Dirk Star
Group: Members
Posts: 1331
Joined: Sep. 2007 |
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Posted: Sep. 25 2007, 05:01 |
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Quote (TOBY @ Sep. 24 2007, 10:11) | Quote (Sir Mustapha @ Sep. 24 2007, 09:32) | But the sole most important thing is that oh-my-gawd Musica Universalis is actually a SUBTLE and NECESSARY and MELODIC climax and doesn't try to blow my eardrums off for 5 minutes like blasted evil see-you-in-hell Far Above the Clouds. That, to me, is a must. |
One of the things I took a while to appreciate about MOTS are the things Mike left off it rather than what he included. Other than obvious things I knew i was going to enjoy seeing the back of like his drum pad sounds and synth stuff I actually really like the fact there isn't his text book screeching electric guitar solos over everything. His acoustic guitar playing really shines on the album as a result I think. Don't get me wrong I love Mike's electric guitar playing but it does sometimes come at the expense of certain pieces having any degree of subtlety about them.
Dirk Star - cheers for the compliment. A good point about John Barry. His stuff is amazing. |
[QUOTE]A good point about John Barry. His stuff is amazing.
Just to pick up on the John Barry thing here. I gave a copy of this album to a good friend of mine,and sent him a link to this forum, so he could find out what I really thought of it. Anyway he sent me the following message in response........
Cant help it man, read all the forum no mention of him, but dont take this the wrong way but did John Barry have anything at all to do with this album? anything? pop round for a cuppa with old mikey and left some string arragement on his chair? no? come on its there, its everywhere, lush strings, massive soundscape huge dynamics, did they get chattin in pub and maybe big john left his briefcase on the stool? mmmmm! Have you heard those horns? HOW WAY MAN. Iam not dissing it, its class, I wouldnt hold it against him if he did a bit of pilferin in the name of sellin a good album to hungry listeners, we all run out of ideas sooner or later, so hey, if your biggest ideas are the best, why not re-use them, and if that doesnt work...... nick some
And this is what I sent him in reply....
Ha ha that`s really weird dude, because if you go onto the page after my first post I mention him replying to a message from somebody else. Page 10 I think it is. He actually worked with a bloke called Karl Jenkins who did those Adieumus albums (sp??) I`m not a big fan of his to be honest, so I was a bit concerned it would turn out pants. But I needn`t have been concerned like cos it`s certainly nobody else but Oldfield calling all the shots here.
At the end of the day because I don`t listen to that much orchestral music really I didn`t want to make too much of the John Barry comparison on the forum, in case I got shot down with shit. But I thought I would just conveniantly drop his name into another post because like yourself, I certainly heard comparisons there. I guess I`ll have a peek later and see if anybody makes anything of it. Probably not though in all honesty.
When you think about it logically though they are both composers who try and write from the heart. Most of their melodies are quite simplistic really, invoking memories of childhood or something magical that is always just out of reach.(wot the fuck am i smoking here????????) I suppose because Oldfield has decided to go "Classical" as such...I think a lot of those similarities have been magnified. They are also both big fans of celtic and pastoral themes as well, so most of those melodies tend to be carried by flutes, clarinets,oboe etc, and are often. very rounded and lyrical. Sometimes Oldfield`s melodies are probably too rounded I feel, which is why I think he works better when he`s working them into larger scale pieces like this one. And like you say the strings are very lush in places there`s no denying that. All i can say is great minds think alike. By which i mean Oldfield and Barry, and not us two daft fuckers.....
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