Tubular Vibes: Mike Oldfield Tribute

Artist: Various Artists Label: Cleopatra Category: Music Average customer rating: Media: Audio CD Number Of Discs: 1 UPC: 741157098624 EAN: 0741157098624 ASIN: B000059T7I Release Date: 2001-02-20

Tubular Vibes: Mike Oldfield Tribute

Tracks:

1. Tubular Bells, Pt. 4
2. Taurus
3. Guilty
4. Jewel in the Crown
5. Funkie Tubular Bells
6. Moonlight Shadow [Unplugged Version]
7. High Place
8. Get to France
9. Moonlight Shadow [Dance Version]
10. Blue Incantations
11. Five Miles Out
12. Red Incantations
13. Tubular Countdown

Customer Reviews:

Not good, not bad.......2001-04-13

I'm not sure if this CD made only for money or it is a real value. Let me lesson the tracks one more time...

Dance version of Moonlight Shadow is REALLY interesting

Vlad(x)

Boy, is my face red..........2001-03-30

All in all, this is not a collection... but it could have been quite a bit better.

That should have read: All in all, this is not a BAD collection...

OF COURSE, this is a collection! :)

(And to think I faulted the writing in the liner notes. Karmic justice?)

Nice Effort marred by near-misses and total disasters.......2001-03-29

In some cases, the artists (Northern Europeans, based on the accents of the singers) for this album deliver exactly what I expect. In others, they fail to a greater or lesser degree.

Standout pieces are 'Tubular Bells Part 4,' 'Taurus,' 'Jewel in the Crown,' the two 'Incantation' tracks, and the 'Tubular Countdown.' They are nice reworks of Oldfield instrumentals that give a sense of fun and wonder... that make me feel as though the performers love this music as much as I do. 'Jewel in the Crown' is a particular favourite of mine... and I might even like it better than Oldfield's version. ('Jewel' has always stood out in my mind as one of the weaker parts of 'Tubular Bells 2.')

The "unplugged" version of 'Moonlight Shadow' and the straight cover of "To France" (titled 'Get to France' for whatever reason) are excellent reditions of those songs. 'Get to France' in particular has some nice moments.

That's eight out of 13 tracks that I think are excellent. Beyond them, however, there isn't much worth mentioning.

'Guilty' and 'High Place' may be okay... I can't judge them well, because I don't like the Oldfield versions. All I can say is that these are not improvements on the originals. 'High Place' is a lack-luster cover of 'In High Places' and the version of 'Guilty' here has all the weaknesses of the orginal and none of the raw energy.

However, the "dance" version of 'Moonlight Shadow' and 'Five Miles Out' are such crimes against the original songs that I've knocked a full star for them. That might seem a bit steep, but try listening to them next to the original Oldfield versions. The 'dance' version is uneven enough in its beat to even make it tricky for use in techno/rave settings--and while I may be an old fogey by some standards, I CAN tell you that the orignal 'Moonlight Shadow' was plenty dancable. It was played a lot in the club I frequented when the song was a hit--and there are aspects of the track that feel like it was someone's practice effort with the mixing board that accidentially made it onto the released album, with some of the vocals chopping and repeated in particularly pointless ways. Further, the beautiful tune of 'Moonlight Shadow' is close to unrecognizable.

'Five Miles Out' however is the absolute worst on the collection. I might even stray into the territory of hyperbole and say it's the worst cover of a song I've heard, ever. While it was impossible for the performers to demolish the strong tune that's at the heart of 'Five Miles Out,' they did their damndest by laying down a Latin-leaning beat and generally delivering a song about a pilot coming in for a landing during a storm in an astonishingly cheerful fashion. What's worse, the lines spoken by the incoming pilot have been run through a synthesizer and are distorted to the point where the listener can't make out what he is saying. I suppose partly why I dispise this track so is both because I love the Oldfield version so much, but also because I've often wondered what another artist could do with it. The only think they could have done worse with this cover, however, is to have played the main theme on kazoos. (Come to think of it... that might actually have improved it...)

Something else that made me knock off a star was an annoying presence of static on many of the tracks. I at first thought I was having problems with my stereo at home, so I played the disc at my office as well. No... it wasn't my sound system... it's the disc. I can only imagine that there's an engineer out there who thinks that such fuzziness is either Oldfieldy or just 'edgy.'

Finally, while this has little to do with the music, the packaging annoyed me slightly. The liner notes consist of empty rehashes of the 'Tubular Bells' story, something I imagine most of the purchasers of an album like this have already read more than one version of. Worse, the language is clunky in places and the editing is sloppy. That space would have been much better used if each of the recording artists had given us a few sentences about WHY they chose to take the approach of to the tracks they did. It would also have been nice to know why the titles of the songs were changed.

All in all, this is not a bad collection... but it could have been quite a bit better.

Well produce but still disappointing...........2001-03-23

I love most of Mikes work (though I think, he doesn't deliver the same quality nowadays as he did some decade(s) ago) and i like the idea of other artists performing there own variation of his songs...

...but this tribute just sounds to sterile and uninspirational to me. Don't get me wrong: Tubular Vibes is not all bad, but I could easily live without it.

Remember the "Synthesizers Greatest Hits"-Series? If you liked it, go for Tubular Vibes, if not - let it be. I hated those albums, so maybe Tubular Vibes too just isn't meant for an audience like me.

Some of the tracks I liked:

- The Funkie Tubular Bells - The Red Incantations - The Tubular Countdown

Most tracks were produced by Ulrik Rey Henningsen (web site), the rest seems to be produced by some other danish artists.

If your really interested in MO-Tributes, don't forget to check out the fan-driven "Static 18" Project, which you should find easily on the web...

Mike Oldfield done wrong..........2001-03-18

Music Album:

1. Big Slow Mover ~ Phil Cody
2. Burn Your Scripts Boys ~ Out Circuit
3. Farmer John Live ~ The Premiers
4. Hello, It's Wonderful ~ Wonderful Smith
5. And Best of All.../Hope Street ~ Stiff Little Fingers
6. Tempo for Two ~ The Horton Brothers
7. Physical Angel ~ The Planet The
8. The Best of the Nice ~ The Nice
9. Sax Education ~ James Chance
10. Nomadic Wavelength ~ Tim Reynolds

Music Album

Music Album

Music CD

Bix Restored, Vol. 5 ~ Bix Beiderbecke

Just for You: Live in the 1950s ~ George Shearing

Jammin' in Hi Fi with Gene Ammons ~ Gene Ammons

Platypus ~ Gerard Presencer

Everyday, I Have the Blues ~ Bill Doggett

Thuthukani Ngoxolo (Let's Develop in Peace) ~ Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Nhk Tensai TV Kun-Mtk Best V.1 ~ TV Senshi

Die Singles 1973-1978 ~ Roy Black

Native Voices ~ Various Artists

Setrak at the Harem, Vol. 10 ~ Setrak Sarkissian