Mike Oldfield - Hergest Ridge
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Mike OldfieldEdition: Music CD
Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2000-07-27
Music Label: Blue Plate Caroline
Soundtracks:
- Hergest Ridge (Part One)
- Hergest Ridge (Part Two)
Free Music Notes for Hergest Ridge
Free Music Review: Croom
Hit: 5 Stars
'Hergest Ridge' was Oldfield's quieter, less scattershot follow-up to 'Tubular Bells'. The album reached number one in the UK album charts when it was released but, a week later, was displaced by its predecessor, which had spent almost year climbing up the charts. Hergest Ridge is nowadays totally overshadowed by Tubular Bells, which is a shame because it's my favourite Oldfield album. It's similar in style to the b-side of its predecessor, with fewer little diddly bits and more of a flow; putting on my pretentious hat, it's similar to Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, in that it evokes a day in the countryside (complete with a 'storm'). There's nothing as immediately striking as Tubular Bells' opening piano riff, and it flags towards the end of side two, but I still like it.
Originally the album was criticised for sounding a bit odd, because the pre-grunge mixture of quiet bits and loud bits didn't come through very well on cheap vinyl. It benefits greatly therefore for being remastered on CD, and is very much a headphone experience.
As noted elsewhere this is the 1974 'Mike Oldfield Boxed' remix of the album (and is therefore in quadrophonic stereo, if you have the right quad decoder!). It's a remix in the old-school sense, i.e. Oldfield manipulated the sliders, muting some parts and making others louder.
The two are noticeably different, and fan opinion is divided as to the merits of each. Having compared the two - the internet is a wonderful thing - I prefer this version, and I get the impression a lot of people rate the original simply because it's rare... and original. The choral voices in part two are now audible, whilst the odd soloing during the 'storm' sequence has been replaced. The snare drum rolls which heralded transitions have now gone, and it generally sounds a lot slicker (of course, I'm comparing an MP3 of a battered vinyl copy of an album released in 1974 with a professionally remastered product of the modern age, but still).
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