Dirk Star
Group: Members
Posts: 1331
Joined: Sep. 2007 |
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Posted: Oct. 16 2008, 10:25 |
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| Quote (Sir Mustapha @ Mar. 31 2004, 12:27) | | Fwow. I realised this is tougher than I thought. For me, really, the whole is infinitely better than the sum of its parts. Incantations is one magnificent, mindblowing masterpiece, and it's just too difficult for me to choose a favourite part. In the end, I picked Part 1, mostly because of the way it works as a sort of "journey" through the whole album, before the themes sink in deeper. Part 3 comes next, with the energy, and the incredibly tense second half with the drums and synths and all. Part 2 and 4 are slightly inferior. I don't mind the Hiawatha poem on Part 2, but maybe it was overdone. Part 4 is beautiful, too, but the tension and mood it creates is more important than the music itself... for my ears. I dunno. Incantations is fantastic, easily one of my top Oldfield albums ever. |
Well I voted for part one also,and then trying to think about some of my reasons for doing that.And to which order of preferance I`d maybe put the rest of the album.Well reading your post here Sir M (from four and a bit years ago now heh heh) well yeah I think that more or less sums up my feelings on it exactly.
I mean Side One in a lot of respects is kind of like an extended overture for the rest of the album I suppose.But it also takes us straight into the "journey" as you say almost immediatly.You know it`s like as soon as those strings start up after that glorious multi vocal/gong crescendo,it`s almost as if I`m being cast off into flight or something.Across oceans,fields,forests and mountains I suppose.It`s an album of such great traveling imagery I feel.Also as you say a lot of the themes are explored more fully,or in a different light elsewhere on the album.But I think as the "themes" stand on side one anyway, they seem to me to be present here in their most complete and purest form in a way.You know I think taken out of it`s context it`s the only complete side that best encapsulates the rest of the album.Again I agree the rest of the album is outstanding anyway and Side Three would be a close second for me also.
But the point I think that I would agree with you here the most would be your "summing up" of Side Four as "the tension and mood it creates is more important than the music itself"..I mean that`s absolutely spot on for me,I would`nt know how to describe it any other way I don`t think.Because the great thing about Side Four is the fact that you know you`re being "lead" into those two great guitar crescendo`s if you like.You kind of need all that tension to fully appreciate it I guess..I remember years ago I had an album by Weather Report called Domino Theory.And the title track of that album was just this brilliant little riff thing kind of building up all the time creating more and more tension as it went.They had Omar Hakim on the drums back then,and he was kind of really integral to this track and there was some really great inter-playing on it by the rest of the musicians.But the thing was with Domino Theory it did`nt bloody go anywhere..You know you`d get to the end of that thing and they just kind of tagged on this really lame one minute Jazzy/time signature thing.That then quickly faded out almost out of embarrassment it seemed to me..Talk about an anti-climax..That`s one thing I`d certainly never accuse of Side Four of Incantations,just the complete opposite for me in fact.
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