TUBULAR BELLS

I often wonder what my first encounter with prog was. It could well have been this one. I was fourteen years old when I first explored this with a classmate and we both agreed this was something special. When you are that young and hear something like this it has a deep impact on you. At least that's how it is with me. Even then I drew the conclusion that even though it was a quite monotonous and repititive piece of music it still had that special breath of class over it. The change of instruments all the time, it is a sort of build up in a perfect way that still has my admiration.

This is what you call essential music, to me it's the same sort of milestone as Oxygene by Jean Michel Jarre was. A breath of fresh air, highly original and something that was never done before. It's sheer nostalgia, I know, but it's the kind of experience you never forget. And still this whole song of praise for this piece of art doesn't have really something to do with the way I feel about it objectively. Because despite my nostalgic feelings I don't consider it a masterpiece musicwise, that is where my personal taste for prog music is concerned. All things considered it's just a notch less and so I will give it 4 stars.

A few words about Tubular Bells part II: I think this is the wrong title because there are no tubular bells in this epic and it hardly resembles part I. So I do'n't know why Mike Oldfield decided to this. I saw an interview with him on TV where he stated that part II is much better than part I. Well, what can I say. He is the master and composer, so he will be right. But it will never have the same impact on me as part I because of my personal history with that part. So in the end it's the ever applying conclusion about music and art in general: it's a matter of taste and that's the only truth.