915 Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells (1973)

Studio Album - Progressive Rock

About the Act:

Mike Oldfield didn’t quite spring out of nowhere, he was a jobbing musician before he came to massive prominence, but his album Tubular Bells was a huge success, both for him, and for the record label it launched, Virgin.

Mike is a multi-instrumentalist, and the first prominent one to make whole albums himself. He started mostly instrumentally, and developed distinctive style and several signature sounds. Later, he branched out into songs, of particular success were Family Man and Moonlight Shadow. Later still he went back to his original schtick of long, evolving instrumental music. There is of course, more that can be said about his history. For me, his career was quite the inspiration for my own music project, Purple. 

About the Album:

This is the album that launched Mike's career, and also the Virgin record label. It was created by him overdubbing many, many times, and he played almost everything himself. It is an iconic album.

My History with this Album:

In 1982 I was a sixth former at a school in York. Due to the fact that we had moved from York to Leeds, but I was still at school in York, and my Dad was still at work in York, we commuted together. This meant I needed to wait at school for about 40 minutes or so every day after school. The school apparently were fine with this arrangement. One of the perks of being a 6th-former at my school was a 6th-form common room. With a hi-fi. It was there that I was chilling one late afternoon on my own, listening to

Tubular Bells for the first time. One of speakers was directly behind my head. I was enjoying the music, when a voice behind my head suddenly and unexpectedly said "Grand Piano". I jumped out of my skin.

It has been part of my life ever since, a regular play. 

Review:

The chances are you know this album. However, just in case I will do the review as normal.

Mike Oldfield is a multi-instrumentalist. This was his first album. He played most of the instruments himself using overdubbing, which was unusual at the time. He made many, many dubs and punch-ins (joining the recording partway through the recording). It was,

at the time, a very unusual project (he was inspired by Classical music, Terry Riley and others). He found it hard to get someone to back the project, but Richard Branson heard his demo and agreed to let him record and publish it. The opening section was used in the film The Exorcist, exposing it to a wide audience, and Mike Oldfield's career, and Virgin Records were founded on this success.

It is composed of two long tracks, one for each side of the vinyl. It is long, evolving musical music, exquisitely textured and varied. It takes its time and is somewhat reminiscent of Ambient music which was to emerge soon (Mike Oldfield was to become part of that genre). It really is in many ways more of akin to Classical music in its approach, in that it introduces musical ideas and develops them over time. It is mostly instrumental, apart from the spoken bits in part one, and the caveman impression in part two. The two most well-known sections are the opening one, which has twinkly notes and alternates 7/8 and 8/8 bars, and the long end of part one where instruments are verbally introduced one at a time as they are introduced to the mix, starting with the Grand Piano, and ending with Tubular Bells.

It's ground-breaking and exquisite, and has stood the test of time. It is one of the most famous albums of all time, and I would say rightly so. I know it backwards (well, not literally), and I would encourage anyone who has not heard it to give it some time.

10/10

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0a3YQpBnRzJzNktOjb6Dum

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv_4sZCLlr0&t=1s

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tubular_Bells