![]() I’m sure this is the favorite of most Oldfield fans, and deservedly so. Instead, he goes for a wider expanse that avoids sci-fi clichés and goes for a deeper, quest into the meaning of life and humanity. Other than the uillean pipes on “Magellan” this is one of his least folk and Celtic influenced albums. The orchestral horns of “Lament for Atlantis” give Oldfield that symphonic punch he’s always wanted, but didn’t really attain on his actual orchestral album. The first track alone, “In the Beginning”, is among Oldfield’s best with all those aforementioned elements. He brings these themes into a cinematic world of looping rhythms, choral chants and ecstatic guitar. Oldfield takes space music themes, but not “space” music, beginning with audio from the Apollo 8 mission of astronaut Bill Anders quoting the Book of Genesis, among man’s early efforts to grapple with the universe. The Songs of Distant Earth is inspired by the Arthur C. This was a great advance for Oldfield and unlike the dated sounds of his 1980s albums, this one still holds up. The crescendos in this album leave you breathless. Ommadawn was a more unified work than either Tubular or Hergest, movements flowed from one to another as themes were transformed through different instrumentation, again, almost all played by Oldfield. It was one of the first Afro-Celt albums if you will, mixing the African drumming of Jabula with the Irish bodhrán. Oldfield converted turmoil into pastoral beauty and searing electric guitar orchestrations across the albums two sides. #TUBULAR BELLS 2003 TORRENT FULL#So unlike Tubular Bells and Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn was full of Irish Whistles, bodhrán drums and uillean pipes and it included members of The Chieftains. That caused him to look back on his life and the legacy bestowed on him by his Irish mother. And in the middle of recording, his mother died. Oldfield was still trying to handle the massive fame bestowed upon him from Tubular Bells when he was only 19. Ommadawn was Oldfield‘s third album and it was made in a time of turmoil. Midway through side two, a gothic choir singing in glossolalia but sounding like a cathedral choir in space are supplanted by African drums, marimba and the voice of Maddy Prior from Steeleye Span singing Longfellow‘s “Hiawatha.” From the screaming guitar solo over marimba cycles on “Part 3” to the tuned percussion segment of “Part 4” that sets up another screaming Oldfield solo, Incantations is the Mike Oldfield journey to take. The album moves through many motifs, all of them in overdrive. Oldfield’s guitar doesn’t come until after 4 minutes in, a siren of sustained melody. The influence of Philip Glass, who he covered on his next album, and Steve Reich, are readily apparent. ![]() It’s an exhilarating through-the-woods-and-over-the-fields rush. ![]() Spanning four LP sides, Incantations moves from the opening sustained choral Ahhhh, a moment of quiet reflection before he unleashes the cyclical melodies of Terry Oldfield and Sebastian Bell on flutes and David Bedford‘s strings. It expended greatly on the minimalist themes that launched Tubular Bells, but took them into much more complex areas. ![]() Incantations concluded the first quartet of Mike Oldfield recordings. Here are the albums that will embody the legacy of Mike Oldfield as well as a bonus list ranking the six editions of Tubular Bells. Mike Oldfield, aside from six different iterations of Tubular Bells, has not been one to repeat himself, so attempts at disco popularity with “Guilty” and punk commentary with “Punkadiddle” and pop with Man on the Rocks are to be forgiven as evidence of a musician who doesn’t stand still and is willing to take chances with his audience. There is nothing on this list of 10 Essential Mike Oldfield albums from the middle-era which, except for the overlooked and unjustly criticized Amarok, sound dated, clinical and derivative of Oldfield himself. ![]() There are three epochs of Mike Oldfield’s career: Tubular Bells to Incantations, Platinum to Heaven’s Open, Tubular Bells II to the present. It was not only diving into known favorites, but rediscovering works that have gotten lost in time and hearing these extraordinary sounds. And I have to say, it has been one of the most enjoyable and uplifting experiences I’ve had in a while. So I thought this would be a great opportunity to peruse his long and varied catalog of albums. Mike Oldfield is the 11th of 30 Icons of Echoes. ![]()
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