It's OK not to love Tubular Bells.......

Like many others, the first Mike Oldfield record I ever heard was Tubular Bells. I didn’t buy the album when it came out as it was released the same year I was born. In fact, I didn’t buy it at all. Back in the 80’s when CD players were first becoming popular; manufacturers would bundle in free CD’s with a new player. One of my five (yes five) freebies was Tubular Bells. When I first played it I was totally bemused by it and rarely listened to it again - I was expecting something different.

It wasn’t until I saw the premier of Tubular Bells II on TV a few years later that I thought this Oldfield guy might actually be quite good. I went back to Tubular Bells but still found it a bit too odd and gritty for my taste. The sequel however, was a glistening and fluid journey through a magnificent musical landscape. I decided to blindly venture into Oldfield’s extensive back catalogue and see what else came up (not something I would recommend without assistance).

Now, if the next album I had bought had been Discovery or Islands my Oldfield odyssey might well have ended there and then. Happily my next purchase was Crises. As a fan of the Fairlight the title track was an immediate favourite. If you couple that with Moonlight Shadow and a few other less well known but interesting songs, you have a great album. In fact Crises (the track, not the album) remains my favourite Oldfield composition. Suddenly I was a Mike Oldfield fan.

When The Songs of Distant Earth was released I was stunned. For some reason I found it a quite affecting piece of music and the more I revisited the album the better it seemed to become. I still like to listen to the whole album rather than selected tracks as it is such a cohesive and moving piece of work. It remains my favourite Mike Oldfield album by quite some way.

Fast forward twenty years (surely not...*checks*…yes twenty) and Oldfield has just released some nonsense remix album that is barely worth the entrance fee. I started reading some reviews online just to check that my opinion of Tubular Beats isn’t too out of step with fellow fans. As a devotee of electronic, rather than acoustic or guitar driven music, I always assumed my opinions on Oldfield albums were often contrary to the majority of his fans. But the more opinions I read online the more I realised my destain for Tubular Beats and love of Crises and The Songs of Distant Earth is shared by many.

So if you are a Mike Oldfield fan; I’d just like to say, it’s OK not to love Tubular Bells. You are not alone.

Roland D-10: it's everywhere! (almost)

The first ‘real’ synthesizer I ever used was a Roland D-5 – it blew me away. Inevitably, the D-5 was soon stolen from our school and replaced by a D-10. I used this synth for various projects until I left school in the early 90’s

The D-10 isn’t the poor man's D-50 as its name would suggest; the two were very different machines. In fact it is a shame the D-10 has the ‘D’ prefix at all. The D-10 was a kind of early multi-timbral ROMpler that Roland began to perfect with the JV series in the 90’s. Even though it wasn’t much of a synthesis tool (changing the presets would incur a severe reprimand at our school) the D-10 had some nice sounds and was easy to operate.

Many years later when I had left school, I bought a second hand D-10 as it was familiar and, by then, cheap. Yet, I never really heard the D-10 presets on records and found I couldn’t quite get the sound I wanted from it (I was listening to lots of dance music in the early 90’s). I assumed the D-10 was just too ‘cheap’ for professional musicians and that I needed something more modern. I parted company with the D-10 around 2001 and haven’t missed it at all.

However, in recent years I am hearing the D-10 everywhere. Electronics’ “Lean to the inside” is almost completely Roland D-10 presets (actually a D-110 in this case) and the song "Idiot Country" features the Jamisen sound. 808 State used it for the lead sound on ‘In yer face’ and used various other sounds less prominently on their "Ex:el" album in 1991 (lots of Korg M1 and D50 on there too). The title track from Tangerine Dream's album "Lily on the Beach" features the drums and the preset HarmoPan and there are several other presets scattered around the album.

The most prominent use of the D-10 is probably by Mike Oldfield; his album “Earth Moving” features the D-10 on almost every song. Listening to the track “Innocent” I realise the drums, bass, and various other bits are all D-10 presets. I am at a loss as to why I never noticed the use of these sounds before.

The D-10 will never be a classic, but it was used by recording artists and there is evidence to prove it. So a synthesizer I dismissed as terrible (but one of few I could afford) is undergoing a re-appraisal.

Where is my phone? I need to look at my eBay app.

 

UPDATE MARCH 2023 - I've added a couple of other tracks I have noticed feature the D-10 and I have also recently acquired a D-110

My CD is cheaper than your mp3

In previous posts I have reasoned that buying CD’s should be dispensed with and that buying music digitally really is the best way forward. And yet I find myself continually buying CDs at a steady rate. So why? Well here is one reason why:

Today I realised a big hole had appeared in my music collection. I’m not 100% sure if I ever bought Massive Attacks “Mezzanine” or if I have lost it; either way, I don’t seem to own it at present. To remedy the situation I went straight to my chosen retailer (always amazon.co.uk as I’m lazy) and searched for the album. Just before I clicked on buy mp3 for a reasonable £2.49 I saw the price of a second hand CD.

A small light bulb lit above my head and I clicked on "used". Why would I buy a collection of mp3's when the cheaper option is to buy a CD for 1p? That's right 1p. 

I have bought a few books on amazon for this price before, but never CDs. Most people are just trying to have a clear out and figure they will make some money on postage I think, but you really do get the item for 1p. Yes, the postage is £1.20 or something, but it still works out cheaper to buy a CD than buy a digital copy. 

So all of my rhetoric about buying music in digital form has been undermined and my CD collection keeps expanding not shrinking. I will have to live with the headache of where to store all of these CDs; but with a few more pounds in my pocket.

Mr Poo Sky

Jeff Lynne seems like an affable bloke. He always comes across as a normal guy with a huge talent who has nothing to prove to anyone. He made the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) a phenomenon in the ‘70’s and rode the wave of stardom from the bleakest parts of Birmingham to the brightest lights of Los Angeles. He has written and produced some of the greatest pop songs of the 20^th century and has collaborated with The Beatles, George Harrison and Roy Orbison to name drop but a few.

So why in the name of god has he resorted to producing the cynical pony that is “Mr Blue Sky”? Is his Los Angeles mansion costing him a fortune to air condition and he can’t afford the electricity bill? Lynne justifies the existence of “Mr Blue Sky” in the same way Mike Oldfield defended the re-recording Tubular Bells: new technology and experience means the flaws of the original can be rectified and a long held dissatisfaction can be eradicated. But as with all such re-recordings, people love the original recordings so much that a modern version is going to have to be very special to even come close to matching the original.

I for one don’t like these new versions. The opener “Mr Blue Sky” is OK, but suddenly ends where the extended coda of the original took the song into a dream like fantasy. Sure, the song is Lynne’s to do with as he wants, but as he points out in his liner notes, “Who’s in charge, you or the song?” For me it’s the song; and Lynne is trying to wrestle back too much control. Most tracks rumble by as just flat versions of the originals with the exception of “Telephone Line” and “Showdown” which I single out for special criticism. The only track to be improved is “10538 Overture” which was aptly the starting point for the band and the end of this album. Let it be the end of ELO.

Scissor Sisters Live

Until last night I had never seen Scissor Sisters live. But as Ana Matronic phrased it: Boy, I was bent over a barrel last night. It was not only the outstanding musicianship on show from the band, but the energy and sheer sense of fun that made this an outstanding performance.

As Jake danced around peeling off his clothing (a la Andy Bell circa 1988) and Ana whipped the crowd into action you couldn’t help but be drawn in by their enthusiasm. A great set list saw all the old favourites played with the assurance and self confidence of a band that have been performing together for ten years. Special mention also goes to the backing singers who were quite briliant when allowed to shine.

Wikipedia describes Scissor Sisters performances as “controversial or transgressive”, but I saw no evidence of that whatsoever last night. All I witnessed was great musicians and in an inclusive and fun loving atmosphere. Scissor Sisters live come highly recommended.

Pet Shop Boys, not my Elysium, yet

Awaiting the release of a new Pet Shop Boys album is always a difficult time. Are they going to dress up in silly outfits or grow their hair long and scowl in shades? Is the music a series of electro classics or is it a guitar driven dirge? So many questions to be answered.

With Elysium due to be released next month I was on tenterhooks until I heard it. Now I have listened to it a few times, I will pass my considered opinion. I will start by saying I hope this new album grows on me; a classic slow burner. The first impressions haven’t been good. The Andrew Dawson production seems to drag the sound of the album down and can hardly be considered fresh in the same way as its predecessor “Yes”. The whole album is very ‘down tempo’ and brooding: a pop tour de force it is not.

The opener “Leaving” is as upbeat and “pop” as this album gets, and thus becomes the logical choice for their second single cut. “Invisible” sounds out of place as the second track and kills any atmosphere the opening track may have created. Don’t get me wrong, I like the song very much, it is just in the wrong place in the running order. Next comes the first single “Winner” with the fun of “Your Early Stuff” close on its heels. Here Neil treats us to snippets of the acerbic comments he has (presumably) received in recent years in the same way as he did with “Yesterday, When I Was Mad” in 1993. Not a new idea admittedly but entertaining none the less.

“Face Like That” sees Neil complimenting the looks of an unknown individual whilst Chris turns his synths back to the sounds they used in 1988 (and that is a very good thing). This track is the logical opener for the album but, in this crazy running order, it is lost at number 5. “Breathing Space” is one of those sweeping, orchestral tracks that highlights what outstanding songwriters Messers Tennent and Lowe are, whilst “Ego Music” and “Hold On” do everything they can to undermine this statement. Here the album loses its way and the quality of both the production and the song writing takes a sharp downward turn. “Hold On” starts well enough but soon turns into a toe curling pastiche of the worst musical you have ever heard. “Memory of the Future” tries to return us to electronica nirvana, but the memory of the previous three tracks is just too much for it to overcome. “Everything Means Something” is intricate and sounds like it should have been sung by Elbow: not a natural fit for the Pet Shop Boys. However, “Requiem in Denim and Leopardskin” is as natural a fit as is possible for Neil and Chris, but not a logical end to the album for me.

To make a version of “Elysium” better for me, I would chop out “Ego Music” and “Hold On”. I would then take the tracks in the order of

1. Face Like That
2. Winner
3. Leaving
4. Your Early Stuff
5. Requiem in Denim and Leopardskin
6. Memory of the Future
7. Invisible
8. Everything Means Something
9. Give it a Go
10. Breathing Space

But what do I know?

I just hope it grows on me and that I can begin to cope with “Hold On” in the same way as I do “Happiness is an Option” and “Release” et al.

The death of the physical single

Things change. Music has moved on. The days when an artists released their singles as physical discs are almost at an end. And it upsets me greatly.

I have collected records by the Pet Shop Boys for 25 years and their singles have always been important epochs for me. Every release evokes a memory or is associated with a person, a place or a point in time. I still recall the thrill of going into a record store the week after a single was released to buy the Remix 12" ('It's Alright' and 'So Hard' stick out for some reason). Import singles were like some magical exotica with different covers and remixes that always cost far too much. I still marvel at the cover of the 'DJ Culture' 12" and the double sleeve edition of 'Suburbia' is a work of art that I treasure. In short, it isn't just about the music these discs contain; it is also the experience of owning and buying them.

The fact that Neil and Chris had to persuade EMI to release a physical disc of 'Winner' is a stark contrast to the myriad of single formats that were being released  in the late 80's. We are losing an art form and the soulless click of a mouse on iTunes or amazon doesn't feel anything like walking in to Our Price and seeing a display stand bursting with shiny new 12" singles.

Yes, vinyl and CD singles are not totally dead, but they are on the endangered species list. I for one, will miss them more than I ever thought I would.