Could have sworn it was David Glimore for a minute... 
Good stuff...

So distinctively Mike Oldfield.

 Silvervanman wrote:
 
He's got 12 songs in rotation, must just be bad timing that you haven't heard any.  I hear MO songs all the time.

About time. I've never heard any MO on here until now. Why?

Thank You  - there is so much to choose from!!  More please.

 khardog145 wrote:
 
Of course you didn't. RP plays Mike Oldfield every time Halley's Comet makes a full circle.

Mike is still making such an amazing music, but you will not hear it here. Nor many other artists and albums.

But hey, gonna make room for some Radiohead, U2 or Beck, bands we don't know nothing about.

Thank you for this.  So lovely and ethereal.  I haven't heard Mike Oldfield since Tubular Bells.

 ulibcn wrote:
 
He's been in the business only a couple of years fewer than PF has; I don't think he's ever tried to "sound like" them but I imagine they all know one another.

Oh wow, the preferred one of our late son Alex ... 

I was a big MO listener throughout my formative years, but felt that the excitement and innovation of the earlier work gradually dropped off, and moved onto other music.

I had not heard this until today - seeing all the positive comments, I was excited to think that this would be something special, but for me it's a disappointment.

It is pleasant enough, but as others have said - Enya/Enigma with some guitar work over the top.  I hate to say it, but I would treat this as background music, rather than the intense listening experience some of his earlier music was capable of.

MIKE!!!!!!  Oh my, this took me by surprise, but a VERY pleasant one.

Mike is my all-time favourite musician, and The Songs of Distant Earth is one of his very finest works.  Happy memories of listening to this a couple of years ago while watching the Northern Lights dance above Lake Inari, Finland, at the end of a magical week's holiday.

Bill, Rebecca, and all at Radio Paradise - you have made me a very happy lady, and my fun-bumps may never go down again! Thank you, from the heart of my bottom XXX 

This song is actually a connected piece, as usual for MO.

One of the many exceptional Mike Oldfield albums.

I was expecting to hear Robbie Robertson come in any second. But the guitar isn't his style.

 raga wrote: 
Don't know why, but I was surprised too... Thanks, Bill. It's my favorite Mike's album.

Hearing it for the first time in my life right now and I love it! Giving it a 9.

Perfect, incredible, quality, exceptional sound. 10

One of my fav musicians from the '90s. Five Miles Out, QE2, and Discovery were exceptional collections. He's done at least one terrific movie score, The Killing Fields. I own Elements, a 4 CD collection. Some important tracks are missing from it but overall it's a fine compendium. 

This is a bit Enigma-like. Moving, positive, ethereal. Befitting the title, no doubt, but not worth a hundred listens like, say, Celt or The Wind Chimes.  Back in the day he was breaking new ground.  

great book, by the way.

as far as i know, this is one of the few books with its own soundtrack! :)

 gumby wrote:  

Yes! Bill is really great...

And Mike still has his feeling and sound... 

 modest_mouse wrote: 
 And sounding like Enya is a bad thing?  I guess you learn something new every day.

For the naysayers; I have this album and if you just sit down and clear your mind and listen start to finish, it flows really well and you'll be enmeshed in it.

To bad that Battlestar Galactica is over; some of this album could have been used in the sound track.

...this is nice...

Sucks as the day is long!

 ulibcn wrote: 
He failed indeed, because the guitar playing is still unmistakable Oldfield-like.

Oooops, back to work!!! Thanks for 'The Cult'

 modest_mouse wrote: 
Spot on. The guitar sound is very Floyd-like. A shame about the cheesy background which detracts from the piece IMO. Interesting to hear Oldfield after all these years, though - the last I remember of him is Tubular Bells which was a massive, massive album hit in the 70s. This is pleasant enough, but doesn't quite hit my spot. 6 from the Nottingham jury.

Is Oldfield still recording?

I know, this comment sounds bad. But here Mike sounds a bit like David Gilmour plays Enya... But I love a lot of his stuff...

If it weren't for that distinctive guitar sound, I could have shown this was Enigma!

Much under-rated musical maestro.

 westslope wrote: 

It's $700 billion, which with AIG and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, takes the tally this month to just north of a trillion.

I love this charade about "Who's gonna keep your taxes low?"  All too soon, that will shift to just how much taxes are gonna need to go up.

Take it from a tax weary Canadian.  We were there in the 90s.

 keller1 wrote:
 
Yeah, the just-in headline in the NYT is reporting a US$700 billion rescue plan for toxic mortgages and the proposal that the lid on the debt be shifted to US$11.3 trillion from US$10.6 trillion.

Soothing is good.

Warm, soothing Saturday morning music.

And if there's a similarity to Floyd, it has the advantage of not having been played (literally) millions of times.

8.

Oldfield on RP? 10

sounds like somebody trying to sound like Pink Floyd. Not bad though

Nice slow hand on the guitar. Never heard this tune before. That could be an 8 out of the gate too.

Brilliant music..I almost forgot about Mike

victoryluna wrote: A 20,000 mile high elevator... Anyone who's read the book will know what I mean.

This whole CD is brilliant. You just listen to it from start to finish in your car, or at home with the headphones on, and you come out of it inspired.

this tune is tripe. ugh.

Servo wrote: I agree! Exposed is a (hidden) masterpiece and not only the TB part! I guess one has to hear it very often until one recognises the musical art. It's a wonderful mixture of classical music and art rock!

I like Mike!

Just came back to my office... Mike Oldfield?! Yes!!

Magnus wrote: "Tubular Bells" is nice, but not among Oldfield's best work, IMHO. Yes, it's famous due to "The Exorcist" movie, but still... Mike Oldfield has a great body of work that's largely unknown to people who equate Mike Oldfield to "Tubular Bells". Personally, the album cover that I always associate with his name is the one for "Exposed", a live double-album. Ironically, my favorite side (thinking in terms of the four sides of the original LP release) is mostly taken up by Part 2 of "Tubular Bells". However if I was to play that track without introduction, I doubt that many people would think "that's 'Tubular Bells'!" because it's so different from the original studio release. Other notable Oldfield albums include "Five Miles Out" and Platinum".

Fiji5555 wrote: Huh, interesting. The title here caught my eye for that very reason, but I had no idea the music was written in response to the book. Thanks for that tidbit. :)

Some of the best elevator music I've heard. But PLEASE DON'T play TB. Every time I hear it I can't get the image of a vomiting devil out of my brain.

Not bad of the Maestro, but... what about his highlights, such as

picto wrote: LOL Der grosse Michael Altfeld

El Gran Miguel Campo Viejo

How about some Tubular Bells?

meghan89 wrote: For some of us it's 11:17 on a Wed nite.

OMG! I have this CD and LOVE it! All the songs just flow so smoothly. I give this a perfect 10! Aslo try reading the novel it's based on by Clarke......good read.

The chords make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I always find I turn it up after the first section and then just ...

Chamat wrote: ... that's the spirit of ascension!

Hey man!!! what a trip this number 20/10

celadonstone wrote: You mean "Sadeness (Part I)" by Enigma?

Mike Oldfield's awesome but this isn't one of his better tracks. A bit insipid for me. Maybe they'll play Amarok, that's a good track ;o)

33rpm wrote: Nope, you're not. I am also reminding of the 1990s chanting monks song with the girl speaking french or something in it? Anyone feel free to help me out with the title of that song.

Overwrought. There was a hole in the "2" part of the histogram. Not anymore! "He-he" said Fretman, gleefully.

I have this CD, but the cover is different (almost completely black, more "like space", if you get my drift). Maybe I have a later reissue, or a previous edition?

Not exactly bad. Light years away from Oldfield's best. The guitar solo is great anyway.

I have this LP, and there is a lot of filler. But play this one song, eyes closed, with headphones, and it really feels like travelling through space. I like it.

I don't know what you CALL it... but I LIKE what he DOES with it! 8 right out of the chute.

Eh I can't tell if I like this not I feel nothing Maybe if I was getting a massage or my eyebrows waxed I could appreciate it, but definately not up to analyzing this mushiness at 2:30 on a Monday afternoon

It's not his best work, but I love his guitar sound

Platypus wrote: Amen. This is anonymous, bland, lifeless, wallpaper music. Yet somehow pompous, too. Oldfield can do better. It's amazing how prevalent the hiphop approach to drums is now, isn't it? Another sampled funk rhythm, there it is, on a Mike Oldfield track. Not necessarily the right thing. But we barely notice anymore, do we?

rgj13 wrote: My new motto :-) I've never heard this song before, but I knew from the first guitar note that it was Mike Oldfield. Such a distinct style. How does he do it?

I thought this was Robbie Robertson at the very beginning.

AGREE! cbonai wrote:

Kinda a wierd mix between Enigma & Deep Forest. I can dig...

Its pretty astounding that in just four songs Bill can go from Robert Earl Keen's "The road goes on Forever" to this without a real jolt in the progression. That is some major DJ'en.

Very nice

On the one hand I think, Hmm, maybe this guy and Satriani should pair up for a, um, an ambient-snooze-off or whatever, and on the other, as I often think of Satriani's stuff, I think, Hmm, pretty tasty. Vive le whatever.

Ah, a breath of fresh air...when this comes on I always think this is Moby, great guitar....love the title.

Platypus wrote: Hmm, which company do you work for that plays music like this in its elevators?

Big boys don't cry...Big boys don't cry. Am I the only one who thinks this has a 10CC vibe to it?

Great track. I had heard that Dave Gilmour did some work with him, it wasn't this was it?

Kinda spacey and meandering, but I like this one. I had no idea Oldfield was still putting out albums as recently as 1996.

Oh, for a moment I could have sworn this was John Tesh or maybe Yanni. Step away from the guitars Mr Oldfield, you know not what you do.

Great track, great album. One of the first things I bought after saving up for a CD player. Ahhh memories :)

talus wrote: Yeah! Dire Straits goes electrico... almoust always catching the right athmosphere there and just enjoying it, but sometimes song feels also a bordeline candidate too, for being, soundwise-speaking: too "purified". Anyway, nice song though.

guitar ain't bad... but overall it sounds like i'm trapped in an elevator.

Freespirit wrote: well see now.. YOU should have submitted this then!! I found the cd thanks to a friend that demanded we stop off so he can see if his guitar was in, at a shop that is just about as far out of the way as you can imagine.. while he checked on the guitar, I browsed the used music they had.. found this as a "Promo" cd.. ie not for resale ... etc.. Knowing the name, and wondering what other works were like.. I laid down 6.50 ... yeah.. 6.50!! Very glad to hear it making the playlist. I submitted another track ("in the beginning") but it was denied.

The Guitar Parts kind of reminds me of Dire Straits

this ascension is better than the preceding transcendence

Once again a great suprise from RP. One of my all time favorite cd's that I never hear anywhere except at home listening to my own collection! :-) Actually saw Oldfield live a while back. Quite an experience!!!