Mike Oldfield - Return To Ommadawn

[fumi]

1970s multi-instrumentalist revisits a classic from back in the day. Ommadawn (1975) was way ahead of the curve in predicting the rise of ethnic and pastoral, folk electronica.

 

You can hear his influence in most of the folktronica/hauntology stuff today. Early Bibio especially owes a debt to those first three albums, IMO.

 

New album on January 20th.

 

[Hugh Mughnus]

Mr oldfield is still around!

 

Tubular bells was one of the first CDs I ever bought. ah

[purlieu]

His longform instrumental albums never disappoint - Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn, Incantations, Amarok, Songs of Distant Earth, Music of the Spheres, all marvellous. So I was pretty excited when I heard he was returning to this approach. That said, he has a group on Facebook where he posts news, and there have been quite a lot of people posting mock-up cover ideas for this for months now - usually a bad font choice with a bland landscape photo - but I never expected the final cover to actually be worse than them.

 

Anyway, this comes a week after the new Winged Victory for the Sullen, so that's a great start to next year already.

[fumi]

His longform instrumental albums never disappoint - Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn, Incantations, Amarok, Songs of Distant Earth, Music of the Spheres, all marvellous. So I was pretty excited when I heard he was returning to this approach. That said, he has a group on Facebook where he posts news, and there have been quite a lot of people posting mock-up cover ideas for this for months now - usually a bad font choice with a bland landscape photo - but I never expected the final cover to actually be worse than them.

 

Anyway, this comes a week after the new Winged Victory for the Sullen, so that's a great start to next year already.

 

 

I agree. The cover is absolutely horrific. It's like a Tolkien Lord of the Rings calendar.

[purlieu]

Also the font and placing copies the original Tubular Bells, not Ommadawn. Baffling choice.

[fumi]

Also the font and placing copies the original Tubular Bells, not Ommadawn. Baffling choice.

 

Yeah, it's like a fan was asked to make a cover.

 

Ommadawn is one of my favourite albums of all time. I hope he doesn't fuck it up.

 

[purlieu]

My favourite of his is Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn probably comes in third after that and Songs of Distant Earth. His first three albums were hugely important in my formative years (I originally bought Tubular Bells when I was 12, because the tracks were around 25 minutes long and that was mind-blowing to me at the time). They always remind me of holidays in the Alps when I'd record an album to each side of a bunch of C90s and take my walkman with me to listen to on the way.

 

Ommadawn has to be his best album for guitar. There's a section about halfway through side one where he plays incredibly fast that always makes me think of gusts of wind. Such imaginative, expressive playing. 

[fumi]

Same for me. I first heard Tubular Bells when I was about six. My father had copy.

 

I bought his first three albums on vinyl when I was about eleven. Tubular bells is always the one most remembered in terms of sales and popularity but Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn are much better albums.

 

When compact discs came on sale in the early 1980s, Oldfield was one of the few artists I was waiting to get the CD treatment.

 

His career has been a bit mixed over the years - in many ways like Jean-Michel Jarre. They have both struggled to stay relevant in a world where music has moved on so much.

[purlieu]

Indeed. His attempts at pop-rock were generally quite poor, although I do think there are some great songs scattered over the various '80s albums. But an artist achieving success in one decade so rarely adapts to the following one well. Similarly, his embracing of Eurotrance after moving to Ibiza was a bad move - I quite like the brief incorporations on TB3, actually, but Light + Shade is possibly the worst album I have ever bought.

From what he's posted on Facebook in the past couple of years it does suggest he's much more interested in going back to just doing melodic, evocative instrumental stuff again, which was always his strong point. He doesn't need to prove anything or try and stay relevant anymore.

[fumi]

Yeah, his attempt to move into Eurotrance and the late 90s dance stuff was utterly embarrassing. He's far from alone though. Artists like Tangerine Dream (who'd had big success throughout the 70s and 80s) also fell into the trap of trying to follow dance-music trends with predictably horrifying results.

 

They went from this:

 

 

to this:

 

[purlieu]

I actually think some of the Dream Mixes stuff isn't all that bad. There are some nasty tracks in there, but the fact that it was Jerome who did them, and he was genuinely into that music, and the right age, gave a tad more legitimacy. I also really like Toward the Evening Star from Goblins' Club, which is probably the danciest thing they did one of their standard albums. 

This might be partially coloured by the fact that I find the early '90s stuff so utterly horrible that anything a bit more dynamic and contemporary sounding seemed refreshing in contrast, hah.

[fumi]

Okay having a first complete listen now. Not that impressed so far. Second part is a lot stronger than the first. The album has a join-the-dots feel to it. The playing is lovely - trademark soaring guitars. However, on the first full listen it does feel like Oldfield hasn't been able to recapture that mystical, earthy quality that made the 1975 release so good.

 

Oh yeah, in the last few minutes, there are samples from 'On Horseback'.

[purlieu]

After quite a few listens I have to agree with you. It feels like a very forced attempt to recreate his early sound, rather than it coming from pure inspiration. There are lots of lovely sections - the last six or seven minutes of both sides are wonderful - but it doesn't really feel individual or memorable. His first four records all sounded very different from each other, regardless of how similar they might seem on the surface, but this doesn't sound like it has an identity of its own.

In some senses it's more like Amarok in its slightly disjointed feel, but that benefited from it, being a completely bonkers album start to finish.

 

He's doing Tubular Bells IV next (originally planned as a 'prequel'). Do something new Mike!

[fumi]

After quite a few listens I have to agree with you. It feels like a very forced attempt to recreate his early sound, rather than it coming from pure inspiration. There are lots of lovely sections - the last six or seven minutes of both sides are wonderful - but it doesn't really feel individual or memorable. His first four records all sounded very different from each other, regardless of how similar they might seem on the surface, but this doesn't sound like it has an identity of its own.

In some senses it's more like Amarok in its slightly disjointed feel, but that benefited from it, being a completely bonkers album start to finish.

 

He's doing Tubular Bells IV next (originally planned as a 'prequel'). Do something new Mike!

 

 

I've given it quite a few more listens this week. I think some of it is really good. The problem with this album is one of perception. It suffers from having the word 'Ommadawn' in the title.

 

If Mike Oldfield had put this out without a big fanfare and given it another title, I think a lot more people would have enjoyed it.

[purlieu]

Agreed. I also think there are a couple of homages too many - the pipes in the intro being an intentional callback to Hergest Ridge, for example - which stops it having an identity of its own at times. I love Music of the Spheres, but the opening and closing sections make that feel like Tubular Bells 4. I just wish he'd go into the studio thinking "I'm going to write an album" and then see what comes out, rather than trying to link it in with previous records and stuff. He's obviously capable of making excellent music still, but I can't help thinking he still overthinks things at inception. This one was somewhat inspired by fans on Facebook saying they'd love him to do another album like Ommadawn, which again makes it feel a bit unnatural. I'm hoping once he's got the next Tubular Bells out of his system he might feel free to just let inspiration take him in the moment and make something really special.