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Topic: New compilation and 6 album set< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
Olivier Offline




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Posted: June 25 2012, 10:46

Quote (Milamber @ June 25 2012, 05:09)
What album do you use to demonstrate your Love of his music..?

"The Complete"????

Tubular Bells II
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Milamber Offline




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Posted: June 26 2012, 03:55

Quote (Olivier @ June 26 2012, 02:46)
Quote (Milamber @ June 25 2012, 05:09)
What album do you use to demonstrate your Love of his music..?

"The Complete"????

Tubular Bells II

Good pick actually...blends of his old style and what was to come  :)
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equinoxe Offline




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Posted: June 26 2012, 04:58

Quote (Milamber @ June 26 2012, 03:55)
Quote (Olivier @ June 26 2012, 02:46)
Quote (Milamber @ June 25 2012, 05:09)
What album do you use to demonstrate your Love of his music..?

"The Complete"????

Tubular Bells II

Good pick actually...blends of his old style and what was to come  :)

I also think, that TB2 is Mike Oldfield essential sounding all over the album. It contains all of his most recognizable playing techniques at the time.
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crises1980 Offline




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Posted: June 27 2012, 19:48

It's 2012. Record sales keep dropping dramatically and compilation albums became a remnant of the past, when it was an actual way of getting to know an artist through a selection of what record companies considered to be their most attractive songs in terms of popularity. Period.

'The Complete' was such a perfect piece of work in such a perfect moment, that no other later compilation will be able to equal it.

As previously mentioned here, Mike Oldfield's career has been so erratic, especially ever since he left Virgin Records, that a new compilation is likely to be redundant and inefficient. 'The Platinum Collection' was an unexpected surprise, as it contained quite a few rarities. Yet it was mostly focused on Virgin years.

'Two Sides' is, in my opinion, a preposterous thingy. After a 40 years career with works so diverse as 'Hergest Ridge', 'Earth Moving', 'The Songs of Distant Earth' and 'Light + Shade'... someone at Universal thought Mike Oldfield has 'two sides'. Brilliant. Let's go superficial. Then you find a 29 songs  selection hard to understand. Nothing from 'Incantations' but two songs from 'Music of the Spheres'? Nothing from 'Hergest Ridge' but yet more loops from 'Light+Shade'? Two cover versions? Okay, both 'Etude' and 'The Song of the Sun' are awesome renditions, but yet... I know everyone would have a different tracklist in mind for a Mike Oldfield compilation, but naming these 29 tracks 'the very best of Mike Oldfield' is just nonsense. It might be a marketing decision. But we're not in 1994 anymore and people do have access to music in a different way. So, instead of releasing something actually interesting for both fans and newcomers, it's just the nth release with bells on it. Yay.
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equinoxe Offline




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Posted: June 28 2012, 02:44

Quote (crises1980 @ June 27 2012, 19:48)
It's 2012. Record sales keep dropping dramatically and compilation albums became a remnant of the past, when it was an actual way of getting to know an artist through a selection of what record companies considered to be their most attractive songs in terms of popularity. Period.

'The Complete' was such a perfect piece of work in such a perfect moment, that no other later compilation will be able to equal it.

As previously mentioned here, Mike Oldfield's career has been so erratic, especially ever since he left Virgin Records, that a new compilation is likely to be redundant and inefficient. 'The Platinum Collection' was an unexpected surprise, as it contained quite a few rarities. Yet it was mostly focused on Virgin years.

'Two Sides' is, in my opinion, a preposterous thingy. After a 40 years career with works so diverse as 'Hergest Ridge', 'Earth Moving', 'The Songs of Distant Earth' and 'Light + Shade'... someone at Universal thought Mike Oldfield has 'two sides'. Brilliant. Let's go superficial. Then you find a 29 songs  selection hard to understand. Nothing from 'Incantations' but two songs from 'Music of the Spheres'? Nothing from 'Hergest Ridge' but yet more loops from 'Light+Shade'? Two cover versions? Okay, both 'Etude' and 'The Song of the Sun' are awesome renditions, but yet... I know everyone would have a different tracklist in mind for a Mike Oldfield compilation, but naming these 29 tracks 'the very best of Mike Oldfield' is just nonsense. It might be a marketing decision. But we're not in 1994 anymore and people do have access to music in a different way. So, instead of releasing something actually interesting for both fans and newcomers, it's just the nth release with bells on it. Yay.


It's obvious, that it's just impossible to contain the complete essential of Mike's music on the two cd's only... just impossible...

Agree that the best compilation (relatively to his up to then works) was 'The Complete' from 1985 as it contains all main compositions from that period. Also a very good essentials were the 4cd 'Elements' compilation and then 'The Platinum Collection' as those have full of nice rarities.

Mike records from over 40 years, and he has recorded so much different music, that it's just hard to fit all of his musical horizons on 1-2 cd's. Now i think, it should consist of at last 6 cd's to make a good, reliable essential compilation of Mike Oldfield's music.
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MikeArnold Offline




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Posted: June 29 2012, 02:40

Quite a good blend of music. Should be an interesting introduction to Mike's music for the uninitiated.
The only part that really confuses me is on the second disc where the track listing progresses from "To France" to "Etude" and on to "Magic Touch".  Kind of upsets the flow and continuity.  But, that's just my opinion.
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Thomas Höög Offline




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Posted: June 30 2012, 12:36

Will it bee available on iTunes Store? I don't buy the actual cd:s anymore.
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Pat Gleeson Offline




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Posted: June 30 2012, 13:40

Quote (Thomas Höög @ June 30 2012, 17:36)
Will it bee available on iTunes Store? I don't buy the actual cd:s anymore.

I would be very surprised if it isn't available ...
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HuanCry Offline




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Posted: July 05 2012, 08:15

According to Amazon UK The Lake is an excerpt not the whole thing as stated by Korgscrew ..... Amazon gives 5 mins 29 seconds not the full 12 + mins ?  :(
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Cavalier (Lost Version) Offline




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Posted: July 06 2012, 13:02

Quote (equinoxe @ June 24 2012, 05:18)
Quote (Reena @ June 24 2012, 04:17)
Quote (Milamber @ June 24 2012, 07:28)
Quote (captainjjb @ June 24 2012, 12:59)
Quote (Olivier @ June 23 2012, 10:45)
Quote (Cavalier (Lost Version) @ June 23 2012, 07:40)
The Millennium Bell track has a full blown, faster-than-light, anti-gravity escape route out of the black hole for the sublime moment where Sunlight... and Lake Constance collpase in on one another :) :)  :)

Thanks for reminding me. We don't study enough his transitions. In Incantations in particular, I almost like the more the silent but meaningful musical universe in between the notes we hear than the notes themselves.

yes and there isn't any Incantations in the "two sides" at all.  Maybe he'd had enough of it after last year.  For me it was the high point of his career.

A high point yes (And a favourite of mine too)..But for the non fan not really instantly accessible.....

Well, it depends on which excerpts are chosen, but in my opinion Amarok is even less accessible than Incantations for the non-fans. Mike is probably only human... When he chose the tracks for this compilation he was probably a little fed up with Incantations. When I have listened to an album several times in a row, I also turn to something else.... Right now I'm rediscovering Discovery.... ;-)


Maybe Amarok is less acceptable from all his albums but for me is just #1 in his discography - a timeless masterpiece :) Hmm... Incantations is the album that i listen to very uncommonly. Maybe this is because of this all orchestral arrangement. Many vocalizations, many orchestral sounds, but a little of Oldfield playing in it (please, don't scream at me now!! It's only my feelings). Part 2 is just boring, the same with part 4... Part 1 and 3 are better but overall i just don't like this album much...  I like even The Killing Fields soundtrack more than Incantations... Maybe i just don't like the guitar playing style on this album. In Amarok guitars are very agressive, massive and sudden (the same as in Ommadawn or Taurus 2 but even more! ). Maybe this is the best thing i like in Oldfield music - screaming and aggressive guitars (and not exactly speed playing, because i feel the same with Oceania track which i can express as "romantic aggressiveness" type of guitar playing :) ) because this associate me with Mike exposing his deepest musical emotions by playing like that.

Couldn't resist it - look how tiddly my original post is getting!  I imagine that before inifinity kicks in, a practical forum limit of quotes will manifest itself!

Regarding a more recent observation, I was waiting to see how the lengths of the first disc's tracks would look, that we might have a couple of weeks' speculation about which bits will be which.  I suppose Sentinel was never styled as the Single Restructure, but a trade-off for the rest of The Lake from somewhere might have been very welcome.

Unwelcome observation to follow - those of you with a nervous disposition may wish to look away...  A couple of weeks speculating?   Amazon UK's release date for Two Sides has slipped to July 30th.  The others still clinging on to the 23rd...


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"Who was that?"
"That was Venger - the force of Evil!  I am Dungeon Master - your guide in the realm of Dungeons & Dragons!"
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qjamesfloyd Offline




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Posted: July 06 2012, 13:48

It will also be very interesting to see which of the 2 excerpts of Amarok are included, because as we all know it has to be heard from start to finish, so to narrow it down to two excerpts should be interesting.


Maybe I should have looked at Amazon first ;) seems like there will be a total of 20ish minutes of Amarok over the 2 excerpts, which is a 3rd of the album, so any new people comming to Mike's work for the first time, would get a good idea of what It's like I guess.
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HuanCry Offline




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Posted: July 06 2012, 16:44

The Amarok excerpts are the first 5 mins and the last 15 mins  :cool:
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Korgscrew Offline




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Posted: July 06 2012, 19:00

Quote (HuanCry @ July 05 2012, 12:15)
According to Amazon UK The Lake is an excerpt not the whole thing as stated by Korgscrew ..... Amazon gives 5 mins 29 seconds not the full 12 + mins ?  :(

That's very possible - the information I got given about this release was a bit on the vague side when it came to these details. I did check with Universal to make sure that what I was putting up was accurate, but I'd believe Amazon over that in this instance (the 'excerpt' bit probably slipped their attention). I've updated the original post to reflect that.

Intriguing choice of excerpt lengths in general there...
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Ratty Offline




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Posted: July 08 2012, 12:39

God not again. Another compilation, another TB logo on the package. Cant they come up with something original at least. How many times will this happen again? you can only 'flog a dead horse' for so long. I'm a lifelong Oldfield fan but this is one compilation too many!!!

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The tolling of the iron bell
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To hear the softly spoken magic spells
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Cudsie Offline




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Posted: July 08 2012, 14:47

As has been mentioned several times..."best of" compilations are very rarely for the fans. A new "best of" is required because previous ones are out of print and also the material is with a new copyright holder.

Best of's are for the casual listener and to try and entice new listeners to the back catalogue.
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Ratty Offline




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Posted: July 09 2012, 14:50

I understand what you are saying Cudsie. And i could understand the logic of this argument had Mike Oldfield been prolific over the last couple of years. However, he hasnt and has pretty much disappeared from the music radar altogether. Without any new music for 'new fans' to say..'i like that, wonder what else this guy has done'.......there is no point in the record company cashing in on a best of because i guarantee the only people who will buy it are us, the die hard fans...who have heard of Mike. Unfortunately to those who have not yet discovered his music, i am afraid they are not going to do so now. It will be us, his loyal fans who will add yet another compilation with a TB cover to our CD collections. (Oh, thats if you can find it stocked in a record shop!!!;)

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The tolling of the iron bell
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To hear the softly spoken magic spells
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Delfín Offline




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Posted: July 10 2012, 00:09

Quote (Mat Cochrane @ June 22 2012, 12:50)
So… is that the project of a lifetime then?

Ha ha ha!! That's a good one!!

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Delfín Offline




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Posted: July 10 2012, 00:10

Quote (sverm @ June 22 2012, 12:51)
The Lake!  That is the first time I've seen this considered anywhere on a compilation!  Truly one of my favorites!

Agree!!!

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Delfín Offline




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Posted: July 10 2012, 00:16

Not understanding the swapping of three great Balearic albums... 'Incantations', 'TBIII', 'Tres Lunas'. And then four tracks from 'The Millennium Bell'...?????????

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crises1980 Offline




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Posted: July 22 2012, 09:53

According to Universal Music Canada press release:

Quote
For 2012 we present Two Sides: The Very Best Of, a brand-new 2CD TV-advertised compilation curated by Oldfield himself alongside personal track-by-track sleeve notes.

As a special bonus, each purchase will be entitled to free download of an exclusive live performance this year.


Live performance? MOTS Bilbao concert? Or did they actually rescued more concerts from 1980-1981 tours?
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