Orbital - Classic or Dud?

p & p are real cool in person, too.

http://www.kidsthelabel.co.uk

tracks : patchwork guilt/gloopy

and both are very classical orbital styled tracks ..

'times fly (fast)' is the best fake jungle track ever.

YES YES YES YES YES (except maybe "Are We Here?")

"Are We Here" wins.

Enrique I was going to suggest you take this to the fake jungle thread but I note that you already did 2 years ago.

i remember hearing 'Times Fly' for first time and feeling half 'wow this is great (sped up)' and half 'nooooo, bandwagon'

oh tim that has really upset me. i am senile :(

Help - what's the title of their track the first couple of minutes of which is slightly Philip Glass-sounding piano loops without a beat? I just have it listed as ? in my itunes.

Er... Science Friction? if it's 5:04 long.

Nah, 9.27!

I mean Kein Trink Wasser... and yeah that's 9:20something

lurrrrve that track

Thanks! Yeah, it's great.

Heh, been wondering what that track was for years now, thanks!

Do you people not have Snivilisation?!

I've only got a clutch of Orbital songs that a mate burned for me way back - keep meaning to rectify this but haven't got round to it.

Get the following albums IMMEDIATELY:

Orbital 2 (Brown Album)
Snivilization
In Sides
The Middle Of Nowhere

Those four are essential listening; the others all rank from very good to great but these four are just completely unimpeachable.

^ OTM!

Yep. Well except for the others all rank from very good to great... The Altogether?

I've always maintained that The Altogether is a very good album. Listening to it again over the weekend reaffirmed that belief.

Having said that, it's probably their most-skippable.

tbh if you're gonna get two then In Sides and Middle Of Nowhere are absolutely absolutely essential. and if it's one SONG then "out there somewhere (pt.2)" is yer poison.

I can't say it better than Dan just did.

middle of nowhere sucked

rong

it was pretty clear from the saint theme single and most of In Sides they had their waterskis on and were ready to go but I held out hope and then WHOOSH right up the ramp and through the air

middle of nowhere is fucking brilliant dude

Ha! I skipped the Altogether apparently. Didn't even realize it existed until now. I guess Middle of Nowhere really did make me lose interest until the last album!

Just bought In Sides off iTunes.

Middle of Nowhere didn't outright suck, though, I just found it mediocre. Too mediocre for them.

Wise move, chap. Now don't forget Orbital 2 (the Brown album).

The Brown Album is great, though a lot of my love for it is down to, you know, memories of happy times. I'm thinking in particular of that concert in The Point where I was entertaining a cousin I barely knew who couldn't understand why everyone was so friendly. Great days, Gay, great days.

Most of the albums are very, very good as everyone's saying. This would also be a great starting point (for the total Orbital newcomer, at least) as it contains a bunch of good album tracks and more. Just avoid the Kirk Hammett collaboration, which i think is track 4 or 5:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AXANMS8QL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

The first four-five tracks on The Middle of Nowhere are fucking amazing.

Still, Snivilization is better.

And then In Sides is better still

^^^^exactly

The first four-five tracks on The Middle of Nowhere

this is, like, most of the album, and even then "nothing left" is good IMO and i chill with "style"

tru "in sides" is boss tho

I love "Style" but I'm not forcing that on anyone.

I think "Nothing Left" is pretty overrated, esp. when compared to the 1-2-3 KO of the first 3 tracks.

yeah but you're comparing it with flat-out brilliance

the main synth-line of "Know Where to Run", especially the bend and stutter at 5:35... oh man.

actually I marginally prefer "i don't know you people" to "know where to run" and "otono" is wonderful too, it's more like a 1-2-3-4-5 KO

Sometimes "Otono" is my favorite song on the album.

'nothing left' is one of their best ever tracks. and it's two tracks. and the opening track is golden. i used to think it wasn't that hot... but it is.

I'm not gonna fight you on that. "Nothing Left" isn't bad, it's just that I adore the first three songs on that album so much it's a little frightening.

Well I just listened to the whole album from tracks 3-8 (first two extremely familar/no need) and I didn't notice a dip in enjoyment during the last three. If anything, the vocal sample in Style and subsequent drum build actually enhanced my pleasure.

Although when I now listen to "Way Out ->" I'll probably recant. ;)

I've always thought that "Know Where To Run" would do serious damage at, like, a proper rave. The synth hooks in that are quite amazing. Middle Of Nowhere was an album I was massively into right around the time I first tried pills and that track and second half of "Nothing Left" just seemed like extended love songs to drugs. I almost wonder if this album was kinda the Hartnolls playing on the twin meanings of "psychedelic" in dance music - in a much more deliberate and grandiose manner than they had before bar "Impact (The Earth Is Burning)".

"I Don't Know You People" is the weak track if only because the specific sounds seem too tied up with big beat - and the implied allusions to funkiness undercut the ostensible menace.

Whereas "Style" (which I adore) is ostensibly about levity but in fact is melancholy and sublime.

is the weak track if only because the specific sounds seem too tied up with big beat -

does not compute...

yea 'nothing left' to me is an almostly terrifyingly bleak (lol ACHINGLY BEAUTIFUL amirite) track, don't find it easy to listen to. getting into challops mode, though the first track and last (two) track(s) of 'in sides' are my prog-techno jam for all time, maybe MON is... their... best album!

though the first track and last (two) track(s) of 'in sides' are my prog-techno jam for all time, maybe MON is... their... best album!

this is terrifyingly close to being in complete accord with my own views

was there ever an original version of "speed freak" available?

"does not compute..."

It's not that big beat is bad, I just think they can't make those sounds fit the vibe they're going for. When big beat did menace it was through a certain blunt heaviness, and 1999 model Orbital were a bit too prissy to go there - which is why all the other menacing tracks on Middle of Nowhere are basically Detroit Techno X Sasha.

(the Sasha reference is not meant to be a diss - listen to the Xpander EP he released only a few months later! Between that and Hybrid I spent 1999 thinking prog-trance was about to become an extended Orbital homage - it was not to be, of course...)

I guess it's kind of funny, I loooove Orbital, but only have the brown album (the 2cd version with the live set on the other disk). That one thread about not buying other albums by bands you like becuase it would ruin the mystique or whatever springs to mind. I'd probably do well to get In sides and snivilization, but I'll leave it at that.

but that kind of superstition is crazy-insane madness and any rational adult should realise this

actually he's just being sensibly frugal

brown album + snivilization is all you really need

uh NO

In Sides is one of my favorite albums of all time

wow i agree with El Tomboto. Something about In Sides just killed it for me. I think I was just over Orbital by the time it came out. I remember not even being all that excited about it. I eventually bought Middle of Nowhere, but never got into it at all. I couldn't think of one song from it. Snivilization was always my favorite.

I'm reading this thread realizing that out of all of the groups I've ever been a really devoted fan of, Orbital was dropped abruptly and haven't had a single urge to listen to anything by them since. Maybe it's finally time to revisit them.

OH GOD WHY HAVE I GOT NO ORBITAL ON MY WORK COMPUTER

you motherfuckers

But yeah, Snivilisation>In Sides>>Brown>MoN>>>Green>>>Blue>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Altogether

Or In Sides>>Brown>>Snivilisation>>Green>>MoM>>Blue>>Altogether

brown is best

Brown is the best starting point, very possibly, either that or InSides depending which angle you're coming from. Brown for dancefloor/big field orientated techno, InSides for pretty living room listening.

I still think Brown, especially the four or five tracks that work as a continuous mix, is the best and possibly earliest manifestation of how to do a techno album without going down the dreaded 'album dance' route.

I'm talking in mainstream album-buying circles here, at least.

InSides for pretty INCREDIBLE MAJESTIC 'OMG IT'S THE RAPTURE AND I'M FLOATING UP TO HEAVEN' living room listening

^ add italics, quote attribution

Thanks to all this talk I am currently playing the brown album at work, and I salute you all.

I honestly think the Green album is unfairly maligned - the triumvirate of Chime, Midnight and Belfast is completely unfuckable with. There are a couple of clunkers (eg Desert Storm) but Fahrenheit 303 is nearly up there with frequencies era LFO I reckon. Much as I like the Brown album, I find the vibe a bit too proggy in places.

still love this joint dumb vocals and all
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrzcgU-1rYk

Glad you lot inspired me to get In Sides yesterday, I've listened to it three times today and it's fucking great. I love how lots of the tracks don't really reveal themselves till several minutes in. Both parts of Out There Somewhere make me feel like I've bosched two or three incredibly mongy pills, with the ketamine coming out a couple of minutes before the end of part two.

But seriously, there's way more to this music than can be described with lazy drug references - the attention to detail is astounding, and I look forward to exploring the rest of their catalogue in more depth.

^_^

the comments about how In Sides is great are all basically describing exactly my problems with it
stuff like secret tapes of dr eich or saw 85-92 boils down to one or two really good ideas per track and then they just work it for 4-6 minutes
In Sides is a bunch of pretentious wibble, the long version of The Box at least tacitly admits that it's a total Rush jam for synth fnerds

InSides for pretty INCREDIBLE MAJESTIC 'OMG IT'S THE RAPTURE AND I'M FLOATING UP TO HEAVEN' living room listening

^^^^ yech

I don't get how you can not like this!

I get yr point Tombot but I don't think "take one or two ideas and work them" straightforwardness and proggy complexity are something we have to choose between. There are good and bad versions of both surely.

That's not even taking into account the fact/opinion that said "proggy complexity" exists in their work as far back as "Satan".

Not surprising that Tombot chose Underworld over Orbital in the versus thread - Underworld are kinda like the middle ground between these two positions, jacking one or two ideas and then gradually transitioning to jacking another one or two ideas. The myopic intensity of many of the best tracks on Beaucoup Fish is an excellent example of this.

Incidentally Snivilisation strikes me as an album with intentionally few ideas-per-track, with only a handful of obvious exceptions ("Forever", "Sad But True", "Are We Here?"). I probably listen to this album the most of their albums but mostly for sentimental reasons - in many senses it's weaker than Brown, In Sides and MoN in that it mostly shies away from what is Orbital's key weapon - the redemption of complexity as a viable modus operandi in and of itself.

I think "Spare Parts Express" is probably the most ostentatiously restless of Orbital's tracks, and the way it goes from so ludicrously bright and intense (like fluorescent lights pointed directly into your face) into nervous territory and then gothic territory and then back again is quite amazing - not because it does this per se, but because each idea drifts into the next so organically, so inevitably, such that the joins don't register as joins. I suspect the title is truthful - this is a speed-trip through a whole host of fragments of tracks that Orbital had come up with, and decided to work into a single track. What makes this track so amazing, so distinctively Orbital, is the fact that they can do this so successfully: in isolation these sonic motifs would be less remarkable, it's their seamless interconnectedness which stuns. There's a compositional craft here which critics are too quick to translate into non-dance music terms (e.g. Orbital as the Bach of techno) - surely dance music has always been about the overlaying of motifs, albeit via the grafting of disparate tracks from multiple artists on top of one another. I think of Orbital at their best as a kind of mercantilist venture: they act as agents of change (usually the role of the DJ) as well as agents of repetition (the traditional role of the producer).

I remember watching an interview with one Hartnoll or other on telly yonks ago, in which he said he didn't see himself as an artist as much as a craftsman, and that creating an Orbital track was like making a teak desk. I liked that so much it's stuck with me. Refreshingly humble and quite drole.

the long version of The Box at least tacitly admits that it's a total Rush jam for synth fnerds

Bahahahah! This is comedy gold, folks.

I listened to Rush today at the gym...plenty of synths. Outdated ones but very beautiful.

I'm dying to pull out Orbital again. Because of this thread.

Playing In Sides now for the first time in a billion years...

I thought Paul Oakenfold or someone made that teak desk comment? Maybe he ripped it off.

straightforwardness and proggy complexity are something we have to choose between

they shouldn't be, right? I have Weather Report and Jeff Beck on here, right? Except that I can chuckle at them because yeah EVERYBODY knows those guys are trying too hard/wanking/self-indulgent/goofy but Orbital (on this thread) gets a pass for the same shit because they run in through a hardware sequencer and market to people who do a different brand of drugs. Fuck that. It's masturbatory prog. Worship it at your own peril etc

said "proggy complexity" exists in their work as far back as "Satan".

which is the biggest piece of trash on the green album by a long shot, even beating desert storm.

i never 'got' the brown album, not totally.

i think the single versh of 'halcyon' is one of their best ever things and the elpee mix is not quite as good. 'impact' is also a total fave but better in the live version and the version on 'diversions'.

apart from those, though... it's more dancey, but it's still not *that dancey* is it? feel they fell between stools a bit w. 'lush', 'remind', 'walk now'. whereas even on the not-dancey 'snivilisation' you still have 'are we here'.

plus brown album reminds me of 'shopping' -- sonics much more of their time than the other lps, imo.

^ OTM I think.

"I have Weather Report and Jeff Beck on here, right? Except that I can chuckle at them because yeah EVERYBODY knows those guys are trying too hard/wanking/self-indulgent/goofy but Orbital (on this thread) gets a pass for the same shit because they run in through a hardware sequencer and market to people who do a different brand of drugs. Fuck that. It's masturbatory prog."

So, Tombot, what you're really saying is "we don't have to choose between simplicity and complexity, as long as we only think of complex music as a joke."

go fuck yourself

having to explain my distaste for their overwrought bullshit on In Sides and everything afterwards has only served to make me more extremist in my views and I am seriously like five minutes away from deleting everything by them off my hard drive

yes, Tim, "trying too hard" is a sin, in music and everything else, whatever. Indulging it without recognizing it for what it is is some coldplay/dave-matthews spectrum bullshit. go put on a ballcap and see about that open mic.

WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER
polyphony is the hobgoblin of small minds
etc

chillax

You couldn't be wronger about this.

The thing that Orbital is good at, possibly better than all of their contemporaries, is making maximalism seem effortless. I'm listening to "Are We Here?" right now and the beat-crafting going on in that track combined with the seamless blend from one music section to another, the stereo panning, the sung and spoken vocal sample placements... even down to the moment when they turn up the tinny reverb on an isolated drum loop then drop back into the main warm sine wave motif a little over 8 minutes into the track... It's great. There's nothing wrong with proggy maximalism if you know what you're doing and it's patently obvious these guys know what they're doing.

You seem to be on some "multiple layers of music is always bad" horseshit here, which is really is really just a Geirism in a funny hat.

(For the record, I really like what I've heard of The Weather Report and I don't really know Jeff Beck so I can't comment, but your analogy kind of doesn't work if other people don't actually agree with you about the artists you're comparing them to, either.)

I don't really see where this is going because the Brown album and (especially) Snivilisation are JUST as proggy and overwrought as In Sides, considerably more so in Snivilisation's case.

And except maybe Are We Here, I don't think of any of this stuff as that complex or polyphonic either. InSides for all its self-conscious grandeur is actually a much more intimate listen than either of its predecessors, perhaps this explains why that material didn't work as well live.

I'm specifically thinking of InSides in contrast to something like Dominik Eulberg's Fauna & Flora here, which which aims for that same combination of psuedo-classical intricacy and intimacy and big gesture grandeur but works better as functional dance music, maybe it's the sense of space or a more obvious pulse, I dunno.

You seem to be on some "multiple layers of music is always bad" horseshit here, which is really is really just a Geirism in a funny hat.

Not just Geirism in a funny hat but pretty much the opposite of everything I stand for musically. Can we also ditch the vituperative descriptor "proggy maximalism", please?

My point, really, is that minimalism and maximalism both work really, really well if the people doing them are "good" at it. There's nothing inherently better about one vs the other; you can find just as much awesome in "Out There Somewhere" as you can in Exposure's "Peak Experience" or F.U.S.E.'s "F.U.".

TS the fact that Dan is basically right vs 'what's the world coming to if techno people can't take positions of ridiculous dogmatic inflexibility?'

This thread is silly.

haha Matt

Wow Tombot did Mozart kill your entirely family or what.

How long before someone marches onto this thread, tears up a poster of FSOL and shouts "Fight the real enemy!!"

What the...:

Man, FSOL have made a crapload of songs...
-Yes. Yes they have.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=lfo

I worry a bit about Headphoneus Supremus -- not his opinions on the albums so much as that sig of his.

Actually maybe Mozart DID rise from the grave and kill Tombot's family:

ZOMBIE MOZART

OMG the LOLs on this thread.

. Can we also ditch the vituperative descriptor "proggy maximalism", please?

Hahhaha I agree. I mean yeah I know, Dan is basically right and all, but shit dudes we're talking about techno here. We don't have to GO THERE>>>
Right? There's a huge difference between what Orbital do and a long wanking guitar solo.

i don't really get why orbital is being described as 'prog' at all. their basic M.O. on every song i can think of is to stack loops excessively until there's a ton of shit going on.

i do think that Orbital and a LOT of ambient and techno stuff is coming from a similar mentality to that of musicians who get into long jam sessions.

But they're not showing off their instrumental virtuosity, their tracks are all very thoughtfully and purposefully constructed. Jam sessions are more about 'hey, look what I can do, aren't I great'.

It's more akin to the long, elaborate, completely un-improvised instrumental passages in the proggier end of thrash metal, in many ways.

i know that the 'look what i can do' thing is a key aspect of some types of jam sessions, but another aspect is riding a 'groove' and interplay between musicians. anyone whose been in a garage band knows how fun it can be to just get into a zone where the rhythm section finds a great groove and the leads take turns throwing shit over it. to me, knob tweaking over a great rhythmic structure is exactly the same feeling.

i've always believed that Orbital's writing process was probably the two of them in a studio with a ton of synths, just improvising until something kick ass stuck and then just riding it out.

^^^^^^^ I suspect this is OTM.

I reckon they did that to come up with the initial riffs and then carefully pieced it all together in a manner geared to cause maximum awesomeness.

Tombot in this thread depresses me somewhat. We need MORE complex, intricate, multi-layered techno, not less.

And yeah, STOP with the "prog" label, just because something progresses doesn't mean it's gotta have a term of derision attached to it. ALL good music progresses to some extent.

Anyone have those records from when FSOL had yet to become FSOL and called themselves Mental Cube? "Chile of the Bass Genearation" 12"? OMG that is the shit. In fact, it was so good someone stole it from me right after I played that record on the air once. I know exactly who stole it, too.

Anyway...

We need MORE complex, intricate, multi-layered techno, not less.

I agree, in a big way. Orbital were doing something quite daring at the time they first started, first two albums...challenging the norm of dance music entirely. To hear them was to think "why aren't there more acts like this?"

I do think the green album is probably unfairly maligned, but the truth was that the sounds just didn't age all that well. And once you've heard the Joey Beltram mix of Chime, the original will always sound like a slow, boring turtle in comparison.

Also I would like to express how weird it was to be attending chemistry class wearing an Orbital shirt, since orbitals are talked about in said class. My professor noticed my shirt and I must have seemed like the world's most slavish teacher's pet. And all I wanted was for someone - anyone - to tell me they knew this techno duo. *weeps*

ALL good music progresses to some extent.

Not all.

Yeah I was gonna say...Beatles are verse/chorus/verse/chorus right?

"We need MORE complex, intricate, multi-layered techno, not less."

I disagree with this, at least if it's meant to imply that most dance music isn't intricate enough.

I actually sympathize with Tombot's suspicion of pro-Orbital arguments, which often do rest on dodgy assumptions about the need for dance music to be more emotive, melodic, "compositionally rich" etc. I think that's largely been avoided in this thread thankfully.

i think the only real problem with prog/'intelligence' is 1) the terms themselves 2) flowing from this, the idea that greater complexity of a certain kind is a sign of superiority and 3) the assumption that, in effect, all music should be aiming for a certain ideal.

so when the straw people say 'in sides is above dance music', that's a problem; but i don't think minds will be blown by the idea that it's aiming for something functionally different from most dance music, even if it has shared roots.

when a certain music journalist talks about 'funktionality', why is he -- dread word -- valourizing the dance floor over other listening contexts?

I don't care about all this intellectual shit it's fucking brilliant, In Sides.

oh word

xxpost - I think it's a contained argument though. If we're talking about music that holds itself out as dance music then it's legitimate to ask how effectively it works as music for dancing to. Especially if people around you are importing other tests (in 2008 though this is a strawperson - where anti-functional strawpeople still exist they're not arguing in favour of Orbital).

I think this stops being true of Orbital after The Brown Album though - from then on they're basically home-listening techno, and, as you say, assessing them as dancefloor music mostly misses the point.

Listening to the brown album now, I'm surprised at how much ravier it is than I seemed to remember, especially in comparison to their subsequent stuff. Why did I love this so much amid my danceabphobe period? Well, it's pretty obvious, I guess.

And for a period of time when I was 10, Halcyon was my very favourite song.

classic

i thought I owned all their stuff, but I'd never come across this one

nice, but it could do without the abc sample though.

holy shit, In Sides is so much more amazing than I remembered it. The Box two-parter is something else.

i see they've jumped on the old reform bandwagon, festivals and gigs this year but dunno if they've got new material on the way.

I'm not really bothered about any new material because I have a feeling the time for that has passed and it would probably be crap. A few of us are going to the first Brixton gig and I'd say Glastonbury was a nailed-on certainty.

didn't realise Omen wasn't that well known.
its on an old cd single i have hidden away.

would love them to do all of Brown and In Sides live

and Sniv too yes

I would leave after Keine Trick Wasser

Trink

WARNIN WARNIN NUCLEAR ATTACK

+ how could you not want to hear 'Attached' live?

Meh to Attached but Are We Here? would be incredible. Not sure I'd want to hear that album in its entirety live, but a whole performance of Brown would be beyond awesome.

To Ant Attack: don't feel bad...I recall Omen being kindof hard to find and not mentioned much back when I was being an avid collector of their stuff. I'm not really sure why that was. I never even owned that 12", I think I had to get it on tape from someone.

Yo, has anyone got What Happens Next (b-side of One Perfect Sunrise) and Technologique Park (from the XXX soundtrack, I think) that they could send me? They don't appear to be available online anywhere.

Also, Forever / I Wish I Had Duck Feet = best best BEST BEST headphone experience ever ever EVER EVAH ohmygod

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=8aa5ac5ef7ebf908d2db6fb9a8902bda

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?yj2tzvemwjl

sorry, that link is better

Thank you!

you are welcome

OK beat this for a setlist, from the Brixton comeback gig:

Out There Somewhere (the whole thing, with a dark wibbly acid bit between parts 1 and 2)
Lush 3 (both bits)
Impact
Remind (with big new melodic bassline)
Satan
Belfast
Chime (original chugging version, not the later hyperbosh version)
Chime Crime
Know Where To Run
Halcyon (Belinda and Bon Jovi samples in at the end, lead into...
New electro thing, with the same 80s samples, strangely the big concession to the music of the last few years, leads into...)
More Halcyon
One Perfect Sunrise (I used to think this was a bit naff, in the nu-Balearic era it sounds amazing)

----------------------

The Box (hybrid of pts 1 and 2, with the old Goldfrapp vocals)
Doctor Who

Pretty much the whole thing was one long mix. It was incredible, way better than at the tail end of their career.

Ace! Most of my faves there. I'm going tomorrow night.

would be jealous if they'd done The Girl With The Sun In Her Head and ANYTHING from Sniv

blimey that looks dope.

Does OTS work as a set opener?

am jealous.

they were fantastic in 96 when i saw em

i know they opened with OTS when they did that gig at the Albert Hall in 96

amazing setlist

to orbital:

tour u.s. please

thank you

- skeletor

Does OTS work as a set opener?

Yeah it does, it sort of allows you to ease yourself into the set. The moment where pt2 kicked in was predictably great.

OH MAN I knew I should have scrapped my pride and bought a ticket from a scalper on the way home at Brixton tube.

I've just realised it's been a decade since I've actually seen Orbital and that saddens me

Out There Somewhere (the whole thing, with a dark wibbly acid bit between parts 1 and 2)
Lush 3 (both bits)
Impact
Remind (with big new melodic bassline)
Satan
Belfast
Chime (original chugging version, not the later hyperbosh version)
Chime Crime
Know Where To Run
Halcyon (Belinda and Bon Jovi samples in at the end, lead into...
New electro thing, with the same 80s samples, strangely the big concession to the music of the last few years, leads into...)
More Halcyon
One Perfect Sunrise (I used to think this was a bit naff, in the nu-Balearic era it sounds amazing)

----------------------

The Box (hybrid of pts 1 and 2, with the old Goldfrapp vocals)
Doctor Who

holy fucking shit, esp. original "Chime" and opening with both parts of "OTS" which ends up being what, half an hour???

btw "OPS" has always been great

Matt DC: was the support act any good? And what time did Orbital hit the stage?

The only things I would consider adding to this setlist would be "Funny Break" and "Forever"/"I Wish I Had Duck Feet". Maybe also "Choice" and "Acid Pants". And all of the other tracks from their albums and singles and EPs.

I'm with the 'whoa my god' contingent on that setlist. Would love to hear a recording of that.

I only caught ten minutes of their Big Chill set, as I'd just been brocking out to old jungle and hardcore, had taken some speedy pills and didn't really have the patience for blissed-out epics, so I went to look for more DnB instead. I really regret it now.

I have a link to a Megaupload of the Manchester show which is basically the same set, a mate went and they were selling USB wristbands of the show straight after - is it still acceptable to post that kind thing?

And yes, it is awes by the way - kicking myself for not being bothered to go now...

Touts outside Brixton tube only seemed to be buying, not selling tonight. FAIL.

yes bill, please and thank you in advance!

Not going to linkify in case there is a problem with this, if so please can a mod delete? I hope not, as it's STUPENDOUS, and is really just an official bootleg...

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LFBL33D3

ah balls, the magic of ILM linkified it anyway - ENJOY!

I'm gonna be a party pooper and say that I'm not *so* impressed with that setlist ... outside of the first two tracks, it's not all that different from the sets they played during their final few years. Nothing from "Snivilisation" and the worst track from "Middle of Nowhere"?

Ok, that was one of the best gigs I've ever seen.

yesterday was all about the green album

today is all about the brown album

Xpost: sounds like a good day!

Got an email from Suckitmaster yesterday, and Orbital are playing again (and doing a US tour)? (Sorry if this is old hat.)

the huge amount of discussion of the reunion shows upthread does point slightly to old news yeah

(seeing them twice in three days next week, hyped)

Any dates for the US tour?

new material to be released.

12" : don't stop me/gun is good.

june 20th digital/27th 12"

for the record

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKKv_ksCViw

1993 called! they want their tunes back! lolll!

Video Killed The Radio Star?

oh my fucking god

^ was waiting for that

who needs drugs when music like this (and the new Underworld track) exists?

who wouldn't like a wee drug when music like this and the new Underworld track exist?

A Terrible Man! for the new Orbital tracks.

I've only actually recently got round to listening to these. I really wish they'd drop the residual Altogether-era wacky humour because both tunes are absolutely stunning.

The same in The Gun Is Good is the biggest offender, it would be amazing with a vaguer and more dramatic "IT'S A CRY FOR SURVIVAL" style sample in the breakdown. That said, the bit during their Glastonbury set where they used the "I would have started with lasers, day one" bit as a cue to turn all the lasers in the world on at once pretty much justified it.

I'm a member of Orbital in spirit. I'm not actually IN orbital, but i'm in them. On some level.

I (mistakenly) wrote these guys off as boring and generic like 5 years ago but after finding and purchasing "In Sides" for 99 cents I am pretty blown away. "The Girl With The Sun In Her Hair" is all kinds of gorgeous and I cannot stop listening to it.

still top five band for me

Orbital II is so grebt it defies words.

The only album of theirs that isn't fantastic is The Altogether which is merely "good".

I should probably finish my Orbital collection. then there'd be no more war

Much love for "One Perfect Sunrise"...at the time it just had the feel of "Halycon"/"Sad But True" rip, but it definitely grew on me a lot and became a great swansong for these guys. Bumping this in honor of the new compilation album Orbital 20 which should hopefully lead to some new material. It's by far the best comp they've ever had for what its worth.

Anyone else hear Paul's solo album? It's actually quite good if not a little overly cinematic. But I enjoyed it quite a bit. Better than Blue and maybe Altogether. Phil's Long Range project is mostly a dud though.

still probably my favorite electronic band

It's actually quite good if not a little overly cinematic.

yeah, you can really feel that he went too hard on the "must make something different! must prove self srs musician!" tip, with the strong weighting of strings over electronics. but this just means he's not playing to his strengths, rather than it actually sucking. and it has the third-best Robert Smith track of the '00s on it.

I wish "Gloopy" had made the album. That's an ace track

just wrote a review on that album, I actually found out I like it quite a bit but it's kinda disposable.

any news of their reunion album?

I haven't heard anything, but then again I haven't been looking for any news on it either.

the only thing I've seen is that they weren't planning on doing an album. though presumably releasing more singles if they get more new songs written.

http://www.crowdsurge.com/mailer/orbital/

New album and tour announced.

They're playing the Royal Albert Hall instead of the usual Brixton which suggests a more Snivilisation/In Sides direction.

One can but hope.

Why do they hate the south west?!

They're playing the Royal Albert Hall instead of the usual Brixton which suggests a more Snivilisation/In Sides direction.

Judging from the track on that site... could go either way. Better than that "The Gun is Good" nonsense from last year certainly.

I kinda liked The Gun Is Good on a musical note actually, although I wish I could erase the vocal samples.

wait, ppl didn't like "The Gun Is Good"? Where was I when that happened?

This new one is terrific actually, they played it at Glastonbury this year and it immediately stood out in their set.

to be honest, I really liked Paul's solo album "The Ideal Condition". not exactly great, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. they definitely needed the break but damnit I wanted them to come back. maybe even tour the States. a man can dream.

Shit title

Dunno, getting a bit of an Altogether vibe from some of this. Zola Jesus should work well with them. Lady Leshurr less so.

i'd honestly be surprised if it was shit. i'm sure it won't be In Sides/Sniv level genius but it should at least be better than their last two. album title is definitely weird but they did title an album Snivilisation so I'm not sure what you expected.

Enjoying the Pusher soundtrack on Spotify. Imagine it took them all of a day, but hey, pretty noises.

this "christmas chime" track is cute

Well, the audio is ok yes

I haven't actually listened to this yet, but I'm assuming it's just Chime with sleigh-bells on it?

Basically.

Make sure you open it in a separate tab so you don't have to watch it whilst you listen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJwLcFgWR8c

No more.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/oct/21/orbital-announce-split-25-years

Again? Time becomes a loop.

damn. was hoping this was being bumped to announce a new album. their last one was really good...at least they ended things on a high note!

Yeah, Wonky was really good and I was hoping they'd make another!

Am I right in the thinking that the last time they appeared live was at the Paralympics closing ceremony with Stephen Hawking 'singing' over the top? If so that's kind of an untoppable moment that also indicates that you are over.

no, looks like they played over 30 shows in the four months after that, in the UK, USA, Europe and Japan

re previous solo careers.

the ideal condition >>> long range

if i remember correctly the PH mix of please (remember 1992??) feat. robert smith was immense.

going to dig it out and give it an airing

I liked The Ideal Condition - very filmic and evocative, kind of discombobulated, but better than I thought a Paul Hartnoll solo album would be

Long Range was kind of a dud. I thought "Dispell the Clouds" was amazing and the rest very forgettable

I liked The Ideal Condition - very filmic and evocative, kind of discombobulated, but better than I thought a Paul Hartnoll solo album would be

yup.

a definite precursor to his involvement with the soundtrack to the ultimate electronica vs goth groove of the bbc drama, peaky blinders ..

was not surprised at all when i saw his involvement.

bloody hell, 'for silence' off 'ideal condition' = bloody brilliant ..

the mix of orchestra and electronics is very impressive on this album ..

All the more infuriating that Murray Gold didn't get fired off nu-? in 2009 and replaced with Paul.

if i remember correctly the PH mix of please (remember 1992??) feat. robert smith was immense.

You do rc.

yeah.
found that mix and made the walls of hq shake ..
tis indeed special.

Paul Hartnoll is now recording solo under the name 8:58 and has an album out:

https://soundcloud.com/eightfiftyeight

I still think The Ideal Condition was unfairly ignored - definitely preferred it to the last couple of Orbital albums (until Wonky came around)

First two and last two tracks on this are really good. Stuff in the middle...not so convinced. But if you're going through Orbital withdrawl, give it a shot?

I'm having a late night, deep listen to The Middle of Nowhere, and I've always considered it to be an incredibly underrated album, I'm actually beginning to feel that it may actually be their masterpiece. It retains the thoughtful approach of Snivilisation and In Sides, but it comes across as far less ponderous and much more fun than those records, and the production is absolutely impeccable.

absolutely - relistening to it a few months ago I realized it sounded like they thought it would be the last record (or, last great record) they'd ever make. I wrote about it here.

I have been SO into Orbital lately. In Sides and MoN were my introductions to them, but I'd never properly gotten into Oribtal 2 (despite several attempts) until quite recently. Is Middle of Nowhere not highly regarded?? It seems like quite a high point for them.

Hope you plan on adding Snivilization and Diversions to your playlists!

from what i remember at the time NoW was not v well received... tho - that could have been mostly with my friends. i fell in love right away with the sounds they had used but no one i knew was sharing my enthusiasm.

xp Diversions I love but Sniv I'm still lukewarm on :-/

I like it a lot but the first half (the best bit imo) is very Kraftwerky. Sometimes I just think I might as well listen to Computer World.

never got into Diversions much, but Sniv is one of my favorite albums ever :)

Diversions is solid but not a masterpiece, with the exception of "Impact USA" which is prob in their top 5

Diversions was not a proper album though was it? Just some of the Peel Sessions and Lush remixes

Yeah, it was a US only release I think that we could get on import?

yeah, it was some but not all of the Peel Session, some remixes from the UK Lush single, and then "Impact USA" which was at the time an exclusive I believe and the only truly essential track on the thing

also, in case anyone hasn't heard this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h44AGRkobIU

oh my god i hadn't

The drop-off from The Middle of Nowhere to The Altogether is so noticeable and so vast that I can't help but wonder what the fuck happened. It sounds like they had no idea where they wanted to go or what they wanted to do, and were fumbling around trying to find a way of sustaining the Orbital "brand" ... I still think their last one, Wonky, was a fine record... just as underrated as The Middle of Nowhere, if perhaps not as good. I find The Altogether and Blue Album depressing listens, though, if only because they sound like the work of a great outfit not knowing what the fuck to do with themselves, in the worst way.

I think The Altogether and The Blue Album are good albums from an act that we got very used to giving us stellar, outstanding albums, and as such are discounted in a way that's somewhat unfair.

Not sure I've ever even heard either of them all the way through. "Funny Break" went in a direction I just wasn't interested in and the Doctor Who track was so cheap I wrote off the whole thing. No idea what's even on the Blue Album.

The Hartnolls were very vocal about dealing with writer's block around '98 or so, particularly with regards to "Style", which was just one of 'em finding a stylophone and crafting a melody out of it, and then a song around that. Of course the melody reflects that, first time I heard it I thought it sounded like something a kid might've come up with. So The Altogether was just an attempt to do something that didn't take so much damn work, making tunes that were more fun, more based on samples, more Fatboy Slimmish. Obviously they were chock out of ideas, hence why the 5-year old "Doctor Who" cover made it. Blue Album was originally intended to be just an EP and I think was solely just a way to say goodbye to the fans who had stuck with them. It didn't seem like the group thought they were particularly great records at the time.

Funny Break and Dr Who are two of the three best tracks on The Altogether, most of the rest is so self-evidently tossed off that you probably made the right call.

No idea what's even on the Blue Album.

The only one I would recognize is the one with the Christopher Eccleston sample but no idea what it's called. I think it actually got half decent reviews when it came out though.

You Lot is the one with the Eccles sample. I also like Acid Pants and One Perfect Sunrise.

It's not a bad disc, I think it was just abundantly clear they were cooked. "You Lot" definitely the best track, "One Perfect Sunrise" is also quite good but I think the Orbital of the mid-90's could've turned it into a total stormer.

cooked?

Done, out of steam, finished, tired, inspirationless, going through the motions, worn out, etc

They'd turned into the sugar free version: Sorbital.

ah gotcha.

It's where their music started sounding tiresome and routine.
Chorebital

snorebital

their brief death metal phase: gorebital

gonna go ahead and write the Orbituary

These were all proposed Orbital album titles until that other band had to go and use up all the Orb related puns

The last great Orbital release imho was their single Don't Stop Me/The Gun Is Good. The latter is actually in my top 10 of their best tracks, which is saying a lot considering how much I loved their stuff from 92-99.

have we ever polled orbital?

As in a ballot-based tracks poll? I don't think so?

https://vimeo.com/166207798

so Paul made an album with Vince Clarke and nobody's talking about it? does anyone have it?

I wouldn't say *nobody*...

http://thequietus.com/articles/20721-vince-clarke-paul-hartnoll-2square-album-review

I didn't even know about this! I find the idea of this one a bit more exciting than the Gore collaboration.

It isn't very good, not terrible either but just sort of watery and unmemorable.

Yeah, I'm not expecting it to be amazing, but I'll still give it a listen out of curiosity.

It's total comfort food; I liked it a lot.

New single out on Friday!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BikAp_qHV5t/?taken-by=orbital

the track itself is on both their recently-released live albums. sort of an Orbital-meets-Plaid sort of deal. hopefully there's a B-side!!

New album is actually great! It's got silliness and some serious bangers. Love the title track, The Raid, P.H.U.K., Tiny Foldable Cities and the fantastic There Will Come A Time.

Feels more "Orbital" than Wonky, but far less "phoned in" than the Blue album felt.

here's a really cool project, a 5 1/2 hour compilation of live performances with tracks often blending together several live performances. also a couple of "Choose your own adventure" elements. have not been through it all yet but so far it's sounding amazing

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nykrdz6hjgy82v5/AAD9I1pz04bEte6D0T6O0KrYa?dl=0

sounds awesome, link is broke tho??

Randomly been playing the crap out of Middle of Nowhere lately :D

would love that link!

Google led me to the group on FB it originated from. The uploader is aware of the problem with the link but is currently following Orbital on their tour in Australia.

(I'm assuming it's a Dropbox thing as they're not fond of lots and lots of people downloading the same file/s)

YSI frogbs

It’s like, super big. All the files are flax’s.

Can soulseek it though...username is bonzalez

All the files are flax’s.

thanks but nah then! :D (what's the actual project called though, I'll see if someone's converted it)

Timeless Soundtrack Live 1990- 2018

No idea if that's what the files are labelled though

https://www.borndirty.org/forums/showthread.php?t=18549 final artwork is done, everything is in that dropbox link (quite complicated with the three (four?) different versions you can make, extended/overburn or alternative options with fades or various tracks even)

the "OMT050 - Timeless Soundtrack Live 1990-2018" folder contains a .torrent file that may be even better than getting everything via dropbox

I think I gave their last album maybe 2 or 3 listens and I haven't felt the need to put it on since. I'm still listening to Wonky a lot, though.

3 gigs, dang! okay i'm in. thanks!

nice little mix for 6music today

Tracklisting for @orbitalband Friday Mix @BBC6Music

"The Glasshouse With Butterfly” Floex (UNRELEASED EXCLUSIVE ORBITAL REMIX)
”Bad Boys Cry” Mark Lower ft. Scarlett Quinn
“H3liX” Funkagenda
”Dextrous” Nightmares on Wax
”Maru” Plaid (UNRELEASED EXCLUSIVE ORBITAL REMIX)

— maryanne hobbs (@maryannehobbs) May 10, 2019

^ that is 1:34:56 into this

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0004t24

finally giving the OMT050 set a proper listen and its really great. it starts with "Out There Somewhere" so you know this is really a "for the fans, by the fans" sorta thing. bounces all over Orbital's career, often blending 2+ performances of the tracks together (mostly to get the transitions they want), almost sounding like one really long show in a sense. sound quality is pretty good for the most part ("I Don't Know You People" sounds fairly poor but that's it) and the track selection is really nice...first half is nearly all stuff from Sniv, In Sides, and MoN, including the full version of "The Box"...at least, everything up to the vocal part). I think the focus was to capture the performances where they add in new loops or drop in unexpected samples.

on the other hand lmao its 5 1/2 hours long

"maru" remix >>> anything on monsters exist
plaid melodism / orbital brashness seem to work well together, hope there will be more.
imagine what orbital could do with "do matter"!

🔘 BACK IN THE DAY BEFORE OUR GEAR HAD USEFUL SCREENS BUILT IN WE HAD TO WRITE OUR OWN LABELS | NOW YOU KNOW WHY THE TORCH GLASSES CAME IN SO USEFUL | YOU TRY READING THIS LOT IN THE SMOKE AND STROBES WITHOUT THEM 🔘 pic.twitter.com/XT98f3GNxy

— Orbital (@orbitalband) September 30, 2019

wasn't there supposed to be a massive 30th anniversary thing coming out this year

Brown album listening party tonight and In Sides tomorrow

(Both at 9pm BST so tonight's is just under 12 hours away from now for any non-Brits)

just in case you'd forgotten, Satan pwns

In 45 minutes on YouTube, Paul Hartnoll will introduce the audio from the first ever Orbital gig.

He will take you back to Feb 1990 in London. Join the listening party and SUBSCRIBE to the ORBITAL YouTube channel.

Premiere link is livehttps://t.co/6YxP5KLi6j

— Orbital (@orbitalband) August 1, 2020

Fifteen minutes to go. Double dropping espressos as we speak.

Nice! Thanks for the notice

This is great

Yeah

Hoping (and presuming) it will find its way onto the interweb in mp3 format soon

Get a Bandcamp, Orbital!

Not only was the set ace, it's astounding how clear & sharp the sound was, for a 30-year-old tape played through a TV. Wonder if it was a straight stereo output, or they recorded multitrack and Paul was able to polish it up a bit for this stream.

DAT I imagine. Chime famously recorded on cassette though.

Sure, but I mean what they were feeding to the DAT.

rad!

this is me, in sides stan numero uno
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCyxLCe8dKc

(it's not me)

someone sign him up

More lockdown fun from Paul, back in May: an hour-long live session at home

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj6PmQ_0ft0

00:00 - Impact
08:05 - P.H.U.K
14:51 - One Day
19:50 - Untitled (Unreleased)
24:42 - Hoo Hoo Ha Ha
29:00 - Halcyon
36:41 - Vision onE
42:18 - Belfast
47:24 - Chime
52:42 - Where Is It Going?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiEkElKmGbw

can't get into Orbital but I liked this Against the Clock Paul did using samples of Tories.

Also politicalish, an NHS-benefitting shops-are-open-in-Britain single by him with poet Murray Lachlan-Young: https://hartnollandyoung.bandcamp.com/releases

Video on Orbital's youtube channel.

This soundboard recording of the first-ever Orbital gig is a must-listen, imo. Half an hour including commentary bookends from Paul.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdXlnQRFYfA

discussed a little at the top of this revive fyi :)

that was like, hundreds of pixels away. impossible for me to have seen that.

YouTube Premiere watch party - Saturday 22nd August at 9.00pm BST.

Link is active. Subscribe and set reminders.

https://t.co/UJVQtnV3Du pic.twitter.com/RIsk1PrebU

— Orbital (@orbitalband) August 19, 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avO75HITKTE

awesome! wish they'd demoed some of that stuff but still, fascinating

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_v43wbJWGQ

^ live in their studio in July, standing in for what would have been their set at the Bluedot festival

<3

Still on the web from 1992: a long listserv account from an enthusiastic Salt Lake City fan who realised the Communion tour would have to drive through his town to get from gigs in Boulder on a Monday night to San Francisco on the Wednesday. In lieu of his previous plan of spending $300 to drive to SF to see them, he phoned around the country until he found someone he could pitch on offering $3000 for Orbital, Meat Beat Manifesto and Ultramarine to stop and play a show on the way through.

When the opening DJ agreed, all this dude had to do was figure out how to book a venue, hire lighting and sound gear, cater, tech, promote and run a night of an international tour. In five days.

i've been listening to orbital all week

has there been an orbital tracks poll and why not

there's a new Hartnoll & Young single out tomorrow too :

New Single "HOME SCHOOLING" is out tomorrow. Pre-save and follow our Spotify page. https://t.co/QtRLrbiSBb#HomeSchooling #HartnollandYoung #HomeSchoolers #HomeSchoolLife #HomeSchool #LearningThroughPlay #LearningAtHome @orbitalband @paulhartnoll858 @MurrayLYoung pic.twitter.com/jnqbL6uXPT

— Hartnoll & Young (@Hartnoll_Young) May 13, 2021

an Orbital poll would be fun but I don't think anything particularly interesting is gonna come out of it, their big tracks & hidden gems are pretty well defined and they don't have a real expansive back catalogue the way Underworld does

We did a Blur tracks poll, I think that means anyone is fair game

I'd be well up for a poll, 9 studio albums plus other stuff is a big enough discography, plus the rave orbital vs. prog orbital, fite! opportunities.

halcyon's gonna win but it would just be a very fun poll

idk what my #1 would be but I am pretty sure I'd have to settle on "Out There Somewhere", such an unparalleled piece of work

yes! to track poll
could include side projects and remixes too to make it more interesting and have a halcyon vs bon jovi/belinda halcyon fight

There's a poll vacancy right now if Brad wants to leap in

listen, running a poll, not my style

suggesting one, hoping it appears out of thin air, way moreso

i can't ever decide between "Somewhere" and "Halcyon", the former is a chemically enhanced memory which makes it harder to be lol objective but still

bent violin noises kicking in during part 2 of Somewhere one of the best sounds ever

was just thinking the synth wobble in "girl with the sun in her head" is one of the best sounds in music

that too

i don't have the knowledge to describe this stuff but the wobbly pitch bendy(?) stuff on that record is so emotive

the opening track on the Bluedot show sic posted is a recent classic! (There Will Come A Time feat. Brian Cox, We Will Die mix)

was just thinking the synth wobble in "girl with the sun in her head" is one of the best sounds in music

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, May 13, 2021 4:19 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

lmao I literally posted abt this song on the Slack a few hours ago: Orbital's "The Girl With The Sun In Her Head" just came on (via Spotify's stellar "Sci-Fi Scapes" playlist) and I feel like I could truly listen to this song on repeat for the rest of my life and never get bored

I do agree that this poll would likely be more predictable than the Underworld poll, though note that I would lobby super-hard for the best tracks from Middle of Nowhere (in particular "Know Where To Run" and "Nothing Left").

way out -> too!

I'm not even sure Halcyon would crack the top 5 if live/studio votes aren't consolidated

It's def not my favorite Orbital track either. I want this ballot poll too. Listening to Belfast right now and it's so great

Would love an Orbital poll

I’d probably vote for the Radiccio Halcyon, the Jovi/Carlisle Halcyon, and for the Opus III version of Its A Fine Day in my top 5

didn’t realize the opus III version was a cover! and the same year they released their version there was a guy called gerald remix of the original

Halcyon was the same year, too!

and a Cantonese version!

anyone into that vibe may wanna check this out from my buddy George Clanton. he basically remixed one of his own tunes into Opus III with some version of the Halycon bass line

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb4QFKqUKVs

here's the 50-80 year old members of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop joining Orbital live to play the Dr Who theme in 2017:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqlK-bK8P2M

i would do a poll

The thing I always dug about Orbital's sound is that it was the next step in many ways of what the Germans were doing in the 70s with all that arpeggiation and weaving it in and out. Not to get all Geir, but Orbital really does have a good touch on melody and a big reason their music has hung on.

Hop onto the “next poll” thread and plant yr flag forks! Open voting tomorrow, the momentum is there

halcyon and poll and poll

I meant i would vote! I just moved but I'd be happy to pick this up when things get quiet.
Never understood the ILM poll queue, my inclination would be to just start one.

The queue is so that only one major ballot poll is running at once, it’s just that nobody in the queue is leaping to start one atm (or generally these days.)

i don't have the knowledge to describe this stuff but the wobbly pitch bendy(?) stuff on that record is so emotive

hearing the voices bend like that on that OTS1 legitimately scared me when I first heard it, it was as though the 'human' element of Orbital's work was also getting sucked into a black hole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB8BSA45rMQ

- October 2021 : Orbital 30 with pre-Chime & remixes
- February 2022 : new album

https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/orbital-tell-sde-of-archival-reissue-plans/

More about the new stuff and a fairly clear statement about forthcoming reissues.

Cool, was getting worried about them given that the 30th anniversary thing was supposed to come out 2 years ago and then they just…didn’t mention it again

Hoping these reissues are gonna be released in the US, they’re so long overdue

the hartnoll quarantine stuff is... something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nocnu67zwdY

extremely into this actually

it has this intimacy to it, and it does a really good job of portraying the constricted mental state the pandemic puts you in, but it does it all in a light playful way. totally what i needed tonight.

there's a track called Secret Hairdresser, A+

and i mean, only appropriate that it outstays its welcome a bit

i like them alot better than the orb but again i mostly their singles but they have alot of good b sides too!

The thing I always dug about Orbital's sound is that it was the next step in many ways of what the Germans were doing in the 70s with all that arpeggiation and weaving it in and out. Not to get all Geir, but Orbital really does have a good touch on melody and a big reason their music has hung on.
― earlnash, Sunday, 16 May 2021 01:10

It's funny, I know more people who prefer Orbital to latter period Autechre. But Orbital sound quite kitschy. I guess I'm firmly of the school that too much melody is the antithesis to funk, unless you're composing homophonically as opposed to in cordal polyphony.

30 years today we released our first album! We will share some stories today on the Green album but please RT/reply with your favourite track + any fond memories you have.#green #orbital pic.twitter.com/S5oP9w8RNu

— Orbital (@orbitalband) September 30, 2021

ANNA remixes of Belfast now out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH-N-0GWQcc

Would happily listen to that for an hour.

𝕾𝖆𝖙𝖆𝖓 , 𝖜𝖗𝖎𝖙𝖙𝖊𝖓 𝖇𝖊𝖋𝖔𝖗𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖉𝖆𝖜𝖓 𝖔𝖋 𝖈𝖍𝖎𝖒𝖊.

𝕹𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖗 𝖕𝖑𝖆𝖞 𝖎𝖙 𝖇𝖆𝖈𝖐𝖜𝖆𝖗𝖉𝖘 𝖆𝖋𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖒𝖎𝖉𝖓𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙.

Satan (30 Something Years Later Mix)https://t.co/gINIpgfvZ5 #Orbital #30something #Satan #Techno #IDM pic.twitter.com/EuLtbrX4tc

— Orbital (@orbitalband) December 8, 2021

First Orbital tune I ever heard, good to see it still getting work done. This is a decent mix.

yeah this is the version they've been playing live since 2017 at least. rules pretty hard

weird - the signed posters (including download of those shows) from 2017 & 2018 are not sold out?

https://liveherenow.co.uk/products/exclusive-2017-limited-edition-art-print-signed
https://liveherenow.co.uk/products/exclusive-signed-limited-edition-u-s-style-art-print-inc-download-of-the-2018-london-show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGfOoMVufgw

Eli Brown remix of Chime out today but all a bit business texhno.

i have the altogether dvd but i am wondering why they do not have a collection of all their videos on dvd yet still?!

Score for The Pentaverate (movie-cut-into-a-series for Netflix): https://orbitalsoundtrack.bandcamp.com/

Not overly impressed with most of these 30 year remixes.

The ANNA ambient mix of Belfast was ace but most of the others just sound like phoned in business techno.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0019cc8

here's a mix showcasing a bunch of new tracks. seems like they've found their rave side again. there's a cover of Kraftwerk's "Numbers" and one track extensively samples "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls. everything is edited pretty tightly on this broadcast but if this is any indication the new album is gonna be a lot of fun

listening to Thirty-Something now. not a bad way to spend 2.5+ hours but this band's constant focus on early material irks me. I think like 2/3rds of the running time is dedicated to the singles on the first 2 albums. outside of 3 minutes of "Where Is It Going?" all the new mixes are from the first 4 albums. they have plenty of quality material after that! oh well. the new single "Smiley" is pretty great at least.

Nothing important about their output / legacy occurred after 1996. They are right to focus on that material since everything after has been poor retreads of previous ideas. Orbital stand to only weaken their legacy by continuing to put out music. Also, that stache is awful and I'm pretty sure one of the brothers is a drug addicted asshole with minimal talent. At least he comes off that way in interviews.

^bad take

Wonky was great, and it was from 2012!

Wonky was great, and Middle of Nowhere and Blue Album even more so

"Tiny Foldable Cities" was a strong single from a few years ago. Rest of the album didn't quite live up to it though.

Will probably listen to 30 Something tonight. I like the concept and it was inevitable after two proper best-ofs already.

I liked Wonky and Blue Album. Some songs on those albums anyway. I still think there was nothing new or exceptional in comparison to what came before those two. But hey, if you have a different opinion, that's great. Billions of opinions in the world, and mine is one of them.

I could buy them being a legacy act after Middle of Nowhere, but that album is not merely great but important in the context of their career overall - “Spare Parts Express” and “Nothing Left” arguably form a pinnacle of certain aspects of their whole deal.

ya for me Middle of Nowhere is their most exciting album, those first 3 tracks especially, what a rush

Altogether & Blue both have their moments. I agree they were pretty out of ideas by then. But Wonky was a real return to form. it's true that it doesn't really add much to their sound but I think it captures most of what's good about them in a relatively short period of time

Monsters Exist is fairly spotty - it occurred to me recently that this was probably supposed to follow the modernized Orbital approach of Wonky but they switched directions halfway through. I think the bonus tracks are the remnants of what the album originally was gonna be.

It's cool that Diversions is on Spotify but wish all of their 90s EPs were up esp. Radiccio, The Box three-parter and the Satan Live triple set. Some of the new remixes are alright e.g. Lone's TGWTSIHH

it took me years to really appreciate Middle of Nowhere and realize it's closer to In Sides than Altogether and the last great album they put out. it's like something changed. plenty of good tracks in follow up albums, sure, but something was gone. Monsters i can't even bring myself to listen to, and i tried to the point where i just started hating it.

Thirty-Something is nice but i wish they really got into their old catalogue instead of just the same tracks they play live each time.

does anybody else have issues with the last track on second CD skipping? i contacted the distributor and they sent me a replacement CD and it's ("like a cry for survival!" - lol this is playing as i'm typing this) it's got the same issue. oh well, there are 3 more versions of Belfast!

I feel Middle of Nowhere was their last truly "great" album, but oddly enough the Don't Stop Me / The Gun Is Good single from 2010 is as good as anything they released in the early/mid 90's imho and it's crazy to me these two tracks dropped out of nowhere just sounding truly classic and nothing else they've dropped this century (weird to type that) comes close for me.

Maybe it's my deep deference to Zardoz, but The Gun Is Good would be in my top 10 of Orbital tracks... seriously.

Okay no - it's definitely the well placed Time Bandits sample too. Good lord that track slaps so much

New yesterday: a John Tejada mix of Orbital rarities on their youtube channel

This rarities mix of their old stuff is great.

xps to nashwan:

https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/orbital-tell-sde-of-archival-reissue-plans/

ty

new one coming.

is ANYONE excited? Out of my favorite 90s album-oriented electronic acts, Orbital has fallen off hardest.

I don't think they fell off that hard! Ok their last album wasn't too great but my personal theory there is they switched directions midstream and rushed things. Anyway looking at the tracklisting it appears to be kind of a Chemical Bros. type affair with guests on every track. dunno if that'll be a good thing or a bad thing but I've always liked the way they've used vocalists in the past. it doesn't look like anything from the BBC session above made it. I hope that stuff comes out in some form.

i'm into it but they've been releasing a slow trickle of new stuff for awhile now

monsters is the only orbital album i can’t bring myself to listen to, i hope it won’t be the case with the new one
but last time they had a bunch of guests we got Altogether, so..

first single is out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FM7XeaSO0M

Sounds like a Sleaford Mods track, with a dance beat.

I loved, and still love, Tiny Foldable Cities but don't remember the rest of that album that much

I'm liking Dirty Rat. Their new stuff from the 30 Something comp was all ardkore and acid nostalgic and this feels like a development from that. It's better than "Ibiza" as well.

Incongruent guest appearances? I wasn't thinking Chemical Brothers, I was thinking the hodgesplodgey Altogether and some of their collabs from that wider era.

imo the problem with Altogether wasn't the collabs it was mostly the other tracks

cough illuminate cough
but yeah, other tracks also

Hodgesplodgey to extend beyond the collab(s) and into their Doctor Who tribute, their Ian Dury tribute and...

...omg it fits the informal album thread a bit!

I like Illuminate! you know how Talking Heads wrote The Overload based on how they imagined Joy Division to sound like just based on the reviews? Illuminate sounds like that for Ed Sheeran. I think the dinky melody and the slurred vocals are funny. it has some killer remixes too.

i like the track, i just wish somebody else did the vocal
the vocalizations at the end make me cringe/laugh each time i listen to it

fiiiiree wooughhks in the bluuuugh

“Illuminate” is great and I also like Monsters Exist

“Illuminate” is great and I also like Monsters Exist

is ANYONE excited?

looooved the big chunk of new tracks in the BBC mix

I feel so strongly, I had to post it twice

I like the more melodic stuff on Monsters Exist - Tiny Foldable Cities, PHUK, Vision OnE, even Hoo Hoo Ha Ha. plus a bunch of the bonus tracks. the rest sounds like they were trying to make something darker and more soundtracky but didn't really have the time to finish it. I really think they changed directions midstream.

I'm enjoying this BBC mix. This lowkey trolling worked out well for me.

i wonder if those BBC mix tracks will be on the bonus CD, haven't seen the tracklist for it

the three new Hartnoll-written tracks from the mix are on it*, it's just the two you'd expect not to make it that were exclusive (bummer obv tho, they should be a double-A):

Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song) (feat. The Mediaeval Baebes)
Day One (feat. Dina Ipavic
Are You Alive? (feat. Penelope Isles)*
You Are The Frequency (feat. The Little Pest)*
The New Abnormal
Home (feat. Anna B Savage)*
Dirty Rat – With Sleaford Mods
Requiem For The Pre Apocalypse
What A Surprise (feat. The Little Pest)
Moon Princess (feat. Coppe)

Bonus tracks

The Crane (feat. Dina Ipavic)
Year Of The Bat
Lost In Time

yeah the Numbers remix and Spicy were both awesome. probably some licenscing issues with the latter though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNxGpMySziQ

definitely sounds like classic Orbital

Heard a snippet of this today, banged my head like a mofo

sounds so much like classic orbital i thought it was a remix!

sounds great on first listen
and loving dirty rat way more than i thought i would

there is certain quality in last tracks like they finally stopped caring and it translates into great music

I’ve probably listened to parts of the BBC mix as much as any other piece of music this year

Even if the rest of the album, after that new material and the two singles, sucks, it’ll still be one of their best four

Ringa Ringa's excellent. Plays like a composite of great Brown and Snivilisation ideas.

promo just forwarded, digging in

okay "New Abnormal" is a solid fucking banger

so uh sounds like this'll be better than the last one

It's good IMO! "Requiem for the Pre Apocalypse" is also awesome.

great to hear, was so disappointed with monsters

ringa ringa has been stuck in my head for days, i want a 20 min version

the whole album borrows liberally from their earlier sound in a nearly plagiaristic way but there's enough new pattern and approach going on to keep it lively. reminds me quite a bit of wonky after a few listens, maybe stronger.

another new tune. most exciting bit is around 4:45 in realizing "ok the tune is winding down but there's still a few minutes left?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WPxOe9mZ6I

but wait!! the track's beat was actually recycled from the Hartnoll and Young album from 2021 that nobody heard! you see!??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaPiqHF9nKI

That nursery rhyme is not about the plague. Not one Medieval Baebe knew that?

I feel safe in saying this is going to be a top 2023 record for me with the early singles, "New Abnormal," "Day One" and the Anna B Savage feature being particular high points.

I guess people already have it?

Officially released tomorrow isn't it?

yeah, but maybe preorder got there soon for some