounce of fat that he could with this. Its quite short but all the better for it.
 
Just think within the same year we had Vangelis - Heaven and Hell and a year later JMJ- Oxygene . Great times for progressive instrumental music.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 04 2017 at 08:22
I was listening to Amarok the other day and on the booklet it says the inspiration for it came from a Tubular Bells version he played in 1989. I'm very curious to hear it but I can't find it anywhere.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 04 2017 at 11:57
I am a huge Mike Oldfield fan.  I have a few.
Mike:
Tubular Bells
Hergest Ridge
Orchestral Tubular Bells. The
Ommadawn
Incantations
QE2
Five Miles Out
Crisis
Killing Fields, The Original Film Soundtrack
Islands
Earth Moving
Amarok
Tubular Bells 2
Songs of Distant Earth, The
Voyager
Tubular Bells III
Tubular Bells 2003
Light + Shade
Music Of The Spheres

Sally:
Water Bearer
Flaming Star

Mike and Sally:
Sallyangie, The Children of the Sun
Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 04 2017 at 21:09
Originally posted by Slartibartfast Slartibartfast wrote:

I am a huge Mike Oldfield fan.  I have a few.
Mike:
Tubular Bells
Hergest Ridge
Orchestral Tubular Bells. The
Ommadawn
Incantations
QE2
Five Miles Out
Crisis
Killing Fields, The Original Film Soundtrack
Islands
Earth Moving
Amarok
Tubular Bells 2
Songs of Distant Earth, The
Voyager
Tubular Bells III
Tubular Bells 2003
Light + Shade
Music Of The Spheres

Sally:
Water Bearer
Flaming Star

Mike and Sally:
Sallyangie, The<span style="white-space:pre">     </span>Children of the Sun


Since I got to know Oldfield, he got up to my top 5 artists, but I'm afraid I'm still missing many of his albums. Anyway, for what I have heard, his very best were his first 4 albums... and with his latest he really came back to form. By the way, I noticed you didn't include it (Return to Ommadawn) in your list of albums by him... if you really don't have it yet and you are such a huge fan, you should get that one right now. The previous one (Man in the Rocks) is OK, all just pop/rock songs... but the title track and Nuclear are really outstanding (as pop/rock songs... the best pop songs I have heard from him... or well, at least my favourite ones).
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 05 2017 at 03:42
Originally posted by TheLionOfPrague TheLionOfPrague wrote:

Ommadawn is his finest album. If it's anywhere near as good as it it'll be worth it.

Correction:  AMAROK is his finest album.

Ommadawn comes in a close second.  Many consider Amarok to be a spiritual follow up to Ommadawn.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 05 2017 at 20:45
I had read about that comparison between Amarok and Ommadawn (even from Oldfield himself, I think), and the love Amarok gets... yet it didn't really work so well for me. It's got lots of good music, but I just couldn't enjoy the one song album thing... it's just not practical, it's not always that one has the time to listen to the whole thing in one sitting. Plus, it's sort of disjointed, and before one has time to enjoy a musical passage it's already changing, and not always in a good way. However, I do love the "Africa 1" section, one of the most beatiful things he has recorded.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 05 2017 at 21:48
Originally posted by Dellinger Dellinger wrote:

I had read about that comparison between Amarok and Ommadawn (even from Oldfield himself, I think), and the love Amarok gets... yet it didn't really work so well for me. It's got lots of good music, but I just couldn't enjoy the one song album thing... it's just not practical, it's not always that one has the time to listen to the whole thing in one sitting. Plus, it's sort of disjointed, and before one has time to enjoy a musical passage it's already changing, and not always in a good way. However, I do love the "Africa 1" section, one of the most beatiful things he has recorded.


There is a reason why Amarok is like that. Mike Oldfield was upset (to say the least) with his record label, or more so at head of Virgin Records, Richard Branson. The length and structure of the track made it difficult for Virgin to produce any portion that would be radio friendly. I really really enjoy Amarok, but I do only play it when I have the time to listen to it in its entirety, for it's a journey that one takes from start to finish. It can't be compartmentalized or sectioned off, for even the sublime Arfrica I-III suite sounds off when played out of context.

There is however, a youtube video of this pianist (Gus Fogel) and a bassist that play Amarok as close for note to note as one could get and, other that less that optimal recording, is a great listen if you want a more "straightforward" Amarok.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 06 2017 at 21:04
Originally posted by zachfive zachfive wrote:

Originally posted by Dellinger Dellinger wrote:

I had read about that comparison between Amarok and Ommadawn (even from Oldfield himself, I think), and the love Amarok gets... yet it didn't really work so well for me. It's got lots of good music, but I just couldn't enjoy the one song album thing... it's just not practical, it's not always that one has the time to listen to the whole thing in one sitting. Plus, it's sort of disjointed, and before one has time to enjoy a musical passage it's already changing, and not always in a good way. However, I do love the "Africa 1" section, one of the most beatiful things he has recorded.


There is a reason why Amarok is like that. Mike Oldfield was upset (to say the least) with his record label, or more so at head of Virgin Records, Richard Branson. The length and structure of the track made it difficult for Virgin to produce any portion that would be radio friendly. I really really enjoy Amarok, but I do only play it when I have the time to listen to it in its entirety, for it's a journey that one takes from start to finish. It can't be compartmentalized or sectioned off, for even the sublime Arfrica I-III suite sounds off when played out of context.

There is however, a youtube video of this pianist (Gus Fogel) and a bassist that play Amarok as close for note to note as one could get and, other that less that optimal recording, is a great listen if you want a more "straightforward" Amarok.


Yeah, I know there was a reason for the way Amarok was design, but if Mike had a reason to do the album like that or not, it's still not the format I enjoy best for an album, even if he was mad at Virgin and wanted to piss them off. However, for me the Africa 1 section does stand nicely by it's own... perhaps because I first heard (and loved) that one as a stan alone in a compilation album. However, it does seem to me that Mike gave them the piece to extract a radio friendly part, or whatever.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2017 at 04:19
Although I have some of his stuff that is really good he beat the hell out of the Tubular Bells concept  to the piont where I gave up on him for a while. When Songs Of Distant Earth came out I thought wow, a science fiction/interstellar space exploration theme based on a novel by Arthur C. Clarke but he has to drag that Tubular Bells theme into it ( Tubular World ). When it came out in '94 his section was located in the new age section in a record store in my hometown of Montreal so that just demonstrates how confused people are over how to categorise him. I happen to have one of those picture discs of Tubular Bells that came out in '78. The mix sounds a bit different if you actually play it because it was a stereo remix of the quad remix if that makes any sense. I had an audiophile friend who explained it to me years ago. My favourite album by him has to be Crises. I played the crap out of it back in the 80s at one point.

I just put on side II of TB. Nobody really talks about side ii.


Edited by Kepler62 - August 07 2017 at 04:31
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