Mike Oldfield - The Complete (2 CD) [EAC-FLAC] [RePoPo]

******************************************************************************* Mike Oldfield - The Complete Mike Oldfield ******************************************************************************* The Complete Mike Oldfield is a compilation album written and mostly performed by Mike Oldfield. CD one is a collection of shorter pieces and CD two is excerpts from Oldfield's longer pieces of music. Each of these two parts is then subdivided again into two parts; The instrumental section, The Vocal section, The Complex section and The Live section. Some versions of the vinyl have less or different tracks; "The Instrumental Section" is missing "In Dulci Jubilo" and "Portsmouth" leaving only nine tracks on that first side. More, alternative pressings of the vinyl replaced "Mistake" with 7" mix of "Pictures in the Dark". CD1 THE INSTRUMENTAL SECTION 01. Arrival [0:02:47.50] 02. William Tell Overture [0:03:55.05] 03. Cuckoo Song [0:03:13.17] 04. In Dulci Jubilo [0:02:50.50] 05. Portsmouth [0:02:02.15] 06. Jungle Gardenia [0:02:37.40] 07. Guilty [0:04:04.35] 08. Blue Peter [0:02:07.65] 09. Waldberg (The Peak) [0:03:24.53] 10. Wonderful Land [0:03:39.12] 11. Étude (Theme From The Killing Fields) (Single Version) [0:03:07.40] THE VOCAL SECTION 12. Moonlight Shadow [0:03:36.23] Vocals - Maggie Reilly 13. Family Man [0:03:47.47] Vocals - Maggie Reilly 14. Mistake [0:02:55.20] Vocals - Maggie Reilly 15. Five Miles Out [0:04:19.00] Vocals - Maggie Reilly/Mike Oldfield 16. Crime of Passion [0:03:37.70] Vocals - Barry Palmer 17. To France [0:04:33.58] Vocals - Maggie Reilly 18. Shadow On The Wall (12'' Version) [0:05:08.30] Vocals - Roger Chapman CD2 THE COMPLEX SECTION 01. Excerpt from Ommadawn [0:06:59.40] 02. Excerpt from Tubular Bells [0:07:59.60] 03. Excerpt from Hergest Ridge [0:04:20.37] 04. Excerpt from Incantations [0:04:41.30] 05. Excerpt from The Killing Fields (Evacuation) [0:04:11.43] THE LIVE SECTION 06. Sheba (Live) [0:03:30.50] 07. Mirage (Live) [0:05:12.30] 08. Platinum (Live) [0:14:28.05] 09. Mount Teide (Live) [0:04:34.05] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOME SONGS REVIEWED ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ARRIVAL "Arrival", which had working titles of "Fiol", "Ode to Dalecarlia" & "Arrival in Dalecarlia", was the instrumental title track from Swedish pop group ABBA's album of the same name. It was the second and last song from the group not to contain lyrics, following "Intermezzo No.1" the previous year. As with "Intermezzo No.1", the choral tune, heavily influenced by traditional Swedish folk music, was written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. It was recorded on 30 August 1976 at Stockholm's Metronome Studio. In 1983, a different version of the song with lyrics, called "Belle", was sung by Daniel Balavoine and Anni-Frid Lyngstad ("Frida") as part of the French musical ABBAcadabra. Also in 1983, it was re-recorded with different lyrics, and released as "Time" by B. A. Robertson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The title of the album, Arrival, gave the instrumental its name, rather than vice versa. It was also one of the last tracks to be recorded for the album before its release on 11 October 1976. in 1980 Mike Oldfield made a cover-version of the song, which is found on his QE2 album. The artwork for Oldfield's single is a parody of ABBA's Arrival album artwork depicting the artist in a Bell 47G helicopter. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WILLIAM TELL OVERTURE "William Tell Overture" is a single by musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1977. It is a rendition of the William Tell Overture. However this version of the William Tell Overture did not have much of an impact on the UK charts.[1] It is the first of the two non-album singles released by Mike Oldfield in 1977. The UK B side was "Argiers", which had previously been the European b-side for an earlier Oldfield single "Portsmouth". "Argiers" had been recorded in January 1976 at Througham and features Leslie Penning on recorders. Some European versions included the track "First Excursion" as the b-side, however in Brazil the b-side was "Portsmouth".[2] The B-sides were taken from Oldfield's Collaborative / Remix Box-set, Boxed. The music video for The William Tell Overture is comprised of multiple incarnations of Oldfield performing the song on different instruments. The effect is as if a room full of Oldfields were playing together. * When referring to his then most recent release, The William Tell Overture, Oldfield called "It a real rouser". * In an advert for the single, the tagline "It'll shake you to the core" was used, referring to William Tell's apple incident. o The full advert reads: "The new single from the more whimsical side of Mike Oldfield. You clog-danced to 'In Dulci Jubilo'. You crashed through the ceiling to 'Portsmouth'. Now hear William Tell Overture by Mike Oldfield. It'll shake you to the core." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CUCKOO SONG It was originally written by Michael Praetorius (1571 – 1621) and was arranged by Oldfield. The B side (Pipe Tune) is an original composition by Oldfield. The single (in a plain white sleeve) was included as a free bonus when the double LP Incantations was released in 1978. It is one of the many non-album singles which Oldfield released in the 1970s. "Cuckoo Song" also features Les Penning. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IN DULCI JUBILO Mike Oldfield's "In Dulci Jubilo" is an instrumental version of the traditional Christmas carol "Good Christian Men Rejoice". The carol is traditionally sung to a German tune of the same name as Oldfield's tune. Mike Oldfield had recorded another version of this song as the B-side to his previous single, "Don Alfonso", which did not chart, playing all instruments himself. Later, he felt a better version could be done, and re-recorded it in October 1975 at the Manor, but incorporating some of the previous version's backing tracks recorded November 1974 at the Beacon, his home studio. The new version features Leslie Penning on 2 recorders (probably treble and sopranino) and kortholt, Mike Oldfield on acoustic and electric guitars, piano and ARP string synthesiser, and William Murray on snare drum.[1] Oldfield's decision to re-record the song proved to be a good move; it appeared in Christmas season playlists on radio across Europe, charting at number 4 in the UK,[2] and is one of his most re-issued short songs. It also charted at number 7 in the Irish Singles Chart and at number two on the Dutch Top 40. The song's authorship shown in the track listing below is how it appears on a recent compilation CD. Most editions from the 1970s and 1980s credit it to R. L. Pearsall, arr. Oldfield. Bach and Pearsall both wrote arrangements of it, but the song dates further back than either composer. Italian pressings of the single from 1975 credit it to J. S. Bach. "On Horseback" features Mike Oldfield on vocals, accompanied by a children's chorus credited as the Penrhos kids. It previously appeared as an untitled song at the end of Oldfield's 1975 album Ommadawn, banded separately but merely listed as part of "Ommadawn part two" on the label. The album's liner notes refer to it as "the horse song on side two". Virgin Records recognised this song could also be a contender as a Christmas hit, and was already being played on radio before it was issued as a single; therefore the UK single's label bore a large "A" on each side to encourage radio play of both sides. A large "A" is often used to mark promo records, and copies are often mis-identified as promos, but all have this mark. This record's success as a Christmas single encouraged Oldfield to issue a similar instrumental piece, usually with recorder as the lead instrument, as a single every year's Christmas season up to 1980. A music video was made for this song, and can be found on the DVD, Elements - The Best of Mike Oldfield. It is probably the only non-recent Mike Oldfield video that is still shown occasionally on television. The video splits the screen in up to 9 thumbnail frames, each showing Mike miming playing a different instrument. Mike's face is not shown in frames where he is seen playing an instrument he did not play on the record. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PORTSMOUTH In an attempt to repeat the success of his previous year's Christmas hit, "In Dulci Jubilo", Mike recorded another traditional folk melody dating from 1701 (first known publication),[1][2] again using Leslie Penning on recorders. The single was just as successful as its predecessor, charting at number 3 in the UK,[3] and became his first non-album single to be issued in the USA. It also charted at number 19 in Ireland. Mike Oldfield plays acoustic guitar, accordion, mandolin, ARP string synthesiser, tambourine, kettle drum and bodhran (Irish drum), and both Oldfield and Penning are credited with "feet".[4] This song, plus two others chosen as the B-side in different countries, had been released the month before as three of four new songs on the compilation album Boxed. They were mixed and encoded for SQ quadraphonic sound, the only format this album was issued in, and all issues of these songs in vinyl and tape formats have the encoding, even if they only say "stereo" on the label, as do all single releases. "Argiers" is another traditional folk song, performed by Leslie Penning on recorders and Mike Oldfield on acoustic guitar and ARP string synthesiser. An unusual feature of this arrangement is that it is in a minor key, having been converted from its original major key via diatonic transposition. "Portsmouth" and "Argiers" were both recorded in January 1976 at Througham, Mike's new home studio, shortly after he moved from his previous home in Hergest Ridge, which was the location of his previous home studio, the Beacon.[4] "Speak (Tho' You Only Say Farewell)" is an old show tune performed by David Bedford on piano and vocals, and Mike Oldfield on vocals. It is similar in style to Bedford's earlier work in the Coxhill-Bedford Duo with Lol Coxhill, and was recorded at the Beacon in November 1974. A music video was made for this song, and can be found on the DVD, Elements - The Best of Mike Oldfield. Shot in Mike's Througham studio, it shows four female folk dancers who dance around the studio, while Mike is seen playing various instruments, but not the recorder, which he did not play on the record. As in the video for Mike's previous single, "In Dulci Jubilo", the video emphasizes that Mike plays all the instruments, even though this is not strictly true. The song has become synonymous with English football club, Portsmouth F.C., who sometimes play the tune before or after games at their home stadium, Fratton Park. Notably it was played during their victorious FA Cup 2008 campaign, including after the final game against Cardiff City on 17 May 2008 at Wembley. The piece was also featured in the 1979 NASA documentary film by Tony Palmer, The Space Movie. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GUILTY When Oldfield was in New York recording Platinum and "Guilty" he recorded a disco arrangement of his first album, Tubular Bells.[1] A version of Free's "All Right Now" was also recorded during these sessions. It is notable for being Oldfield's first obvious attempt to capitalise on a current musical trend, in this case disco/dance music. The music video for "Guilty" is in a colourful cartoon style. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BLUE PETER The royalties from the single went to the Cambodia appeal launched by the children's show.[1] It charted at number 19 in the UK Singles Chart. Traditionally, the debut of a new version of the famous theme tune "Barnacle Bill" is accompanied with an introduction by the presenters at the time explaining the reasons behind the new rendition. Mike Oldfield's version had its genesis in his appearance on the programme in 1979 to demonstrate how modern pop music was created using multi-track recording techniques. The end result was liked enough by both the viewers and programme producers to be retained as the permanent theme, and Oldfield additionally recorded a new version of the programme's closing music, which runs for just 20 seconds and has never been commercially released. It should be noted that the released version of the theme is actually a further re-recording, which incorporates many subtle changes compared to the TV version, in addition to eliminating the opening snare drum roll, extending the piece to a more suitable duration for commercial release, and being mixed in stereo. The TV version was mono-only (British television was not broadcasting in stereo at that time) and has never been made available for sale. The music video for "Blue Peter" shows Oldfield competing in a race with various kinds of vehicles. The intro is filmed in black and white and begins with a silent movie style title card 'Episode 4 "The Race"'; there is a second card after a short sequence with Oldfield and another man, displaying 'Zhree, Two, vun Actshun!' (meaning 'Three, Two, One, Action!'). The race then begins, three of the competitors are Oldfield himself (filmed in different shots as a pilot, pirate and a man with a moustache) and some are not. The vehicles include hovercraft, a tricycle hang glider, a helicopter, a three wheeled ATV, a larger ATV and a kite buggy. The end of the video appears to parody the His Master's Voice logo with a gramophone and a dog (ie. Nipper). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WONDERFUL LAND "Wonderful Land" is UK #1 single by The Shadows. The song was released on the Atlantic Records label in the U.S., but did not reach the Billboard Top 100. This single stayed more weeks at #1 in the UK than any other single during the 60's - including those by The Beatles. Mike Oldfield covered "Wonderful Land" on his 1980 QE2 album. Oldfield's version was also released as a single and as the B-side for his "Sheba" single; in some countries, "Wonderful Land" was the a-side. The Shadows later covered one of Oldfield's songs, "Moonlight Shadow". Two guitarists, Hank Marvin (of The Shadows) and Mark Knopfler (of Dire Straits) recorded a version of "Wonderful Land" in the 1990s, produced by Jeff Lynne. Ask any British guitarist of a certain age who his most profound early influence was, and chances are that he will answer the Shadows. Between 1960-1963, Cliff Richard's sometime backing band dominated the U.K. chart with a succession of dynamic guitar-led instrumentals, of which the magnificent "Wonderful Land" was only one of the most memorable. Mike Oldfield's rendition owes everything and nothing to that prototype. A duet between effects-laden guitars, African percussion, and haunting electronics, it captures every last nuance of the majesty that pervaded the Shadows' original -- but, in slowing the melody down to a fraction of its familiar pace, it imbibes the piece with a haunting, anthemic quality that is almost painfully nostalgic. Certainly it remains one of the most successful of all Shadows covers, all the more so since Oldfield's affection for the piece is palpably balanced by the almost parodic impact of the percussion. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ETUDE (THEME FROM THE KILLING FIELDS) It is from the album The Killing Fields, the soundtrack album for the film of the same name . It was reissued in 1990, when it was used in a commercial for Nurofen. The 1990 release also featured a track called "Gakkaen" by The Ono Gagaku Kai Society. "Étude" is taken from the Francisco Tárrega piece "Recuerdos de la Alhambra". The music video for "Étude" which appears on the Elements - The Best of Mike Oldfield video shows a boy watching parts of The Killing Fields on a television from a reel-to-reel tape machine and looking through photographs. The boy also plays with a Fairlight CMI, which the soundtrack album was composed on. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOONLIGHT SHADOW "Moonlight Shadow" is a pop song written by British multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield and released as a single in May 1983 and included on the album Crises in the same year. The vocals were performed by the Scottish vocalist Maggie Reilly, who had joined Mike Oldfield in 1980. It has been his most successful single to date, with Tubular Bells being his most successful album worldwide. It is said that the lyrics were a reference to the death of John Lennon.[1] The single peaked at number 4 in the British charts, making it Oldfield's second highest ranked single after "Portsmouth" which reached number 3 in 1976. "Moonlight Shadow" was successful throughout Europe, It reached number 1 in countries including Italy, Austria, Switzerland for four weeks and Norway for six weeks. It spent four weeks at number 2 in Germany and also hit number 6 in Australia. It was re-released as a maxi-CD single in 1993 to promote Oldfield's Elements box set, charting at number 52. A 12" single (later reissued on a 3" CD single) featured an extended version of the song with an extra verse and the single B-side was "Rite of Man" which was a rare instance of Oldfield singing lead vocal. The extended mix also appears on his compilation album The Platinum Collection. In 1991 the song was re-released in France and in 1993, it was featured on promos for Elements in France and Spain. Maggie Reilly sang "Moonlight Shadow" live when she toured with Oldfield in the 1980s. However since then, other singers have performed the song live with Oldfield including, Anita Hegerland, Miriam Stockley and Rosa Cedrón. The original cover art is an enlargement of the lower right corner of the Crises album cover. This shows a man with his foot on a ledge with the sea and sky in the background. The moon, the tower and its shadow from the album cover cannot be seen on the single cover. An early version of the song was entitled "Midnight Passion" with vocals by British singer Hazel O'Connor.[2] Along with Maggie Reilly, a girlfriend of one of the roadies when Oldfield was on tour, Oldfield used a rhyming dictionary and recorded many of the lyrics word by word.[3] According to Oldfield, Virgin Records were immediately happy with the song and wanted more pieces similar to it. Oldfield later sampled the drums from "Moonlight Shadow" for the song "Man in the Rain" on his 1998 album, Tubular Bells III. It was long believed that the lyrics are a reference to the murder of John Lennon, although when asked about this in a 1995 interview, Oldfield responded: [It's] not really [about Lennon]... well, perhaps, when I look back on it, maybe it was. I actually arrived in New York that awful evening when he was shot and I was staying at the Virgin Records house in Perry Street, which was just a few blocks down the road from the Dakota Building where it happened, so it probably sank into my subconscious. It was originally inspired by a film I loved - Houdini, starring Tony Curtis, which was about attempts to contact Houdini after he'd died, through spiritualism... it was originally a song influenced by that, but a lot of other things must have crept in there without me realising it. —Mike Oldfield, Gareth Randall Interviews Mike Oldfield The Lennon story may have arisen as a consequence of the content of the promo video that accompanied the song, which juxtaposes footage of Oldfield and his band playing the song with a loose storyline in which Oldfield plays a man who gets killed in a pistol duel. It is worth noting that there are two versions of the video, the full-length original, and a shorter one which omits a verse (the reason for the shorter version being created is unknown), and the way both versions are edited suggests that Oldfield's touring guitarist "Ant" performed the second, overdriven half of the guitar solo, which is not the case. Mike Oldfield's biggest U.K. hit since "Portsmouth" in 1976, "Moonlight Shadow" was also the best track on 1983's Crises album, a set that saw a wholesale revision of the Mike Oldfield Band, leave vocalist Maggie Riley, alone from the outfit that had pushed its leader to such dynamic recent heights. Best appreciated in the company of its haunting highwayman video, "Moonlight Shadow" is a dramatic epic of love and death, driven by an Oldfield acoustic guitar that echoes in delivery the faintly folky feel of the lyric. Widely regarded to be a tribute to the recently murdered John Lennon, "Moonlight Shadow" was described by Oldfield himself as having been inspired by the Tony Curtis movie Houdini. Either way, it's a truly delightful pop song, bolstered by one of Reilly's most magical vocal performances. A decade after the fact, Oldfield admitted, "I was at somebody's birthday party just after "Moonlight Shadow" had been a big bit, and of course they all thought 'wow, big hit, got to do them all exactly like that, then,' which was a blinkered mentality, and unluckily I followed that advice and wrote a lot of songs, most of which weren't very good." "Crime of Passion" certainly falls into at least the first half of that equation -- it is very similar to its storied predecessor although, mercifully, it isn't as bad as some of its peers. Despite echoing "Moonlight Shadow" all the way down to the chorus' repetition of its similarly syllabled title, and a defiant xerox of a guitar solo, "Crime of Passion" is nevertheless a memorable number, offered further notability via the deployment of ex- Family vocalist Roger Chapman on the lead vocal. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FAMILY MAN According to an interview in 1998, Oldfield wrote all of the music for the chorus, and verses were written by the other writers. Tim Cross has also claimed to have written the majority of the lyrics for the song, and cited Rick Fenn as the inspiration of the 'family man' mentioned in the song. The American duo Hall & Oates covered Oldfield's song and it reached #6 on the US Hot 100 in June 1983. Of all the people to have composed a monster hit single for Hall & Oates, Mike Oldfield is surely the most unlikely. But "Family Man," a number six hit for the duo in 1982, wasn't simply an ideal number for them; it also ranks among the most archetypal songs of the age, a sharp lyric married to a compulsive rhythm and littered with the kind of sonic hooks around which the entire early decade was constructed. Composed by the entire Mike Oldfield Band -- that is, Oldfield, vocalist Maggie Riley, keyboard player Tim Cross, guitarist Rick Fenn, and drummer Morris Pert -- the original version of "Family Man" is considerably more aggressive in its composers' hands than the horribly emasculated take that the Americans created. A pulsating rhythm is characterized by one of Oldfield's most violent guitar solos, while Riley spits out the lyrics as if they were sour autobiography. Nevertheless, as a commercial vindication of Oldfield's new direction, there could be no stronger indicator that he was on the correct track. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MISTAKE It was not included on any Oldfield album in Europe until the compilation The Complete Mike Oldfield in 1985; however, it was included as an extra track on the North American release of the album Crises in 1983. Maggie Reilly performs vocals on "Mistake" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FIVE MILES OUT The song (and the music video) make numerous references to flight. The video which predominantly features the sky, a plane, a pilot, a woman in white and Oldfield wearing a headset is available on the Elements - The Best of Mike Oldfield video. "Five Miles Out" is a song that has a complex structure despite its unusual length. Lyrics are written about Oldfield's experience of a near-tragic flight. Reilly sings with clean voice while Oldfield uses vocoder most of time himself. The song features same guitar riff that appears in the beginning of "Taurus II" and during the intro a keyboard quotes the opening motif to Tubular Bells a trick he repeats in later pieces such as "Crises". After Mike Oldfield had just finished forming a new band in 1982 with Maggie Reilly as vocalist, Morris Pert playing percussion, Tim Cross behind the keyboards, and Pierre Moerlen on drums, he released Five Miles Out, his seventh release since the monumental Tubular Bells album. One of the tracks, "Family Man," was reworked into a pop song by Hall & Oates a year later, and they took it all the way to number six on the Billboard charts. But it's the title track that seems to jut out from the rest of the album, sparked by Oldfield's experiences as a bush pilot, and, in this particular case, an incident which tossed his airplane around during a heavy thunderstorm while he was flying over the Pyrenees in Spain. It's clear that Oldfield has implemented more of a mainstream approach into the album, but he still manages to include a vast array of instruments in keeping with his reputation as an extremely creative musician. Opening with vocals that seem like they're coming through a pilot's headset, it doesn't take long before Reilly unleashes her gorgeous voice throughout the chorus, which actually gives the impression that it's emanating from above the clouds. While the back rhythm and drum parts are neat and tidy, the song is spontaneously injected with the hauntingly beautiful sound of the uilleann pipes, which sound a little more dynamic than bagpipes, and by Oldfield's tastefully wailing guitar segments. Basked with Oldfield's eccentric rhythmic swivelling and effective bits of synthesized gadgetry, "Five Miles Out" does succeed in depicting its intended imagery without going overboard. Outside of his soundtrack work, many of Oldfield's albums include more pop-oriented tracks throughout the rest of the decade, but as "Five Miles Out" proves, he was careful never to stray too far from his unconventional roots. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CRIME OF PASSION "Crime of Passion" is a single by musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1984 (see 1984 in music). The song features Barry Palmer performing vocals. The front cover features a black and white photograph of Mike Oldfield's mother Maureen, who died in January 1974, ten years before the release of this single. The music video for "Crime of Passion" takes place in a surrealistic children's play room featuring books, giant blocks (with letters on them), a girl on a swing, a military drummer and a clown. In the video Oldfield performs in a 'mechanical' fashion with Ovation and Fender Stratocaster guitars, while Palmer sits on a box and sings. The video is available on the Elements - The Best of Mike Oldfield video. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TO FRANCE Despite its number 15 placing on the U.K. charts, 1984's Discovery was passed over for the most part. The album saw Mike Oldfield continuing with his string of more commercially sounding albums, paying more attention to his guitar playing and a little less to his instrumental eccentricities. One of the album's tracks entitled "To France" made it to number 48 on the British singles chart, which may not sound impressive for a pop artist but was quite satisfactory when it came to Mike Oldfield's repertoire. Because the song is about Mary Queen of Scots' exodus to France in the mid-1500s, most of the song's attention was garnered in Europe, and once again it was Maggie Reilly's shimmering voice that stole the show. "To France"'s sparkling chorus and pristine keyboard parts fall just outside the song's moderate gallop, with Reilly and the accompanying instruments adding some mild Celtic overtones to its melody. A master at the art of imagery and ambience, Oldfield manages to convey Mary's desperation and haste through the sprinkled string work and through the tune's wistful, almost secretive feel. There isn't an overdose of synthesizer or other effectual add- ons, which in turn makes the song sound pure and quite sincere. All of the instruments are played by Oldfield, and Discovery marked the first time he recorded an album outside of England, opting for a mountainside studio near Lake Geneva in Switzerland. While most of the other tracks are typical Oldfield fair, "To France" wonderfully stands out as the album's most alluring cut, due in part to the "less is more" approach to music making, which is rare for Oldfield. The music video that appears on the Elements - The Best of Mike Oldfield video for "To France" is a mock-live performance of the song. Oldfield plays a Fender Stratocaster in the video. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SHADOW ON THE WALL It is from the album Crises. Roger Chapman performs vocals on "Shadow on the Wall". The b-side is "Taurus 3", a short, fast paced guitar piece, which is notably different from Oldfield's long multi-themed pieces, "Taurus" and "Taurus 2", on QE2 and Five Miles Out respectively. The music video for "Shadow on the Wall" is based around an interrogation scene. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLATINUM Mike Oldfield's fifth album was the first to positively state that his future no longer revolved around LP-length rock symphonies. Platinum itself occupied just one side of the album -- the remainder of the set was given over to the shorter, separate pieces that presaged the albums that would follow. The full "Platinum" suite was first conceived as the soundtrack to a 1977 Arts Council movie entitled Reflections*; since that time, the piece had expanded into a seamless blending of four movements, opening with the strident, guitar- led assertion of "Airborne." "Platinum" itself followed, a slice of neo- disco tomfoolery that rode hefty drums and a teasing guitar towards a gruff cry of "take it away!" that led, in turn, into one of the most compulsively rocking pieces of music in Oldfield's entire canon. The third movement, the aptly-titled "Charleston," follows the floor-filling disco rhythms, overlaid first with harshly honking brass, later with a chorus of ghostly cries and wails, before the concluding "North Star/Platinum Finale" unleashes all of the musical magic for which Oldfield is best renowned, an uplifting guitar line soaring over the last embers of the earlier rhythms, building with imperceptible grace towards peaks that Oldfield had not scaled since side one of Ommadawn. Certainly it is one of his most breathtaking pieces of playing; equally importantly, it is also one of his loveliest melodies. An excellent live version of "Platinum" appears on the 1985 Complete Mike Oldfield compilation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ (A REQUEST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's usual to post comments only to complain about a torrent which doesn't work in your configuration. It's normal, after a few hours/days downloading and expecting a release, to feel deceived if it doesn't work properly, and expressing this is legitimate. I've often found one comment (negative) on a movie/CD downloaded by 2000+ people, and since that single negative feedback, people simply stop downloading and therefore, sharing. But a few times it was due not to the torrent itself, but to some issues on the downloader side (not updated codecs, misused tools...), and that's unfair for the person who took the time to share it for free. 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