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 ..

the… broadcaster that screened it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_c3iUio-5I

That was a great set.

fly tilda swinton in to do the monologue and then there's a fucking flag with a dog on it 15ft in front of her, between her and the main camera.

consider a fish

this is cool as shit. god bless 'em

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_c3iUio-5I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8baH94limCk

new collection album:

Released on November 8th, ‘A Beginner’s Guide’ is the perfect introduction to the ground-breaking musical world of Orbital.

This is a release for the those who may have discovered Orbital following their legendary Glastonbury 2024 performance, caught them on their global tour of the Green & Brown album, or simply loved a track used in a film they have watched and want to know more.
The Brown and Green Albums Live 2025

For the first time – 'A Beginner's Guide' presents Orbital's biggest hits in their edited form, in one collection. This is the threshold to a transformational psychoacoustic experience - the gateway to the duo's huge catalogue which spans the breadth of their 30-year plus career, from their early chart hits ‘Chime’, ‘Belfast’ and ‘Halcyon’, fan favourites such as ‘Lush 3.1’, soundtrack moments like ‘Beached’ (their collaboration with film score maestro Angelo Badalamenti) to more recent cuts like ‘Ringa Ringa’ and ‘Dirty Rat’ (with Sleaford Mods).

1. Chime (Edit)
2. Halcyon (Edit)
3. Belfast (Edit)
4. Satan (Spawn)
5. The Box (Edit)
6. Lush 3.1 (Edit)
7. Beached (Edit)
8. Are We Here? (Edit)
9. Are You Alive? (feat. Penelope Isles) (Edit)
10. Style (Edit)
11. Dirty Rat (Edit)

what a strange tracklist. it works neither as a "biggest hits" collection nor as a good introduction to Orbital. i mean, i like Dirty Rat but what is it doing here? Beached, Style, really? where is Impact, Girl With The Sun In Her Head, Way Out, or even One Perfect Sunrise?

Going to see the Green/Brown tour in November — looking forward to that!

“Dirty Rat” is the only Orbital song my husband really likes aside from “Impact” so I 100% see why it’s on here.

Also worth pointing out that the tracklist you have there is missing 6 songs from the Bandcamp tracklist:

https://orbitalofficial.bandcamp.com/album/a-beginners-guide-best-of

Oh I like the Ghost Boxy artwork.

Of the few shows I've been able to see this year Orbital's Green/Brown show is definitely in the top one.

xp you're right, i forgot they tend to include more tracks on the bandcamp versions
still, lol at Illuminate inclusion (which, funny enough, is a track that my husband really likes)

“Illuminate” gets unnecessary shade IMO, I think it is a pretty good song.

i like the song, it's the vocal that i have a problem with

I do think the vocal is fine, but also I wouldn’t be the one getting stinkeye at Christmas because I turned my nose up at collaborating with my brother-in-law

it is a great track for singing along wildly off key to annoy the aforementioned husband

I remember reading something about Ed Sheeran's "Shape Of You" before I knew what the song sounded like and I remember thinking it sounded like they were describing "Illuminate"

personally offended to learn from Ned’s post that they’re doing a second visit to California this year and not going further north

They were fucking awesome in April this year. One of the best gigs I’ve been to in years.

that compilation mentioned above was released yesterday: https://orbitalofficial.bandcamp.com/album/a-beginners-guide-best-of

oh and they're in LA/SF/Austin next week, anyone going?

https://orbitalofficial.com/live/

ok, we've got it covered, Ned is going :)

finally picked up the Green album reissue, it's totally different than the version I know - unremixed version of Speed Freak, three tracks I hadn't heard before, live versions of Chime and Midnight, no Choice or Satan...feels like a much different album

I do remember hearing a while ago that there was some obscure Orbital track that used a Tom & Jerry sample...Macro Head has got to be it

xpost I did! And I wrote about it:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/116468582

It is a real trip going back to these high-impact-for-me albums (in this case In Sides) and listening to them straight through without skipping. It is a strong reminder of what made me love them so much in the first place.

Like, why do I skip “P.E.T.R.O.L.”? It’s fucking brilliant

Remastered and expanded Brown Album dropping next month 😍

https://www.orbitalofficial.com/2025/04/04/the-brown-album/

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

The new single is very "cult recruitment video".

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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-

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

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)

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

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.

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

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.”

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

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)

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.

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 :)

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

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

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

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