Guitars [CD, Import, from US]

"Apart from guitar," Mike Oldfield once confessed to an interviewer, "I can't play anything really well. I can get by on keyboards--enough to use--but I'm not really good at anything apart from guitar." This 1999 album--appropriately titled, as it happens--offers nothing less than a showcase for that facility and for Oldfield's two distinctive styles of playing: his very clean, heavily compressed Stratocaster sound and his busier, more contemplative acoustic work, where his technique (flawless as ever) betrays the influence of classical guitar, english folk and flamenco. Overdubbing madly, Oldfield creates his usual array of sketches and longer pieces--though modesty forbids him from claiming true axe-hero status: "It's dead easy," he's demurred, "because it's all just hammering. If you learn a basic claw-hammer technique from folk picking, you can do all the stuff I do." Hmm. I'll take his word for it. --Andrew McGuire

1999 album, his return to guitar-based stylings after the new age legend's recent dance-oriented releases. 10 tracks total including 'Muse', 'Embers' and 'Four Winds'. Every sound on this album, including the drum sounds, were made by live guitars, midi guitar and individual guitar samples.