Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells (2009 remix - thought I'd finally give this a second listen after being unconvinced by it when it first came out. My initial reservations still stand, the addition of a few extra bars on Part One not being much of a trade-off for the loss of the drum intro to the 'piltdown man' section on Part Two, and the climax of Part One sounds feeble, the titular bells apologetically buried in the mix rather than clanging out triumphantly the way they did on the original mix. But I must admit it is nice to hear instruments that were previously hidden and for the most part the sound is more balanced. Part Two sounds particularly satisfying and the new segue into Mr Piltdown is quite effective. But, for all its imperfections, I'll still go for the original. Rough round the edges, but that's part of the charm).