INCANTATIONS

I grew up with Mike Oldfield and would consider him one of my favorite artists of all time. His first three albums were a major inspiration for my own musical style (I still play "On Horseback" at some of my cover gigs), and as I started to explore music on my own I discovered the sheer brilliance of Amarok, in my opinion one of the best albums ever made. Even some of his less acclaimed albums like QE2 and Islands have music on them that I quite enjoy. But even though Incantations is often hailed as part of his classic period, to me it sounds more like he was running out of steam, trying desperately and ultimately failing to top himself with the first of his musical experiments that I would say didn't quite come together.

Oldfield has said in interviews that his inspiration for Incantations largely came from exposure to Bach (whose music he would sample in a later song, "Conflict" from QE2) and the circle of fifths. Part of what I love about Oldfield is the eclectic range of styles he brings to his compositions, drifting from neoclassical motifs to lilting English folk to shreddy proto-metal to the caveman grunts in Tubular Bells Part II. But here, that one musical idea--the circle of fifths--dominates about 50-60% of the entire album. This might not be such a big issue if Incantations weren't a 72- minute double LP, but with that fact in mind, that musical idea and the lead melody it introduces--pleasant and calming enough in part 1--grossly overstay their welcome by the time you get to part 4. At his best, Mike Oldfield is a master at playing around with and reinterpreting melodic motifs, taking them in new and interesting directions (I would call Amarok a prime example). But for most of this album, he doesn't do enough to the lead melody to make it not fade into the background.

Of course, this is Mike Oldfield we're talking about, so some exceptions apply. The intro to Part 3 is easily my favorite part of the whole album--it's highly energetic, reminding me a lot of the Trepak section from the Nutcracker, and it even features one of the few interpolations of the main theme that I would consider engaging. Part 4 also opens with a pleasant-sounding, Eastern-tinged lilt that interpolates the circle of fifths in at least a different way from the rest of the album--at least until it transitions right back into the main motif. I even like the disco interpolation of the main theme on the bonus track "Guilty"--maybe it's not prog, but it's definitely got some great energy and some fresh musical ideas. If Kanye can sample a Mike Oldfield song, I reckon Oldfield can get away with sampling himself.

But those flashes of creativity aren't enough to salvage the album for me, especially since I haven't even talked about the most confused part of the album and one of Oldfield's most baffling musical decisions ever: setting Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha to music.

A listener approaching this album from a prog perspective might be forgiven for thinking that this is at least a novel concept. But in fact composers have been setting this poem to music since at least 1858--most notably Oldfield's fellow countryman Samuel Coleridge-Taylor around the turn of the 20th century--which further calls into question why Oldfield would tackle this poem when it had already been so done before.

Oldfield likely took inspiration from contemporaries like Yes and Mahavishnu Orchestra, who incorporated world elements and lyrically drew on Hindu texts. But Jon Anderson was engaging with these texts and incorporating them into his brand of rock mysticism, and John McLaughlin would go on to collaborate with Indian and other world musicians. We don't see much connection with Native American culture on Incantations. The percussion is credited as "African drums" by the Jabula Quartet, and the poem itself is sung by English vocalist Maddy Prior. To the extent most Westerners know anything of Native American music, they think of flutes--which are present on the album, but if they're on the Hiawatha sections, they're mixed down to the point of inaudibility.

Granted, crafting a distinctly Native American sound would have been a Herculean task anyway given the scope of atrocities that uprooted indigenous people and alienated them from their cultures--and even the authenticity of Longfellow's original poem is... debatable. But it wouldn't have been impossible. A few years later, Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel would not only incorporate African elements into their music, they would actively platform African musicians like Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Youssou N'Dour. If Oldfield wanted to give his sound more connection with Native American culture, Louis W. Ballard (known as the father of Native American composition) was still actively composing in the mid-1970s--and even if Oldfield wasn't aware of him, surely Virgin's most successful artist at the time would have the connections to make that happen if he wanted to.

None of this would be a problem if the sections weren't so repetitive and uninspired. It's the same 8-measure melody and chord structure repeated ad nauseam for a 9-minute stretch of music. Though considering this is a poem about an Ojibway demigod filtered through a white American and set to music by an Englishman, maybe "boring" is the best case scenario here.

And that's basically the tenor of the album. None of it is "bad"--it's quite pleasant to listen to, has some standout moments, and even the parts that overstay their welcome are nice at first. But it's just not an album that rewards repeated listens, even compared to some of Oldfield's 80s work (which I think is rather overhated, but I digress). If you're looking to get into Oldfield, I'd say stick to the first three albums + Amarok, maybe Five Miles Out as well.