On the other hand it's pretty tame stuff compared to the real thing (Soft Machine, krautrock, high-level fusion and prog, etc.)

Seeing it live kind of defeats the point, since the thing that made the record interesting was that he played all the instruments himself and it has a kind of off kilter feel because he's not that good at some of them.

But yeah, compositionally you can really tell that he was 17 or 18 when he wrote it (he was 19 when it came out).

Hergest Ridge is a much better (and less derivative) Mike Oldfield album, as Mike Oldfield albums go, but you need to listen to it on Youtube or find a first pressing, because all of the releases after that have been a terrible quad remix he did in the late 70s. Fortunately a first pressing is only worth $2-$3 and it has been widely circulated online.

Or you could just get some Popol Vuh and Jade Warrior albums.

My bad, it was recorded at 19, released at 20. point stands.