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Topic: Some of Mike's best work< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
oldfieldfan06 Offline




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Posted: Sep. 05 2007, 11:41

Quote (Rod @ June 28 2000, 21:01)
Damn I couldn't resist making another post about the sweet yet powerful and spooky opera-like singing in Red Dawn... so beautiful I could cry. And the amazing and soulful bagpipe ensemble in Tattoo.. or the amazing nasal choir in Maya Gold... damn just thinking about it I am getting sweaty and cold. This album is a TREASURE!

aye. i definitely agree.. it is one of the best ever albums... my fav pices in it are tattoo, altered state and weightless
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Sweetpea Offline




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Posted: Aug. 22 2008, 01:52

Quote (The Big BellEnd @ Sep. 01 2007, 17:02)
it's what Trampolines where invented for.

TBBE, I recall our previous discussion regarding the trampolistic qualities of TBII. Unfortunately, I tend to associate trampolines with bruises, sprained limbs and tears, so it has negative connotations for me. I'm baffled as to why because I don't recall ever being on a trampoline in my life. Unless the memory has been suppressed for my own peace of mind??

I've always adored "Weightless"; I think it's one of Mike's greatest pieces, but the best part? I'm thinking it's a toss up among "Sentinel" (in my opinion, THE BEST version of the TB "Intro" theme), "The Bell" (Alan Rickman is my favorite of all the MCs), and "Weightless". And, what the heck, I'm going to stick "Altered State" in there, too. Yes it's got silly vocals and confuzzling lyrics but, darn-it-all, it's brash, shameless, nearly the musical equivalent to 'streaking', and I love it. There's actually quite a lot more that I love, but I'll go with those as the highlights.

(PS: The lovely guitar part around 1:35 in "Sunset Door" makes me very happy  :) )


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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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nightspore Offline




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Posted: Aug. 22 2008, 08:42

I'm not sure it's actually meaningful to single out particular tracks as favourites, given that so many of the motifs are shared and recur. ("Moonshine exepted, of course, as it's just a bit of fun.)
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HRFanUSA Offline




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Posted: July 14 2009, 06:24

I really enjoy reading everyone's comments in these forums and find them enlightening.

After I purchased TB2, shortly after its release, I remember thinking to myself, "why haven't I kept up with MO better through the years?" IMHO - I thought the music of TB2 sounded fresh and updated, yet different enough from TB1 so I wouldn't constantly compare the two versions. The sound quality on TB2 is nothing short of incredible, especially when the music is played loudly on a good stereo system. I also like the subtle melody changes and find I tend to hum this album quite a lot when MO crosses my mind.

As I mentioned earlier, TB2 inspired me to get back into MO and purchase several of his CDs that I had passed up through the years, a decision I never regretted!
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Jesse Offline




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Posted: July 14 2009, 07:57

Quote (nightspore @ Aug. 22 2008, 08:42)
I'm not sure it's actually meaningful to single out particular tracks as favourites, given that so many of the motifs are shared and recur. ("Moonshine exepted, of course, as it's just a bit of fun.)

Yeah,

I mean I love sunset door, but it heavily extends the main theme :D
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Drealm Offline




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Posted: Feb. 11 2010, 21:59

Quote (HRFanUSA @ July 14 2009, 06:24)
I really enjoy reading everyone's comments in these forums and find them enlightening.

Yes me too. I just want to add that Tubular Bells 2 have always been my best of the best. I mean, if I were asked to quickly pick one cd among my whole music repertoire to bring on an deserted island forever, my spontaneous reflex would be to pick this album.

I also want to add that I never really compared TB1 to TB2. In my mind, it always have been two different albums. TB3 is too different to even compare it with these two.

And something more. The way I see it, TB1 was done while Mike was feeling kind of insecure, you know, at the beginning, we all know the story. For TB2, it was the total opposite. It was the first album that came out after these long years with virgin trying to commercialize him. So I think he was feeling strongly relieved and he was finally comfortable. So TB2 is the TB of the Warner years, and he was now feeling confident to be relieved from Virgin, so TB2 is all his happiness and inspiration regained (what he was wishing in "Gimme Back" from HO). No wonder why it's a fabulous album, and like some called it here, a treasure. And of course TSODE coming right after...
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ex member 419 Offline




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Posted: Feb. 12 2010, 02:33

My daughter introduced me to Mike's music a little over 3 years ago. I was visiting her up north and she had the TB2 Edinburgh premiere playing on DVD. So different to TB1. I was hooked! I still love to watch it, and my education on Mike's diverse music began. I still have so much to discover. Love Weightless and Altered State, Mayan Gold and of course Sentinel. Deb
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wiga Offline




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Posted: Feb. 12 2010, 02:48

Quote (Drealm @ Feb. 11 2010, 21:59)
I mean, if I were asked to quickly pick one cd among my whole music repertoire to bring on an deserted island forever, my spontaneous reflex would be to pick this album.

I agree it's the best CD to take on a long trip. At the same time it's the one CD that I can overlook, or I forget to play. Then when I do it's like OMG this is my favourite MO album of all time - because it's whole, without being too heavy, or overly light - just right.


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Barn's burnt down - now I can see the moon.
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: Feb. 12 2010, 05:53

It's that recurring melody that goes right through the whole CD that makes this album a winner, in my opinion. There's something incomparably transcendent, wistful, yet joyous about it.
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The Caveman Offline




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Posted: Feb. 12 2010, 07:16

I bought this the very morning it was released about 5 minutes after it hit the racks!
 I do have mixed feelings about it now though.Part of the problem lies in the production.It's very shiny as most records back in the early 90's were.It does have some really great moments though.My favourite is Maya Gold.That strat sound is so pure and clear.A worthy inclusion into the evolution of this peice that runs from the live version of Why Are We Sleeping from the Kevin Ayres BBC concert,through TB,OTB,Exposed TB and up to Maya Gold.
 And Tattoo is great as soon as the LAPD pipe band kick in.Now that's power!And Alan Rickman is great as the Master of Ceremonies (although The Bell cd single has a version with Billy Connelly that is fantastic).I skip Altered State though.
Overall  i feel like Mike was trying too hard to stick to his brief of making an updated version using then current technology.It seems to lack some of the organic quality that makes the original so great and consequently it is very much of it's time in terms of the production values.On the plus side (as one reviewer of the time said)it can make a really crappy stereo sound like a million dollars.This was attributed in the same reveiw to 'Trevor Horn's fairy dust'!
 Still it's better than TB2003. :laugh:


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THE COMING OF THE GREAT WHITE HANDKERCHEIF IS NIGH.
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trcanberra Offline




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Posted: April 01 2010, 06:02

Quote (Rod @ June 28 2000, 20:57)
This is some of Mike's best music ever in my opinion. The record sounds a bit too modern tho. As if much of it was done with the help of new technology. It surely does not sound as "alive" as Amarok or Ommadawn. But this record really makes my soul fly... the music is beautiful and Sunjammer makes my skin crawl. The clean guitar part on Dark Star too! I love this record it was my first Mike Oldfield album and I think it's one of the ones I treasure the most. Plus anyone that hears me playing it asks "what in the world is that amazing music?!"

Tremendous I say. Although you don't hear MO fans talk much about it as other albums.

Oh I also have the LaserDisc of the TBII concert at Edinburgh Castle. STUNNING!

Listened to this for the first time in a few months the other night and enjoyed it a lot.  Was surprised when my daughter played it again today and mentioned how she really liked the variety and the melodies.

This one is going up in my MO pecking order.  When I first bought it I was so excited I listened to it in the car on the way home from the shop and thought it was so-so.  On reflection, not the best way for the first listening.  This was back when I returned to my MO passion after many years away.

I think I will be listening to this a lot more in coming months.  I really like TB3 as well, and while I admire TB1 and like segments of it, not one of my top 5 atm.
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: April 01 2010, 08:00

Quote (trcanberra @ April 01 2010, 06:02)
This one is going up in my MO pecking order.  When I first bought it I was so excited I listened to it in the car on the way home from the shop and thought it was so-so.  On reflection, not the best way for the first listening.  This was back when I returned to my MO passion after many years away.

I think I will be listening to this a lot more in coming months.  I really like TB3 as well, and while I admire TB1 and like segments of it, not one of my top 5 atm.

TB2 is my favourite out of the three as well. There's something about the recurring musical motif, first heard in "Sentinel", that is quite haunting.
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trcanberra Offline




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Posted: April 01 2010, 08:14

Quote (nightspore @ April 01 2010, 08:00)
Quote (trcanberra @ April 01 2010, 06:02)
This one is going up in my MO pecking order.  When I first bought it I was so excited I listened to it in the car on the way home from the shop and thought it was so-so.  On reflection, not the best way for the first listening.  This was back when I returned to my MO passion after many years away.

I think I will be listening to this a lot more in coming months.  I really like TB3 as well, and while I admire TB1 and like segments of it, not one of my top 5 atm.

TB2 is my favourite out of the three as well. There's something about the recurring musical motif, first heard in "Sentinel", that is quite haunting.

Agreed - that piano at the start is brilliant - personally think it is even better than the 'classic' TB theme which follows.  Plus I agree with your earlier comments on the way it ties the whole thing together so well.

I am also really impressed with the variation on a theme here, on a par with some of the best classical music variations from centuries ago.
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TheMann Offline




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Posted: May 07 2010, 08:05

I love it! TB II... not all of it, but some (rather many) parts very very much.

Back in 92, I didn't quite like it. Don't know why anymore...

By the way, I kind of love this clip: The Bell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDg3ULBtezI

I think this version is simply excellent, and I love that cool dude introducing the instruments :)
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Ugo Offline




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Posted: May 07 2010, 18:22

Quote (TheMann @ May 07 2010, 14:05)
I think this version is simply excellent, and I love that cool dude introducing the instruments :)

That cool dude is none other than Mr. Viv Stanshall, shame that he left us too soon. I love the video as well, although there are a couple of passages in it that nag me a little bit. Viv clearly says "Bass guitar", yet Mike shows up on a double bass, which I'm not even sure he can actually play. And when Viv says "Two slightly sampled electric guitars" they are so loud that they don't sound at all like two guitars to me - they rather sound like 6-8 guitars layered on top of each other. :) On the album version, that same passage does actually sound like two guitars.

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Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian
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HR lover Offline




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Posted: Sep. 10 2010, 07:36

I don't think TB2 was a bad album. I also don't think it was his best album. There are quite profound pieces of music in TB2, I really love the vocal chords. But for me the tubular bells themselves were quite cheesy as a matter of fact. Heard some really good stuff in TB2 here and there, but the album strikes me as very transient, which is a downside for me. I wish there was more done with some parts, for instance on dark star, where you have these great fast guitars, but I wish that part was elongated. The great parts were often short and stopped suddenly. I think I kinda hoped for somewhat longer works (like taurus 1 or 2 or Hergest Ridge). In Taurus 1 for instance were more subtle changes of music. So for me it was a mediocre work of MO.

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Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
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familyjules Offline




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Posted: Sep. 10 2010, 08:28

I really want to hear the whole pre-Trevor Horn version.

Jules


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I like beer and I like cheese
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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: Sep. 10 2010, 14:26

Quote (familyjules @ Sep. 10 2010, 08:28)
I really want to hear the whole pre-Trevor Horn version.

Jules

I was very impressed with how different it feels; it sounds like Mike had a much better balance between updating the sound but keeping the spirit of the original. On the finished work, everything's messed up: there's no spirit of anything, and the "updated" sound merely mixes the crème de la crème of early 90's cheese. It's even more dated than Islands, for chrissake's;

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Check out http://ferniecanto.com.br for all my music, including my latest albums: Don't Stay in the City, Making Amends and Builders of Worlds.
Also check my Bandcamp page: http://ferniecanto.bandcamp.com
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Olivier Offline




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Posted: Sep. 10 2010, 18:17

It doesn't sound dated to my ears, I'd just subtract the bagpipes (I'd be a dictator I'd order all music to be rerecorded with organ pipes in lieu of bag pipes), but then I'd miss the relief feeling when it stops. I have to confess I kind of like Pet Shop Boys. But at the same time, I think it could be interesting to have it remixed. I love it, I love the cover, I love the names of the tracks, I love the Edinburgh concert (even my dad who is not into music, compared him to Mozart - he looks smart during this concert, switching instruments is magical, the guitar camera is cool too), and I love the complete score, and Red Dawn/The Bell is our best tool to evangelize. So looking forward for the deluxe re-edition someday.


http://www.google.com/images?q=yves+klein+bleu

I jsut realized I'm now thinking in term of re-releases, and not really expecting/hoping new releases.
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familyjules Offline




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Posted: Sep. 12 2010, 06:01

Quote (Sir Mustapha @ Sep. 10 2010, 14:26)
Quote (familyjules @ Sep. 10 2010, 08:28)
I really want to hear the whole pre-Trevor Horn version.

Jules

I was very impressed with how different it feels; it sounds like Mike had a much better balance between updating the sound but keeping the spirit of the original.

Anyone out there help me out with a copy of this?

Jules


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I like beer and I like cheese
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