O.K. I'm presenting you Mike Oldfield. Mike is a strange man and many fans love him to the degree of believing that he is god. Granted, on the cover of his third album "Ommadawn" he more than slightly resembles Jesus...

The thing with Oldfieldism is that he plays guitar and 20 other instruments in his very distinct style. His compositions are overlong at best. One song per lp-side, that's how we Amarokers like it! If you ask me what is the best known Mike-radio-song, you'll probably rip my head off when I tell you "Moonlight Shadow". But hold on - not everything that Mike has recorded sucks as badly. In fact he recorded some of them goddamn best albums in rock'n'roll history so far. Such as:

Tubular Bells
 

Mike recorded this when he was 19 years old and totally paranoid. He played all instruments, became a multi-millionaire teeny and lost his mind, blah blah blah... That's a fascinating story, but you can read about it on places like www.tubular.net etc. Go there and get your rocks off on Mike's amazing biography, I'll concentrate on the music instead!

First off that's an instrumental we're speaking of here and that might not sound like good news, especially when I add that the two parts are unbroken pieces of music each enduring 25 minutes. But that is what Mike fans love most on his instrumentals: the never-endisms. Second, the music is totally amazing. Mike shifts, twists, turns, burns and jizzes around with all sorts of instruments, moods, gimmicks, tempos and styles... that I doubt that anyone could ever get enough of all that.

The piece starts off like some Philip Glass minimalist composition. The first four minutes could drive you crazy with their frantic, yet complex monotonousness. From the fifth minute on, Mike hardly lets you take a breath, the theme changes over and over again. He visits all kinds of places - the city (rocking guitars), small villages (folksy passages), he flies far above the clouds (organs and mandolins), and walks lonesome through some old fields (mini guitar plays).

The strange thing is, that all of the sections are perfectly hummable and it all flows so intelligently, alternately surprising and yet logic. At the end we arrive at some complicated and driving bass line which provides the piece with a certain groove. According to the cover we have finally arrived at the sea, where supposedly god announces all the instruments so far..."plus, Tubular Bells!" Mike strums on and on, on all of his twenty instruments, while his sister Sally sings the choir until the whole bombastic climax gives way to a cozy, calm finishing acoustic guitar. Fantastic!

Within 25 minutes you've been introduced to the universe of Mike Oldfield, and I guarantee you, you'll be glad that you've dared it a try, because you'll get addicted to it! That's why there's side two, which while less exciting gives us what we want: more 25 minutes of unpredictable jingle jangle. It's actually quite different. More meditation like, although at some point a drunken caveman begins to shout at you! Towards the end it displays Mike's unbelievable guitarisms in a way that you'll forget about Dave Gilmour and Eric Clapton for a while.

You better get this record before I turn you off with my dumb review.
 

Hergest Ridge
 

Immediately after the incredible success of Tubular Bells, Mike was literally forced to record the next album although he actually didn't want to. Eventually he sat down and recorded some music that would suit his own mood. To nobody's surprise, the outcome was another album with two huge instrumentals. However that is the only similarity between Hergest Ridge and Tubular Bells. And that Mike Oldfield plays almost all instruments again, of course.

This time the main instrument appears to be the Lowrey organ, with which Mike produces a sound very similar to a polyphonic synthesizer. It also lends the record a particularly dark and creepy atmosphere. The place Mike has chosen to visit with this record is the Hergest Ridge itself. It appears to be very vast, hilly, rainy and beautiful in its own way. Indeed, Hergest Ridge includes some of the most beautiful moments in Mike's recording career. That is: beautiful without being cheesy, as you understand. Like the acoustic guitar/oboe duet on side one, the climax guitar solo at the end of side one (which moves me to tears), or the choral female vocals on side two singing some incomprehensible stuff.

Side two works just as well and is indeed the Part Two of Hergest Ridge, as opposed to the 2nd part of Tubular Bells. Again, it could be used as relaxation music if there wasn't the (in)famous "Martian's Song" or the "Thunderstorm Section" as fans call it. It consists of Mike Oldfield overdubbing no less than 62 electric guitars onto each other for thrilling eight minutes. That's a tour de force indeed, and is quite hard to sit through. On the other hand, you can learn to appreciate it.

From now on, the formula for adoring Mike Oldfield's albums is: do your homework! In other words, listen to his records until they begin to work for you; you have to give them five or six tries at least, you have to swallow them down, even when they taste bitter at first... When a record like Hergest Ridge begins to work for you however, you'll get addicted to it. This I guarantee you! Suddenly you'll discover melodies, structure and beauty, until you feel like listening to a new recording. You will be sent on a moving, emotional and overly melancholic musical journey, that certainly reflected Mike's mental state at that time.

As you understand, most critics don't have the time to listen to a seemingly dull album, don't understand it and ultimately rate it badly. Don't listen to them! And don't listen to those who worship the original vinyl mix, for god's sake don't! The "Boxed"-remix (the only one available on CD), while less adventurous works much better in the Hergest Ridge context.

So go ahead and buy that record if you want something with a complex, hidden beauty.
 

Ommadawn

Ommadawn is a bit more accessible affair. It shares basically the same composition technique of wrapping melodies in tonalities in which they don't really belong. The effect is, that on the first listening it doesn't sound very effective. If you're familiar with the work though, it will work out and you will appreciate the subtle mood changes. Funnily the piece includes some parts which will make you cringe on the first listen, but which you'll accept after repeated replays. What I mean are some of the individual instruments which appear, and are played by studio guests this time. Such as s an annoyingly happy flute melody, the pan pipes near the end of part one, or the bagpipe on side two.

There are some instant classic ideas though, such as the african drumming and singing on part one. The drumming is used for a "trance" effect and really works magnificently, as the drummers are simply relentless. Their drumming goes on for two more minutes. That, as some reviewers put it has some "post-coital" effect to it, maybe you can tell me what the hell they mean!
Then there is some awesome electric guitar playing, which leaves you with the conclusion, that Mike did nothing but practice, practice, practice these "fast triplets". In addition his guitarring isn't show off-ey, but more moody - in spite of being really fast. But Mike is also a lover of all acoustic instruments, and shows great professionalism on spanish guitar, bodhran, bouzuki etc. Note that the playing is at least three grades above that of "Tubular Bells - Part One".
Ommadawn, as producer Tom Newman once put it, is 'a few streets ahead of "Hergest Ridge"', and I tend to agree with him. The record is more diverse, although there are hardly more than five or six melodies in it. They are, as already mentioned, hidden, altered and screwed up to the degree of a huge mess.

A thing with these early Mike Oldfield records is, that if you own them on CD, the second track starts right after the first one (naturally), and with Ommadawn as well as with Tubular Bells (but strangely not with "Hergest Ridge"!), that is a bad thing! Just as the hypnotic drumming is over, the "Part Two" starts with some sixty electric guitars, menacing waves, wild interactions of tonalities. A tortured atmosphere they create, and it takes some six or more minutes, till the over-complex "guitar carpet" gives way to a relief. The mood is changed dramatically again, though not surprisingly. And now comes - don't cringe! - a bagpipe. That is the ultimate sign, that you're not listening to a rock'n'roll record. Erm, a few more interesting things do happen towards the end, including a jolly guitar solo, a cheered up, greek atmosphere ("Hand the Ouzo over!", one might suggest) and a very upbeat finishing. Aha.

If the record had ended here, it would have been accepted as yet another masterpiece by this crazy genius. Not that it isn't, but the last three minutes will give you the rest.
I guess, now it should be obvious, that one could easily be left with the impression, that Mike Oldfield did not only create his albums, but possibly the whole world too! So there - Mike has to be god! You might deal with this or not, but while the record is about to end, Mike decides to talk to you! I mean TALK! It's certainly something of a revelation, when you hear the voice of Mike after he preferred to talk to you via his guitars. And what does he say?

"If you should feel a little glum, to Hergest Ridge you should come!"