Mike Oldfield - Incantations
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Free Music Notes for Incantations
Free Music Review: Rare and minimalistic Oldfield
Hit: 4 Stars
Incantations is a rare gem in Mike's output. Very diferent from the previous three symphonic-folk-rock masterpieces, but also isolated from the rest of his discography. Here the musician-composer-interpreter is more composer than ever, in a very academical way, close to such composers as Steve Reich, Phillip Glass or John Adams, althought his distinctive guitar can also be found here. If the previous Ommadawn was folky and romantic, Incantations is minimalistic and classical, without the dramatic emotional intensity of his predecessor and more inclined to an aseptic flowing of musical structures and melodies. Mike gets very close to Steve Reich here, specially for the sparse use of melodic percussion, flute and strings, and also in terms of compositional technics: the use of minimalistic cells which create the base and background of the music. The chord-arpeggios are also very used and refer more to Phillip Glass; so any doubt that this is a real minimalistic piece of music, long and repetitive, but with great oldfield-melodies and idiosyncratic guitar-playing. The only link with Ommadawn is a medieval influence in some parts, but of course in a very different context. The best parts for me are part one and four, with a special mention to the vibraphone passage on part four, in which he uses changing meters as 4/8, 6/8, 5/8. In my opinion Mike reached a top with this work in terms of compositional ability and musical ambition (73 minutes of music), so he changed completly of musical direction to more easy and commercial works; a real pity. The sound-atmosphere of the recording is clear and sophisticated in itself (in contraposition to the previous albums, more raw and rustic), so there's no need to say that the remastered CD dignifies the final listening tremendously. The only problem with the remasterd edition is the bad quality of the covers, as another reviewer has pointed out, it seems like a colour photo-copy! what kind of Art-work is this? I can do it better with my scanner and computer. Five stars for Mike Oldfield and Incantations. Four for the edition.Free Music Review: Incomplete
Hit: 4 Stars
Incantations is a very special piece of work. It is quintessential Mike Oldfield. Hard not to love.
But the CD release is flawed. About a minute from the beginning of track 3 (or 2?) has been hacked off so that the original four sides of the two-album set can be squeezed onto one CD.
If you have the original vinyl release, you'll be able to compare. On the CD, the track "fades in" but this is to conceal the fact that about a minute or more of the original recording has been omitted from the CD.
If it were not for this very serious shortcoming of the CD, I would recommend it highly.
Free Music Review: Good but repetitive
Hit: 4 Stars
When this album came out, it was a double LP. It probably should have been condensed into one album. This release has some of the best sections of Oldfield music in existence, mostly contained in Parts 1 and 3. Many other parts of the album are, however, very repetitive and grate. The Song of Hiawatha poem in part 2 is quite nice but, once again, goes on too long. This CD is certainly worth picking up, if nothing else for the first and third parts. Even these are repetitive in places, however. This is nothing like the tightly constructed Platinum that followed it.Free Music Review: A long segmented voyage
Hit: 4 Stars
Yes, it's one of Mike's most memorable and distinctive works, but I feel it suffers just slightly from 'blockiness', something overcome later in Islands and Amarok, the transition between segments is clumsy. But don't get me wrong, the segments themselves are great.Free Music Review: Better than Hergest Ridge & Omadawn...
Hit: 3 Stars
This is a unique album, I purchased the original vinal record when I was in West Germany in the early 80's. The CD is missing a lively instrumental piece at the beginning of track 3. I thought it was one of the better parts of the album. I used to play tracks 1 & 2 to put me to sleep at night. Track 4 is where the best parts are. The drums are great!