Sir Mustapha
Group: Musicians
Posts: 2802
Joined: April 2003 |
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Posted: Sep. 15 2005, 18:09 |
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Finally got to listen to this. Well, if Mike was able to pull of that really cool middle section, I just wonder why the heck he's insisting SO MUCH in that hi-tech fluff. It's really, really No-Dreamesque, and though it is a dèja vu, it's a good dèja vu. I know fans will bash me because Mike's style is just changing, and he's growing older, and I can't say what music Mike should be doing, etc. etc. and etc. But Mike said, more than a decade ago, that computers were "the curse of modern music". 'Surfing' is, quite simply, the ultimate proof of this. His obssession, his fetish, his almost unhealthy PASSION for getting the most hi-tech computers, synthesizers and technologies that are yet to be invented are just killing this material. He's fixed on those artificial rhythms (which are probably built-in on the software, and not created by Mike himself), the samey synth patches and the-music-writes-itself style. Thus, he just comes up with a subpar melody and that's that. And the Vocaloids? Man! Man, man, man. Not only I'm BLOODY TIRED of the "flicking" vocals (first Cher, then Madonna, then everybody else, and now MIKE OLDFIELD??), and the artificial sound is... well, er, if he REALLY intended to give an "unnatural" approach to the music, he should just check out Radiohead, or if you're being radical, Kraftwerk (though I just don't like the "Tour De France Soundtracks" frog-voice either). To me, he's just being megalomaniacal as he has always been, and is using the Vocaloids just so that he won't need to work with actual singers. Business as usual, I'd say (and not the excellent Men At Work album, that is).
Forgive me for this rant, but hey, at least I'm SOMEWHAT positive towards this track. The actual played bits are good (VERY good, actually!. The parts when the computers are on auto-pilot are the actual problem. Overall, I'd say Mike has a lot of good music inside him, but he's either having problems getting them out, or he just doesn't care. I think the technical aspects of the music are more important to him, anyway, and he's doing the 00's equivalent of 80's synth pop. So be it.
I STILL want to hear the finished album, though.
-------------- 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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