quoted 11 lines From: Richard Barnett <richard_barnett@iname.com>
> From: Richard Barnett <richard_barnett@iname.com>
> Subject: (idm) Re: Mike Oldfield
> > (Incidentally, Oldfield's _Tubular Bells 3_ is really quite good, a lot
> > better than the first two, once you get over the shock of the "Moonlight
> > Shadow" clone. I know, I know, but at least he doesn't put great long
> > post-modernist self-analysis rambles over his tunes. Well, perhaps
> > except for Amarok, which had that lady going on about "endings being
> > just beginnings". Maybe Mike Oldfield was taking the piss out of DJ
> > Shadow five years in advance. Hmm. I should stop now.)
>
> I'm surprised to hear that about TB3, since TB2 was really scary.
Well, it's still a Mike Oldfield record (completely IDM-free zone,
cheesy in parts and all that), but it's a good one for a change,
though it lacks zip. I think he just did TB2 just to piss off Virgin,
since he got sucked into a ten album contract with them to start off
with, and had to do another three to get a better deal.
And I think only hippies liked the original _Tubular Bells_. I
suspect that it was popular in the same way as Roni Size's _New
Forms_ was. I.e., it was cool to namedrop and say you had it even
though you could only actually bear listening to it twice.
_Hergest Ridge_ and _Ommadawn_ are good though.
quoted 8 lines Amarok, though, is probably the best thing he's done for a long time,
> Amarok, though, is probably the best thing he's done for a long time,
> despite the voice at the end of the second side being slightly
> off-putting and a little bit too
> cryptic for its own good. It's clearly meant to be Margaret Thatcher, but
> I really can't work out why.
>
> Anyway, Middle of Nowhere is much much better than Oldfield's average
> quality level.
Yes, you're fairly correct there. He didn't put much out worth
listening to between 1983 and 1994 aside from _Amarok_, but that was
probably a result of having to put out half-baked pop albums to work
off the said contract. _Songs of Distant Earth_ is alright, the "Let
There Be Light" single off it with the Hardfloor and *ahem* TB
remixes is pretty good if you can find it.
--
Graham Hubert Freeman. Graham the Happy Scum. WWGD.
Your computer has been Alstoned.
http://www.mpx.com.au/~gths mailto:gths@flat-earth.org
... Texas. What a hell of a place to die.