Korgscrew
Group: Super Admins
Posts: 3511
Joined: Dec. 1999 |
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Posted: Feb. 27 2000, 20:41 |
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I agree with murds - if you don't like Mike's music, there are plenty of other musicians out there, many of who sell less records than Mike and would love you to buy their latest CD ;-)
That said, I do think that Ommadawn is a brilliantly powerful album, which is more down to Mike's state of mind than anything else. If he tried making music like that now, it would probably just not feel the same, and the feel of Ommadawn is what makes it so powerful. Amarok was a highly creative album, and also something that Mike felt like doing at the time. If people start making him make types of music that he doesn't want to do, the music won't work out. When Mike started using synthesizers (on Ommadawn, actually) they changed the whole way his albums sounded (allowing Ommadawn to sound much 'bigger' in places than the previous albums). His use of the Fairlight CMI, particularly on Five Miles Out and Crises, changed the sound again - certainly Crises has a much brighter, clearer sound than the albums before it. Synthesizers have allowed Mike to get at sounds that he wouldn't have been able to get otherwise (its the old musician's 'sound in your head' thing - some musicians spend a whole career trying to get that one sound that they always think of but can never quite get an instrument to produce).
Its certainly true that Mike can create some extremely expressive music using 'real' instruments, and I'd hope he never forgets the value that a real instrument being played by a real musician has. He's produced all sorts of music during his career, and I'm sure that you'll find that his current dance music phase will eventually turn into something else. You may find, though, that if you find Mike's current music boring, you will still find it boring even if he's using different instruments. Change in the mood and feel of the music has to come from within the musician/composer and can't come from the instrument (although the instrument may help it along). For Mike's music to change, Mike himself has to change first.
Those are just some of my views. I can see the angle that both of you are coming from, and although I agree more with murds' points, I can also see error's viewpoint. But even if you don't like Mike's current music, there's not really much you can do about it - he'll do what he wants to, and getting him to change things could prove very difficult indeed...
Korgscrew
P.S. Mike, if you're out there and want advice on where to go next, just get in touch ;-) (Yeah, like I expect him to do that...)
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