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Sometimes it happens that the best of an artist comes out when they find themselves at odds with a major like Virgin. This is exactly the case with Mr. Mike Oldfield, who after the disappointing records of "Earth Moving" and "Heaven's Open" crowned by an equally unsuccessful release, attempts one last shot and decides to leave the overly recycled pop song format and return to the suite and overdubs using acoustic instruments.
The project, which started as an ideal continuation of "Ommadawn" (the third acclaimed album), becomes a territory of experimentation and pure madness. The reference to "Ommadawn" might be found in the rhythmic sections and the nods to world music, but what results from listening is an anarchic cacophony of sounds that I believe no other contemporary artist would be able to assemble so masterfully. The noise element takes a leading role, at times deliberately unsettling and at others complementary to the music. And this is how this concept suite, lasting about 60 minutes, unfolds. A journey among companions in search of sonic utopia. Pastoral and lysergic moments associated with sounds of Mike himself drinking or scratching his beard. Thigh slaps, country festivities, chainsaws starting up, all surrounding a daring, heterogeneous suite that is at the same time enveloping. The guitar dominates over all other instruments, sometimes calm and harmonious, other times distorted and aggressive. There are solos, such as the 20 minutes of flamenco which are dizzying, harking back to his best productions of the seventies. Overdubs are abundant and the distant scent of tubular bells is always in the air, even if the context is completely different.
It is difficult to go further in describing such an extreme album as this, just as it is difficult to classify it into a genre. It deliberately escapes any recognizable canon. At the time, it challenged the critics and was hailed by the public, who to this day recognizes it as an absolute and unbeaten creative peak of the artist, alongside "Tubular Bells".
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By Minghe
This album is sound surrealism, it’s as if someone put a guitar in the hands of Miró rather than Oldfield.
An incredible tornado of notes that seem almost impossible to imprint in the mind as they appear and disappear so quickly allowing them to be forgotten after just a few moments.
