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 ..

Remastered Green album out today. 6 hours (!) across 5 discs!

Looking forward to digging in

I was sad about how long I was going to have to wait for my CDs to show up until I realized this was likely on streaming platforms as well

Ok. How the fuck have I never heard this Belfast/Wasted track before!?

the Best Of comp of the anthology series it came from was named after it!

Yeah saw that. Have still got.all the Trance Europe Express CDs but think I only had the first Volume one

is there a standalone vinyl release for this?

double vinyl yes

https://orbital.tmstor.es/

oh cool, wonder if US distributors will carry this, as shipping to America is probably gonna be as much as the album itself

wonder if the rest of the catalogue is getting this kind of treatment, I mean imagine a 4xLP In Sides with Times Fly and The Saint and the full version of The Box. I'd buy that for a dollar.

Ok. How the fuck have I never heard this Belfast/Wasted track before!?

Ha, I was just thinking about it randomly the other day. (Got the Volume CDs as they came out, as much as I could.)

Remastered Green album out today. 6 hours (!) across 5 discs!

where are you seeing 5 disks? there are 4 CD and 4 LP editions.

and now they are offering "Green Album Expanded Digital Download" for £34.99 which basically adds 12 remixes, and i've got an email offering £5 off (after spending over a hundred on the CD/LP editions), while you can get the exact same thing on bandcamp for €20.

i'm totally okay with supporting orbital, but with the limited drops / shipping cost to canada and this kind of "promotions" it really feels like a cash grab.

As you've mentioned the Bandcamp option:

https://orbitalofficial.bandcamp.com/album/orbital-the-green-album-expanded

Performance of those first two albums last night in London as great as you'd expect (one v minor criticism would be perhaps it was a bit too by the book at times where you might expect a little longer versions of 'Chime', 'Impact' and 'Belfast' otherwise). A few of the Brown tracks ('Impact', 'Remind' and 'Halcyon' really seemed to have extra layers or textures in them I picked up on anew). Really enjoyed hearing some particular tracks for my first time ever live ('Midnight', 'Walk Now', 'Monday'). 'Satan' visuals in the encore threw in some shots of Liz Truss and Theresa May for lols and right at the end they did get particularly animated about needing a revolution.

Remastered (and expanded) version of the III EP out today

have they changed their mind? I can't seem to find it & their site's been down all day

https://orbitalband.lnk.to/midnightLEDIB

Oh wait, hang on that's Midnight

https://open.spotify.com/album/04NcxdGPhPYbP29pWCqEzC?si=fU9r4U0FSjW3ErhrouXHQA

Visible for me but these slow chronological rollouts damn...still looking forward to seeing finally Times Fly and the Satan Live EPs.

ooooh! thanks for the links

Finally saw them live in April after 28 years, almost to the day since I bought In Sides. They were great. Green was good but Brown was fucking magnificent.

digging through the remasters to remake / update my own "digital box set"...

I think the only notable exclusion is the remix of Open Mind from Funky Alternatives Six?

(notable especially because they did include various multiple radio edits and a 1999 Sasha remix)

...unless the "Chime (edit)" is actually an edit, and not a relabelling of the original 7" re-recording? Someone with better-tuned ears might confirm this.

and it's curious that they included demos The Other One and Open Mind Jam but not the Belfast Original Jam that Paul soundclouded alongside The Other One

BUT here's a fun discovery: any version of Son Of Chime was previously only available on an issue of Live At The Brain (1990)... but five years ago the bloke who ran The Brain club put out another compilation on Mixmag -- and included the same live recording of Son Of Chime, but secretly expanded to include Chime at the start as well.

...unless the "Chime (edit)" is actually an edit, and not a relabelling of the original 7" re-recording? Someone with better-tuned ears might confirm this.

The Chime 7" was credited as an edit on original release, and the waveforms look the same (except WAY more compressed/boosted on this version than the Work master, and sped up by 3 seconds) so this one's in the clear.

2024 remaster highlighted at bottom, 2002 Work master above, a little bit of the 1990 CD5 at top.
https://i.ibb.co/BnLDwx9/chimes.jpg

Belfast Original Jam that Paul soundclouded

and blogged about! The Other One was even on the same demo tape that they left with David Holmer, which led to (eventually) both tracks' names.

in more historical excavation, they have done a new remix of Cafe del Mar...

i seem to recall seeing somewhere they never used compression in their production.. not surprising they did it for the remasters but a bit disappointing

Opening their Glastonbury set with Deeper with Tilda Swinton reading the vocals lol

And actual Mel C joining them for 'Spicy' :o

that set sounds amazing hope they recorded it

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