manintherain
Group: Members.
Posts: 546
Joined: Mar. 2004 |
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Posted: June 22 2012, 14:14 |
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| Quote (Korgscrew @ June 22 2012, 17:51) | | Quote (kcarr292 @ June 22 2012, 15:11) | | I hope this isn't classed as the "project of a lifetime". |
No, it's not. What is classed as the 'project of a lifetime' is another matter, but it's not this!
Compilations like this are never aimed at the hard-core fans. I think it's an interesting concept and certainly a slightly more unusual selection the 'average' Mike Oldfield compilation.
Compilations are just a fact of music industry life - record companies (rightly or wrongly) feel that they're necessary for the casual buyer, and the person looking for an introduction into an artist's work.
With Mike having moved his back catalogue to Mercury, all these new releases are necessary, as his Virgin-era albums are all out of print. I'm sure that Mercury/Universal are very much aware that there's a large number of people who have the material already, but they're also hoping to attract a new generation of buyers to Mike's music, and working on making sure that his albums continue to be available for sale. That's going to necessarily involve issuing all the old stuff again - and I suspect there'd have been just as much, if not more, complaint if they'd basically repackaged the old 2000 remasters and released those.
I can see how the involvement of Mike and the choices he's made are proving controversial, but then it is his music. Not that we shouldn't necessarily try to suggest that there might be other viewpoints on some of his material and that those choices maybe ought to be reconsidered at some point (and certainly not to say that it isn't worthy of debate), but I think to an extent, we'll just have to live with his choices and decide whether we want to buy the products or not. Ultimately, if they don't sell any, they'll probably reassess their strategy.
There's been enough talk, in various contexts, of Mike working on new material, so I don't think there's any need to give up hope there. He'll work on it at his own pace and announcements will be made when the time is right, and I don't think that any of these back catalogue releases should be seen as something that's taking the place of him doing that. Rather, they're a sign of his choice of approach, that he also wants to take some time to look over his past and take stock a little.
Nobody's saying any of us should be excited (apart from the tone of some of the press releases, but they're always like that! about the back catalogue releases - I can say that I'm not. Interested, yes, but not excited. We put this news up here because we know people want to hear it (it's been doing the rounds in various parts of the forum and elsewhere, during the time we were waiting for official confirmation!. Once there's confirmed news of new projects, we'll make sure everyone gets to see that too. |
Very well said, Korgscrew!
But I have to admit that I tend to get excited once in a while when a new remastered edition is being published. This includes Tubular Bells and Hergest Ridge with the first mix, the Lost Version of Ommadawn and Piano Improvisations on Incantations.
I have been pestering Mike in the past through all available channels to release the demos of Tubular Bells (which he has done on the DVD collection) as well as the first recording of Ommadawn (being the Lost Version).
So therefore I am very grateful to him for having those issued on the recent releases.
(By incident there´s Shadow On The Wall being played right now on the local radio station)
Anyway I am still a tiny bit disappointed that a couple of tracks didn´t get a chance to be released (Froggy, Sally and Alright Now, just to mention a few).
I can understand that Mike might not be very fond of them, but hey, they were already available. So why not stick to your musical past, mate? Give it a go and we´re also looking to anything new, that you will record.
To that we can look forward. This we already have.
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Which bits of which, we shall debate and eventually find out, but at first glances it's been the out of sequence Millennium Bell tracks that have intrigued. They may sound strange by themselves but I'll be fairly keen to see how they begin and end. 
and 4 tracks for the only Millenium Bell CD (even if classical-like Lake Constance and Broad Sunlit Uplands are so beautiful songs), I am pretty pleased for the choice. 