jacen
Group: Members
Posts: 18
Joined: May 2011 |
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Posted: June 09 2011, 17:25 |
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I've read through quite a few posts in this thread to begin to find a way to connect with this album.
It was first given to me by a friend who basically emphatically said "you'll love this!" I think on my first listen I got about 4 minutes in and the rest of it just washed over me, as though I were drowning in a sea of cloth eared-nincompoops unable to take in any more detail.
That was something like 5 years ago. Recently, I dusted off the ol' digital copy, gave it a spin (pressed play in iTunes) and gave it another go.
I should feel proud of myself, I suppose. The furthest I've gotten so far is about 15 minutes in.
I'd like to just say that owning the whole album is worth it for the 30 second section at 5:45. That. Is. Awesome.
I guess I feel Alan D's response to it as well though. It's just a bit too... off the wall. I'd go so far as to say that it as a piece of work is compositionally incohesive - or at least - not obeying any laws of composition before it. I know THATS THE POINT, but still, maybe I'm still too much of a traditionalist.
That 30 seconds is the only seconds I've been able to connect with. Its so great that often I will now get up in the morning, have it in my head, and shove it on play.
I played it to a friend of mine who only has a vague appreciation of Oldfield, and all he had to say was "Its remarkable how much of his work sounds the same" which sacreligiously perhaps, I don't disagree with. I think Mike's music has a great homogeneity to it - even through attempting new work and different ideas there's still that core of composition that remains untouched. I value it; my friend just thinks TBII is good.
I wonder if I'll ever come to appreciate this album. I have to say... it took me something like 30 listens to 'get' Incantations and appreciate it. Even now though, I still never listen to Part 3. It just seems out of place and out of tone with the rest of the music.
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