Mike Oldfield appreciation thread |
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Kingsnake
Forum Senior Member Joined: November 03 2006 Location: Rockpommelland Status: Offline Points: 1578 |
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.
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kenethlevine
Special Collaborator Prog-Folk Team Joined: December 06 2006 Location: New England Status: Offline Points: 8940 |
Posted: December 18 2016 at 19:58 | |
don't forget "Pictures in the Dark"!
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SteveG
Forum Senior Member Joined: April 11 2014 Location: Kyiv In Spirit Status: Offline Points: 20602 |
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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richardh
Prog Reviewer Joined: February 18 2004 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 27729 |
Posted: December 23 2016 at 10:08 | |
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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Meltdowner
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: June 25 2013 Location: Portugal Status: Offline Points: 10231 |
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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Slartibartfast
Collaborator Honorary Collaborator / In Memoriam Joined: April 29 2006 Location: Atlantais Status: Offline Points: 29630 |
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
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Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...
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Dellinger
Forum Senior Member VIP Member Joined: June 18 2009 Location: Mexico Status: Offline Points: 12695 |
Posted: August 04 2017 at 21:09 | |
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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ghost_of_morphy
Prog Reviewer Joined: March 08 2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 2755 |
Posted: August 05 2017 at 03:42 | |
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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Dellinger
Forum Senior Member VIP Member Joined: June 18 2009 Location: Mexico Status: Offline Points: 12695 |
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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zachfive
Forum Senior Member Joined: November 13 2005 Location: Kitsap WA Status: Offline Points: 770 |
Posted: August 05 2017 at 21:48 | |
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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Dellinger
Forum Senior Member VIP Member Joined: June 18 2009 Location: Mexico Status: Offline Points: 12695 |
Posted: August 06 2017 at 21:04 | |
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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Kepler62
Forum Senior Member Joined: February 09 2017 Location: Fort Erie Status: Offline Points: 501 |
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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