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Topic: Amarok - The best of Mike Oldfield< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
Klaas Pier Offline




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Posted: July 15 2002, 10:27

I think Amarok is his best. But it's just like the story in the cd book. You either hear the music, or just a collection of sounds... Its completely personal.
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TheMan Offline




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Posted: Aug. 20 2002, 05:05

Oh God is this a lovely record!

 I certainly can understand those of you not really being able to enjoy it, since it is kind of sticky here and there ... sudden loud sounds right in your face.

But I love it. Very complex, all those small hidden references to other parts, those crazy angry guitars, a very subtle orchestration, ...

What a masterpiece Mike! Please give us Amarok II, Amarok III, Amarok IV, Amarok V, ...

TheMan
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knife edge Offline




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Posted: June 17 2003, 07:45

For me Amarok is a masterpiece, and as all real masterpieces it's difficult to appreciate. But this album it's not intended for annoying the Virgin people, but to demonstrate that he's able to make great music instead of poppish songs (i.e. Earth Moving). And this is GREAT MUSIC! Complicated, very well played, very well recorded... for what i can say... because
I'm not able to find it in Italy, I only have an MP3 form Internet.

Probably the only Album of Mike (with TBII) able to reach the first four albums of the seventies!

Sorry for my english.

Bye

               Andrea
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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: June 17 2003, 08:15

Wow, some people just like to make controversy, eh? I noticed this thread is, uh, 2 years old, but it's too funny. heh heh, what does he mean with "incoherence" there? This album is far more "coherent" than, say, Tubular Bells. There is clearly a sense of direction there, and many themes tying it up together.

Amarok is my second favourite album ever (behind Dark Side Of The Moon). It was the album I was searching for all my life.


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Check out http://ferniecanto.com.br for all my music, including my latest albums: Don't Stay in the City, Making Amends and Builders of Worlds.
Also check my Bandcamp page: http://ferniecanto.bandcamp.com
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Mike Chadwick Offline




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Posted: July 21 2003, 15:13

This is my favourite MIke's album beside TB1. Propably the best.
it is pure genius to make a music makde of pieces that is not boring and not annoying- it is a masterpiece!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !


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kik-eze kik-eze
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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: July 22 2003, 08:33

I'm in awe of Amarok. It sounds like Mike found the Heaven of Melodies and pinched the best ones and threw them all into one big, exciting mess with noises, dissonant guitars, sudden twists and loud synths. And it all works! I have always liked the way Mike could use one single melody to create various moods, and Amarok is the culmination of that, imo. Plus the melodies are just fantastic. All of them. I don't know, it makes me feel like God himself wrote those melodies.

--------------
Check out http://ferniecanto.com.br for all my music, including my latest albums: Don't Stay in the City, Making Amends and Builders of Worlds.
Also check my Bandcamp page: http://ferniecanto.bandcamp.com
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Phil Devonport
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Posted: Dec. 10 2003, 22:15

This is undoubtedly Mikes Greatest work & certainly not experimental at all!!

Think back to the first time you realy heard a piece of Mikes work & how impossible it would have been to describe to someone who didn't have a clue what it was -  With AMAROK Mike knew exactly what he was creating.

For those of you who have not read William Murrays fairy tale of two freinds who come across a 'Golden statue' (This can be found in the centre fold of the AMAROK cover).

I will try to type it for you, allthough I have had a few beers and am listening to AMAROK - Here we go...


A long time ago, in a place which may have been Ireland (but could just as easily have been Africa or Madagascar) there occured a very unusual series of events.

Two men - good freinds - heard of a great golden statue found standing in a great hole in the Earth, quite close to their village.  Now theese were a simple people and rumour spread like contagion.  Some said it was not a statue, but not a man either.  One thing was certain: it never moved. But it was also said that it produced a noise, a sound, or several sounds from time to time.  Now and then people had said, it made all of its noises at the same time.  The men made a plan to visit it.
They left early one morning.
They progressed slowly.
"Do you feel exhausted, as I do?" said the first man.
"I've felt better," said the other, "but we must achieve our aim.
After many hours the first man stopped in his tracks, staring into the distance.
"I see it," he said quietly.
"What do you see?"
"A gleaming of beautiful gold, a great haze of light..."
Despite their tiredness, they began to walk faster.  But however briskly they walked, the distance beetween them and what the tales refer to as "the gleaming golden light" remained the same.  After a while they stopped.  They were very frustrated.
The quiter of the two men said, "We'll never get there."
"If we walk back, we will get there, "said his friend.
The other surveyed him.
"Why do you think so?"
Without replying the first man rose, turned around and began walking back the way they had come.
To the amazement of the other, after a while the light became visible to him too and as they walked it drew closer.  Soon the countryside around them began to look as if there had been a great fire.  Blackened trees lay cracked on the ground and the Earth was scorched and barren.  They felt uneasy.  But they carried on.
Sure enough, they came to a massive charred hole.  It was as if a great rock had been hurled from the Heavens.
"What a mess," said the first man, "Let's go and look."
"You go", said his more cautious companion, "tell me what you see."
His friend crawled to the edge of the great hole.  Hanging onto a blasted but well rooted tree, he peered over.
In the great pit gouged from the Earth was the talest figure he had ever seen.  It was of a beautiful golden finish, entirely smooth.  It was not a statue, but it was not a man.  He had never seen anything like it, and he couldn't look away.
"We have come so far," he said to himself."  I hear it has voices to speak of things we cannot speak of."  He looked around, and there was his freind next to him and he was staring into the crater.
He said, "I am told that when a men hear it's voice, it stays in their ears, they cannot be rid of it.  It has many different voices: some happy, but others sad.  It roars like a baboon, murmours like a child, drums like the blazing arms of one thousand drummers, rustles like water in a glass, sings like a lover and laments like a preist."
"I have heard it says only one word," said the other.
His friend looked at him, "I was told it depends on how you listen."
"What can you mean?"
"Imagine a creature with a melody for a voice.  You either hear it or you don't."
"I do not understand," said his friend.
"He describes himself but he cannot see it; when he sees it, he cannot describe it.  But there is allways the sound, he will always make the sound."
They fell quiet.  A long time passed.  The second man turned to the first man.
"Doesn't look like were going to here it does it?"
"I have heard it."
His friend looked at him sharply.  "But there was no sound.
None.  What are you talking about?"
"Cheer up, cloth ears," he said, "It's only a fairytale. innit?"


 :p
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Phil Devonport
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Posted: Dec. 10 2003, 22:17

Just stop thinking too much and LISTEN!

:D  Happy
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Korgscrew Offline




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Posted: Dec. 10 2003, 22:49

You could have saved yourself a lot of typing, Phil: http://tubular.net/discography/AmarokStory.shtml  :cool:
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Phil Devonport
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Posted: Dec. 11 2003, 08:20

Damn! forgot I'd seen it somewhere!  :/
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jbm Offline




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Posted: Jan. 24 2004, 05:36

Hello,

This is my first post in the TubularBoard :)

I'm agree Amarok is a great album, the best !

jb from France
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Ghostmojo Offline




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Posted: April 05 2009, 18:48

I really love this album. I could write reams upon this and bore you all half to tears, but I won't. Instead I'll try to briefly say why I think it works and what makes it unique.

Primarily it is the first CD to take advantage of the digital format and create a piece of music an hour long with no real breaks - something quite impossible with the old LP vinyl albums (I can only imagine how disappointing it must be to have this record on vinyl (although you can hear where the 'break' is designed to be)), which is the obvious logical conclusion to where MO was going with his elongated orchestral pieces.

Reading "Changeling" you can also see Mike was highly pleased with this statement and considers it to be one of his best and most significant pieces of music. I can only agree, and what I marvel at most is just how many hundreds of little melodic phrases he manages to incorporate here, there and everywhere. There are some sections to this which are absolutely brilliant in their melodic and harmonic complexity - and speed!!!

An astonishing piece of work...


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" ... if you feel a little glum - to Hergest Ridge you should come ... "
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smillsoid Offline




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Posted: April 10 2009, 14:31

Amarok is Mike's protest album.  When this 'clicked' with me, I understood that this is clearly the best thing he has ever done - it's his most heart-felt statement.  I must say, I'm a little 'surprised' to see the musically-enlightened (i.e. Mike fans) resorting to insults about each other... but why should I expect this forum be any different from others I've visited?  Oh well.

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Ghostmojo Offline




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Posted: April 10 2009, 21:31

Quote (smillsoid @ April 10 2009, 14:31)
Amarok is Mike's protest album.  When this 'clicked' with me, I understood that this is clearly the best thing he has ever done - it's his most heart-felt statement

It certainly has some of the best playing on it with some dynamic acoustic as well as electric guitars powering it along. I'm usually just bowled over by the speed of some of it. It really races along in places :cool:

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" ... if you feel a little glum - to Hergest Ridge you should come ... "
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The Caveman Offline




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Posted: April 15 2009, 08:44

I've been listening to this album since it was released (not constantly obviously LOL)and it still intrigues me.It took a while to really 'get it' because it's so complex.Now it's a cd to really listen to when i have an hour to spare as it really needs to be listened to in it's entirety.
Like Ghostmojo i find the guitar playing staggering in places and i don't even think about trying to figure it out.It should have been hugely succesful but for Branson wanting to call it TBII!However it is a real gem and is only really known to fans.I think that's to our benefit though.
 Now the question is.......what will they do with the re-issue.As i understand it Mike recorded just what he felt like when he got up in the morning and went into the studio.Are there any left over bits?I for one can't wait to find out!


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THE COMING OF THE GREAT WHITE HANDKERCHEIF IS NIGH.
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Tati The Sentinel Offline




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Posted: April 15 2009, 10:08

If I have to define musically who is Mike Oldfield...I'd vote for Amarok as the best example of his abilities.

Me,an Amarok addict 4ever.


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"But it's always the outsider, the black sheep, that becomes the blockbuster." - Mike Oldfield, 2014

"I remember feeling that I'd been judged unfairly and that I was going to prove them wrong." - Peter Davison, 2011
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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: April 15 2009, 17:09

Quote (Ghostmojo @ April 05 2009, 18:48)
Primarily it is the first CD to take advantage of the digital format and create a piece of music an hour long with no real breaks - something quite impossible with the old LP vinyl albums

Brian Eno released Thursday Afternoon a couple of years before that. Amarok may not be THE first one, but it's among the few that tried at such an early age.

--------------
Check out http://ferniecanto.com.br for all my music, including my latest albums: Don't Stay in the City, Making Amends and Builders of Worlds.
Also check my Bandcamp page: http://ferniecanto.bandcamp.com
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Ghostmojo Offline




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Posted: April 16 2009, 06:37

Quote (Sir Mustapha @ April 15 2009, 17:09)
Quote (Ghostmojo @ April 05 2009, 18:48)
Primarily it is the first CD to take advantage of the digital format and create a piece of music an hour long with no real breaks - something quite impossible with the old LP vinyl albums

Brian Eno released Thursday Afternoon a couple of years before that. Amarok may not be THE first one, but it's among the few that tried at such an early age.

Thanks for the correction/clarification SirM. Perhaps I should have added the caveat (that I am aware of)? However, I think we both agree (with or without Eno and/or others) it was still pretty groundbreaking. It proved that MO still had what it takes to be relevant - although of course, we all know there are huge numbers of detractors out there who have dismissed everything Mike has done since TB1, and would have seen it as entirely meaningless...


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" ... if you feel a little glum - to Hergest Ridge you should come ... "
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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: April 16 2009, 06:57

Quote (Ghostmojo @ April 16 2009, 06:37)
Thanks for the correction/clarification SirM. Perhaps I should have added the caveat (that I am aware of)? However, I think we both agree (with or without Eno and/or others) it was still pretty groundbreaking.

Yes, definitely! Mike had always been extremely forward-thinking, but Amarok is damn nearly unbeatable because of the sheer scope of it. It's a huge album, and not just in terms of length; and not only that, but the performance and composition skill it contains makes it extremely complex, yet relatively accessible, staying away from any kind of "experimentalism" that detracts from the power of the music itself. The album only pushes the listeners away from it on purpose, and with humour. And on all other times, it's jumping out on you, taking no prisoners, leaving no stone unturned. Yeah, I just love it -- all these (6?) years haven't taken away a single bit of my absolute admiration of Amarok.

--------------
Check out http://ferniecanto.com.br for all my music, including my latest albums: Don't Stay in the City, Making Amends and Builders of Worlds.
Also check my Bandcamp page: http://ferniecanto.bandcamp.com
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smillsoid Offline




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Posted: April 17 2009, 13:50

Amarok is the greatest instrumental album of all time.  We now live in a world where the album format is being systematically marginalized by iPods and downloads.  Therefore it's unlikely we'll ever hear an hour-long masterpiece like this again.  Let's push for an 'Ultimate Edition' of this album, eh?

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http://www.reverbnation.com/simonjmills
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