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Topic: Saxophone ruins "Misty"< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
New Incantation Offline




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Posted: Oct. 20 2007, 05:47

I must admit I hate the "sax" sound when I first played the album a few days ago: but now after a few repeat plays Im slowly beginning to either love the ambient sound or just using selective hearing in trying to block it out of my mind.

But as others have said, this is typical Mike: he loves to experiment  and he has every right to do whatever he wants when laying down an album. It is up to the listener to "get inside Mike's head" and try and understand what he was trying to say with this album.
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Tati The Sentinel Offline




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Posted: Oct. 20 2007, 15:29

I was listening to Tr3s Lunas recently and that sax-guitar ruins all of the tracks that features it :(

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"But it's always the outsider, the black sheep, that becomes the blockbuster." - Mike Oldfield, 2014

"I remember feeling that I'd been judged unfairly and that I was going to prove them wrong." - Peter Davison, 2011
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trcanberra Offline




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Posted: Feb. 25 2008, 05:31

Quote (pielawa @ June 05 2002, 01:51)
Hello everyone,
as "Tres Lunas" is spinning in my CD player for three days now, I'd like to say that I would like to give the album a 6/10. Of course far better than "Voyagers", of course not an "Amarok", a nice soundtrack to relax: that's what Mike's intention may has been.
But see how Mike has ruined one of his best tracks, namely "Misty" right at the beginning. The saxophone might fit into the other tracks easily, but here this squeeking sound ruins the whole spacey feeling of this wonderful piece of melody.    :rolleyes:
Another instrument would have been great here, a clarinette or a flute. Maybe Mike shouldn't have played too long with his newly discovered toy.
Getting rid of the saxophone would turn "Misty" into a more enjoyable masterpiece.   :cool:
What do you think? ...

I like the sax, on this and some of the other tracks, nice change of pace and gives it a moody feel.
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Sweetpea Offline




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Posted: Dec. 10 2008, 15:50

I don't have a problem with the sax sound on "Misty" or most of the other places it's used. I do find it a little jarring on "No Man's Land (Reprise)" (which is an otherwise fine track), though. So it does put me off at that point. Otherwise, it's all okee dokee with me.

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"I'm no physicist, but technically couldn't Mike both be with the horse and be flying through space at the same time? (On account of the earth's orbit around the Sun and all that). So it seems he never had to make the choice after all. I bet he's kicking himself now." - clotty
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Scatterplot Offline




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Posted: Dec. 10 2008, 16:14

This is REALLY bugging me!!! MO said he hated saxophones because they sounded like flatulence! First we have Heaven's Open's use of it and now this. What gives?? What could cause the reversal of an Oldfield decision? It's got to be either a flux capacitor or a particle accelerator.

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Bassman Offline




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Posted: Dec. 10 2008, 21:50

I think if MO had the forethought to put into the liner notes, "guitars sounding like saxophones" (like he did for TB with "guitars sounding like bagpipes") then it would have made the sax effect slightly more legit.  As it is, the "fake-ness" of the sound sticks out like a sore thumb and, try as I might, I can't help but notice it and wince a bit.  It would have been amazing if he had gotten Raph Ravenscroft or some such to do real sax lines.  It didn't necessarily have to be a one-man show... he already had a few other people doing some work on it.  One more wouldn't have hurt.

Oh well.  My favorite is "No Mans Land", anyway (with "Moonlight Stroll" my fave on the unofficial album).
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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: Dec. 11 2008, 05:35

Quote (Scatterplot @ Dec. 10 2008, 16:14)
This is REALLY bugging me!!! MO said he hated saxophones because they sounded like flatulence! First we have Heaven's Open's use of it and now this. What gives?? What could cause the reversal of an Oldfield decision? It's got to be either a flux capacitor or a particle accelerator.

But that is not a saxophone per se: it's a MIDI controlled synthetic emulated saxophone controlled by guitar and that sounds nothing like the real thing! It's different, see.

At least now I sort of block out the sax and listen to what's around it. I think I learned to just let it go, or something.


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nightspore Offline




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Posted: Dec. 11 2008, 07:13

I think Alan D referred to it as a "saxotar". But if an instrument sounds like a saxophone, to all intents and purposes it might just as well be called one. The problem with the sax on Tres Lunas is that the instrument connotes the American jazz age, with smoky night clubs and gangsters chatting up "dames"; it can't help but jar when used in a spacey setting. As for the implied changing of Mike's views with regard to the sax, I get the impression that he often changes his mind. For example, there's "On Horseback", where the idea of space travel is laughed at; yet a few albums and a course of Exegesis later and space travel is heartily embraced. People change; there's nothing wrong with that per se.
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Dirk Star Offline




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Posted: Dec. 11 2008, 08:38

[quote=nightspore,Dec. 11 2008, 12:13][/quote]
Quote
The problem with the sax on Tres Lunas is that the instrument connotes the American jazz age, with smoky night clubs and gangsters chatting up "dames"; it can't help but jar when used in a spacey setting.


:laugh: See I quite like that myself because it kind of reminds me of the Star Wars bar room scene maybe.Except it`s a little bit later in the evening I guess,and everyones kind of chillin` out.You know I`ve maybe got some kind of little smoke filled partition to myself there,and I`m busy chatting up some exotic green chick with purple hair or something.Praying to God that old William Shatner does`nt show up in his corset to ruin the moment.
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: Dec. 11 2008, 17:22

I guess if you've really familiar with that scene it would have the effect you describe, Dirk. But it just shows how great that kind of music's associations are that Lucas used it when he was doing his nightclub/cantina scene. Did Star Trek ever do a nightclub scene? I know they did a Western one ("Spectre of the Gun"), as did Lost in Space ("West of Mars").
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Dirk Star Offline




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Posted: Dec. 12 2008, 03:30

Quote (nightspore @ Dec. 11 2008, 22:22)
I guess if you've really familiar with that scene it would have the effect you describe, Dirk. But it just shows how great that kind of music's associations are that Lucas used it when he was doing his nightclub/cantina scene. Did Star Trek ever do a nightclub scene? I know they did a Western one ("Spectre of the Gun"), as did Lost in Space ("West of Mars").

Well I would`nt say I was overtly familiar with that Star Wars bar scene,but it does kind of stay in the mind I think.It`s a great scene.The only sort of nightclub scene I can remember from the original Star Trek series was the Trouble With Tribbles episode.I`m sure they`re on some sort of "shore leave" neutral space station thing,and then it all kicks off with the Klingons does`nt it.I`m not a massive Trekkie or anything,but I do own a cat called Tribble,who is now the grand old age of 16.By the time she was on her third litter of kittens though(many years ago now) I did wish at the time that I`d maybe given her a different name...  :p

Anyway I do like the fake sax within the context of the piece.It`s maybe hard to be subjective now,but imo I think a real sax would`ve perhaps sounded too "heavy" somehow?Misty is just such an airy dreamy kind of track to me,that I actualy feel that light "fake" sax kind of adds to it`s colour in a way.Sure it`s kind of corny,and it does make me smile a little bit I`ll admit.Which is maybe why like Sweetpea,I don`t think it works quite as well(if at all) when it re-appears in No Man`s Land.That said I would`nt argue with any of your description of the track Nightspore,except that for me,it works.
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: Dec. 12 2008, 04:15

Another odd thing is why the female vocalist in "Thou Art in Heaven" sounds like an Eastern European from a James Bond film!
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wiga Offline




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Posted: Dec. 12 2008, 04:24

Isn't that a great line and great voice, - "NOo - Thou Art In HeaaVEN".

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nightspore Offline




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Posted: Dec. 12 2008, 04:48

Quote (wiga @ Dec. 12 2008, 04:24)
Isn't that a great line and great voice, - "NOo - Thou Art In HeaaVEN".

It makes me laugh, for some reason - it sounds like Natasha from the Rocky (no, not the one on Light and Shade) and Bullwinkle cartoon. I understand Sir M detests the piece!

Perhaps the three worlds (ie Tr3s Lunas) are science fiction, gangster fiction, and spy fiction. You have representatives of all three styles on the record!
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wiga Offline




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Posted: Dec. 12 2008, 05:56

Exactly - anyone who would deliver a line like that, with such dramatic effect, would make you laugh, - initially anyway. It's not the sort of thing we say to each as we go about our daily business - "Hey you - NOOo -Thou Art In HeaaVen" - you'd get a funny look.

Partly why I love it.


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nightspore Offline




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Posted: Dec. 12 2008, 18:49

The saxophone doesn't appear very often in "classical music", but composers sometimes use this "odd man out" quality to create particular effects. For example, Bizet (he of Carmen fame) in his L'Arlesienne music uses a saxophone to represent the mentally deficient brother of the main character!

The trombone is another instrument that can create jazz-age associations. However, it doesn't have to! Bruckner, in his aequali for three trombones, makes them sound regal and wonderful. I have the Hyperion recording of them, and, played in a vast,echoing empty cathedral,they sound magnificent.
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Tubularman Offline




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Posted: Dec. 12 2008, 23:35

i actually like it :) I think its nice to hear..But on the last track of this album "tres lunas" NO  :O

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Sweetpea Offline




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Posted: Dec. 28 2008, 14:17

Quote (nightspore @ Dec. 12 2008, 04:48)
Perhaps the three worlds (ie Tr3s Lunas) are science fiction, gangster fiction, and spy fiction. You have representatives of all three styles on the record!

Hehe. I'm not entirely convinced, nightspore, but it makes for an amusing image of Mike surrounded by a pile of old pulp magazines.


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"I'm no physicist, but technically couldn't Mike both be with the horse and be flying through space at the same time? (On account of the earth's orbit around the Sun and all that). So it seems he never had to make the choice after all. I bet he's kicking himself now." - clotty
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smillsoid Offline




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Posted: April 14 2009, 14:16

I have to admit, I'm not too keen on the sax sound either.  Otherwise, I think this a very good album.

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Scatterplot Offline




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Posted: April 14 2009, 14:33

It's good that so many old threads have been revived around here. Things are really bopping now. This night shifter is off to bed. Have fun Tubularians, and get back here Deb.
Jim


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We raise our voices in the night
Crying to heaven
And will our voices be heard
Or will they break Like the wind
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