Orbital - Classic or Dud?

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meanwhile i heard the first minute or so of 'Frenetic' the other day for the first time and finally understood why that track doesn't get much love. it really sucks until the 'Kinetic' hook comes in properly.

― blueski, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:26 (eighteen years ago)

insides ftw

― sleep, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:32 (eighteen years ago)

and of course halcyon + on + on

― sleep, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:33 (eighteen years ago)

I don't think I will ever get sick of listening to "Way Out/Spare Parts Express". Middle of Nowhere could be just those two tracks and I would barely notice. (OK, "Nothing Left" is pretty nice too.) As time goes on, it gets more and more cemented as my favorite Orbital song (I think of it as one song, don't make me split it up!).

― Vinnie, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:19 (eighteen years ago)

ditto to vinnie. mostly. insides is really not all that.

― Alan, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:20 (eighteen years ago)

I don't think I will ever get sick of listening to "Way Out/Spare Parts Express". Middle of Nowhere could be just those two tracks and I would barely notice.

this is where i've been for all these years... but then i reached further in.

― That one guy that quit, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:21 (eighteen years ago)

'in sides' opening and closing tracks still godhead.

― That one guy that quit, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:22 (eighteen years ago)

so much so that they sampled most of them on MoN.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:22 (eighteen years ago)

Pop Will Eat Itself were sampling their previous albums when Hartnolls wuz nipXoRs

― Alan, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:24 (eighteen years ago)

KLF sampled the same two songs throughout their entire career but HELL THEY WERE THE KLF!

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:25 (eighteen years ago)

i wonder why they didn't just get Alison G to sing 'Autumn'. i suppose Pooka or whatever they were called brought a slightly different quality to it - more 'waily'. the opening lines of the song are wonderfully sinister.

― blueski, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:29 (eighteen years ago)

insides is really not all that.

STONE THE INDFIDEL

― HI DERE, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:43 (eighteen years ago)

this is where i've been for all these years... but then i reached further in.

I've tried, but it's been tough. I know I've heard the whole thing at least ten times by now, and I've had it for years. But putting "Way Out/Spare Parts Express" first kills the album for me. It's just such a perfect song, nothing else on the album really compares after listening to it. And I never want to not listen to it when I pull out the album!

I'm starting to think my relationship with this song is unhealthy.

― Vinnie, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:44 (eighteen years ago)

srsly d00d. the box, ace, the rest, fnuh. altogether aside, probly my least listened to orbital album. maybe i'll have a relisten.

― Alan, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:45 (eighteen years ago)

"Adnan's" is possibly my favorite thing they've ever done. I'm not super invested in "Dwr Budr" but everything else on that album is essential listening for me.

― HI DERE, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:50 (eighteen years ago)

the box, ace, the rest, fnuh.

dude 'The Girl With The Sun In Her Head' surely. 'P.E.T.R.O.L.' kicks bottoms. 'Dwr Budr' is as sinister, melancholy and lush as anything they've done, 'Adnans' too for that matter. i never used to like it as much as the second album and thought the highs on it were no greater than the high on 'Sniv'...perhaps I still don't but it really is a great piece of work as a whole.

― blueski, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:51 (eighteen years ago)

i've seen Orbital only 4 times ever, all at festivals (in 97, 99, 02 and 04).

― blueski, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:52 (eighteen years ago)

but as i've said elsewhere on ILM if Orbital were to ever come back and do one of those 'perform the entire album from start to finish' gigs, I would now want it to be InSides.

― blueski, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:53 (eighteen years ago)

'OUT THERE SOMEWHERE' FFS PEOPLE

― That one guy that quit, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:54 (eighteen years ago)

Saw Orbital at the Royal Albert Hall ('96?) and that remains one of the most incredible gigs I've ever witnessed in my life.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 15:57 (eighteen years ago)

ok, i WILL have a relisten. but it's still MoN all the way for me.

i think i saw orbital 7 times! five times at glasto (ISTR the same as steve, with added sometime around 1994, though 02 i was not into it so much for some reason), once at Brixton wossname, and once at Hammersmith Palais (though i was super grumpy from ticket shananigans, and it was the Altogether tour meh-ness)

― Alan, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 16:01 (eighteen years ago)

The first couple of minutes of Dwr Bdr are amazing and spine-tingling. In fact the second half of The Box is probably the bit I was most tempted to skip last time I listened to InSides, maybe I've just heard too much.

The first three tracks on MoN are incredible but I remember thinking at the time the album sagged hugely after that. It's improved with age if anything, possibly because around 2004 loads of dance music sounded like MoN (Nothing Left in particular). I Don't Know You People is still a bit crap though.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 16:03 (eighteen years ago)

(this sounds like a record for me - i.e. the act i've seen the most live. i'd have to count times i've seen New Order...)

― Alan, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 16:04 (eighteen years ago)

I am afraid to count how many times I've seen The Cure. Probably 12 times...?

― HI DERE, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 16:26 (eighteen years ago)

have we had a POLL on their albums yet?

can someone do one i dunno how they work.

― pisces, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 16:52 (eighteen years ago)

Saw Orbital in 1996 at the Barrowlands and it was one of my all time favourite gigs.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 16:54 (eighteen years ago)

have we had a POLL on their albums yet?

can someone do one i dunno how they work.

see my post upthread - would it really be worth it?

― blueski, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 17:04 (eighteen years ago)

well yeah you'd think but 'sniv..' is great and i actully like 'brown' the best. 'in sides' is the one everyone said was best at the time, but it's a bit proggy an ting.

― pisces, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 18:02 (eighteen years ago)

Brown would get my vote.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 18:28 (eighteen years ago)

In Sides was the highest ranking Orbital album in the 90s album poll.

― blueski, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 18:59 (eighteen years ago)

i've never been that into 'brown' (hyuck hycuk drugs ref) -- prolly cos the single versh of 'halcyon' is better than the LP, and this one live version of 'impact' has always been my fave orbital choon.

― That one guy that quit, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 19:28 (eighteen years ago)

only dud on the brown album is the talky bits - i can do without them easily. even 'monday' is great.

― blueski, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 19:31 (eighteen years ago)

Given the distance of time, I totally can't decide which album of Snivilisation, In Sides or MoN I prefer. Brown is a little behind that, and the other tree a few steps even further back.

― Scik Mouthy, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 19:38 (eighteen years ago)

I saw Orbital 3 times, I think; once with MBM, once with The Orb and The Chemical Brothers, and once with...?

― HI DERE, Thursday, 3 May 2007 03:35 (eighteen years ago)

I've been re-getting-into Orbital recently, love Brown album and InSides esp "Halcyon" and "girl with the sun in her head" which is just beautiful.

― Trayce, Thursday, 3 May 2007 03:37 (eighteen years ago)

i relistened to insides.

ANYWAY

guess what. My copy of MoN has gone! I think i lent it out ages ago. sadly before i put it on iTunes =:-O

― Alan, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:21 (eighteen years ago)

This thread prompted me to listen to MoN again the other day and there's still a sag in the middle (I Don't Know You People - Otono). The one that's aged really well is Style, which I was totally underwhelmed by when it came out and now it sounds great. So Kraftwerk!

― Matt DC, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:27 (eighteen years ago)

i'll never turn

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:35 (eighteen years ago)

I like the Dollar lift on 'Style' but nothing else about it. Around the same time Alpinestars 'Interlaken' came out and much prefer that.

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:38 (eighteen years ago)

Paul Hartnoll's album turned up in the post today, just looking at the sleeve now (it looks sort of sub-Arcade Fire)... I don't know what to expect, really

― DJ Mencap, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:38 (eighteen years ago)

"i've never been that into 'brown' (hyuck hycuk drugs ref) -- prolly cos the single versh of 'halcyon' is better than the LP, and this one live version of 'impact' has always been my fave orbital choon."

Yeah the live "Impact" is quite astonishing.

― Tim F, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:40 (eighteen years ago)

This thread prompted me to listen to MoN again the other day and there's still a sag in the middle (I Don't Know You People - Otono).

'i don't know you people' was a particular skip-track moment just because there was something about the title/sample that pissed me off; but it turns into fairground rave! how could you not like that?

― That one guy that quit, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:44 (eighteen years ago)

the Hartnoll albums sounds quite electro-goth from what i've heard, but not in the good Knife-like way.

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:46 (eighteen years ago)

bagpipe remix of style roxor. always liked idkyp too (title is a tag on my LJ, hem hem)

― Alan, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:49 (eighteen years ago)

more in the "having Robert Smith on it" sort of way?

― Alan, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:49 (eighteen years ago)

more on the evidence of this track 'Seance' by The Cravats ft. Paul - actually it's more 'industrial Wedding Present' perhaps.

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:52 (eighteen years ago)

The Bob Smith track is playing now. He kinda dominates it. The track before, 'Simple Sounds', was pretty Orbital-ish (thinking 'Style' specifically), but very diluted on first impression

― DJ Mencap, Friday, 4 May 2007 14:01 (eighteen years ago)

Isn't there a Phil Hartnoll project on the way (or Phil Hartnoll with some other dude)?

― Matt DC, Friday, 4 May 2007 14:08 (eighteen years ago)

The best thing about the live Impact was the one they played around 1998 when they switched it round, did all the acid squelchy "cry for survival!" bit first and then kicked into the uplifting melodic part. I think it worked because it was mixed into the end of one of the really chaotic MoN tracks.

― Matt DC, Friday, 4 May 2007 14:10 (eighteen years ago)

"Otono" is awesome!

― HI DERE, Friday, 4 May 2007 14:19 (eighteen years ago)

Skipping 515 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

tracklist here, nothing too new at first sight (diversions EP, etc), just a 1992 show - https://orbital.tmstor.es/product/Brown-Album-4CD

― StanM, Saturday, 5 April 2025 15:40 (three months ago)

The new single is very "cult recruitment video".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q52U_XhnzRA

― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Saturday, 5 April 2025 16:01 (three months ago)

i hope they'll post it to bandcamp as well, townsend music can go to hell.

there is a live broadcast of the last Green / Brown show in a couple of hours (you have to buy a £5 ticket to watch)

― scanner darkly, Saturday, 5 April 2025 16:36 (three months ago)

what if you’d been recruited into that cult in 1989

― Nancy Makes Posts (sic), Saturday, 5 April 2025 17:21 (three months ago)

They’ve done a remix for Confidence Man which fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggpt2MjMgvs

― Dan Worsley, Saturday, 5 April 2025 17:32 (three months ago)

Radiccio EP newly streaming so I guess they're continuing the rollout of remastered singles?

― nashwan, Saturday, 5 April 2025 17:38 (three months ago)

wait is this a new track or one of those "Stringy Acid" things where they polished up an old tune? kinda hard to tell, it sounds good though

its cool that they still have this working relationship, she's pretty unforgettable in the video for "The Box", she was relatively unknown back then too I think

― frogbs, Saturday, 5 April 2025 17:39 (three months ago)

from the newsletter:

All vinyl cut at half speed for maximum audio fidelity, however this album was not re-mastered as the engineer told us “it was perfect as it was”, so there you go!

and in regards to Deepest:

Released due to phenomenal demand after the iconic actor made a surprise appearance at Glastonbury 2024, joining Orbital on the Park Stage. Available as part of the 'Radiccio' EP.

― scanner darkly, Saturday, 5 April 2025 17:50 (three months ago)

wait is this a new track or one of those "Stringy Acid" things where they polished up an old tune?

what if you’d been recruited into that cult in 1989

― Nancy Makes Posts (sic), Saturday, 5 April 2025 17:52 (three months ago)

Deeper was the B side to their debut single (Chime).

This is a rerecorded version with Tilda Swinton doing the spoken word parts xps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DZ1_DZ0zqw-

― groovypanda, Saturday, 5 April 2025 17:54 (three months ago)

ahh yes "Deeper" that's the track I was thinking of. Orbital's early period has always confused me, like half the tracklisting of the reissued Green album is different from the CD I have

agreed that Brown doesn't need a remaster. gonna be fun to revisit that one again

― frogbs, Saturday, 5 April 2025 17:59 (three months ago)

tracklist here, nothing too new at first sight

nothing missing at first sight either, unlike last time - the only released music not included I think are five tracks from Glasto '94 (and the Rave On single by Industry Standard, which would be fun to have clean versions of, but don't fit with Brown)

― Nancy Makes Posts (sic), Saturday, 5 April 2025 18:20 (three months ago)

that live stream of the last show of the tour in London (which has already started I guess) includes 48 hours of replay : https://lounges.tv/lounge/details/EiDmGz8AnL

― StanM, Saturday, 5 April 2025 19:08 (three months ago)

having only recently decided to ruin my finances by getting into vinyl - was surprised how hard Insides and the brown album were to come by. so last week i picked up that beginners guide record, which has the box and a couple tracks off brown. and of course they announce the release of remastered brown a matter of days latter... and of course i am getting it.

― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Saturday, 5 April 2025 19:48 (three months ago)

fuck, they just played Belfast and now i'm crying
it's like the elegy for everything we lost, back then we were so sure we were invincible

― scanner darkly, Saturday, 5 April 2025 20:21 (three months ago)

one month passes...

remix trade is in - Confidence Man version of Lush:

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

Confidence Man dismantle the original and wire it back together — sharper, stranger, and unstoppable.

“Confidence Man have done that rare but always strived for thing with a remix. It’s totally Lush, totally Orbital, totally modern, and totally Confidence Man! How did they manage to get all that into one track! I’m even going to nick bits of it for when we play festivals over the summer, that’s how much we love it!”

“Lush is one of our favorite dance tracks of all time, so we were like rabid dogs with the stems in our hands. Kids in a cooked candy store. Dreams really do come true if you dream hard enough, and we’re proof.”

― Nancy Makes Posts (sic), Monday, 12 May 2025 17:06 (one month ago)

instrumental version on soundcloud, if you haven't eschewed it due to AI yet

― Nancy Makes Posts (sic), Monday, 12 May 2025 18:52 (one month ago)

looks like three extra tracks on the digital version: studio version of Semi-Detached from Trance Europe Express (also on the 4LP?), a Vapourspace remix of Lush that was released as Spacewalk on Themes From Vapourspace, and an American remix of Lush from the US Impact single, 1926 Trancendance Mix.

― Nancy Makes Posts (sic), Monday, 12 May 2025 19:26 (one month ago)

digging that Confidence Man remix, love how it brings in elements of 3-1, 3-2, and the recent live takes

I like how Orbital's catalogue is this ever evolving thing like Kraftwerk's. except they actually do make new music every now and then :)

― frogbs, Friday, 16 May 2025 15:51 (one month ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dOXhSun08

― ivy., Friday, 16 May 2025 15:57 (one month ago)

going to see them in a week, first time for about 25 years

― Colonel Poo, Friday, 16 May 2025 16:32 (one month ago)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002cqm8

"Paul Hartnoll of electronic music duo Orbital talks about the reissue of the band's Brown album which was originally released in 1993, with the addition of 23 extra tracks of rarities and previously unreleased material and about the intersection between dance music and politics."

ooh, Gary Davies

― koogs, Thursday, 29 May 2025 14:55 (one month ago)

three weeks pass...

The Peel Sessions EP is now available on streaming (although it's called Radio Sessions for some reason)

https://open.spotify.com/album/11MS2lOastXVWQL2FcwIx6?si=FdOkiuvCSi-o46ZoFInXjA

― groovypanda, Thursday, 19 June 2025 07:02 (two weeks ago)

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