The initial CD issue of the double album length Incantations was bowdlerised by 3 minutes, supposedly to fit onto a single disc, rather daft as the full version is only 73 minutes. Fortunately this was rectified in later versions, and after I recently picked up one of those at a secondhand shop, having had the cut version for a decade, it seems astonishing to me what difference those three minutes makes. Because I never really rated this as a decent Mike Oldfield album. I felt it was too long and over-ambitious, and in fact quite annoying in parts. In fact, in review, this is about as close as Oldfield's work gets to the "serious composer" aesthetic of Steve Reich and Philip Glass. After this album, only The Killing Fields soundtrack (1984) and Amarok (1990) have approached this level of complexity as whole albums. (Oh yes, Rory, and "Afghan".)

But on with the music; there are not the explosions of hot bliss that made Ommadawn (1975) such a formidable work, rather, the pleasures here are more zenlike - listen too hard to the more repetitive aspects and you are bound to get bored. Still, most of the more delicate moments occur on the first vinyl, particularly the conclusion to Part 2 with Maddy Prior (then of Steeleye Span) as chanson. In setting up the thematic chord progressions, hammering it into your head using the devices of chanting choirs, string sections, vibraphone and synths, the more subtle aspects start to reveal themselves in a hypnotic fashion.

The beginning to Part 3, originally excised, is a revelation; at first listen it's just a inconsequental piece of pomp rock, but its place is in setting up the next part - a section of the vibes and the Jabula African drummers, appearing nice and placid from afar, but the undercurrent of the rhythm guitar adds a sense of Ommadawn-esque tension to proceedings, before shortly Oldfield's best guitar lead of his career to date begins to careen overhead. This piece thunders along nicely, interlocking into a couple of more fusionish, driving sections to finish off Part 3. The first half of Part 4 is dominated by vibes playing the perpetually ascending theme ad nauseam, so after the languid opening, skip to 8:00 when things improve a lot, firstly with a curiously robotic yet Eurogroovy arrangement which presents hints of his better eighties work to come, and then the finale with the return of Prior singing over, plus more vibes, of course, one of Oldfield's best melodies. A real payoff after over an hour of alternatively tedious and brilliant setting up.

All in all, not the Mike Oldfield album for neophytes (the aforementioned Ommadawn may be all you want, 1994's Songs Of Distant Earth is also a good place to start), certainly it has taken me a whole decade to really appreciate Incantations.