The Music of Orbital is Pretty Fantastic

The Lounge General Discussion
#21

I was there that night! Has just sent shivers down my spine!
@Octagonist Thank you for sharing!
Halcyon and on days!! :heart:

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#22

Amazing!

I heard the radio broadcast, and recorded it to tape. That, and the Prodigy and N-Joi sets from the same night/week were the soundtrack that whole summer, for me and several friends.

#23

If you haven’t already, check the live version where they sample Karen Carpenter in perfect harmony with Goldfrapp. It blew my mind when i saw them a couple years ago.

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#24

Pretty cool sample use… or politician-granular oscillators or whatever

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#25

But yea, orbital are pretty awesome !

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#26

Don’t forget Tilda Swintons performance here:

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#27

Latest interviews with future plans, 2 albums on the way, A 30 years remix album plus new album

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#28

thanks for sharing these

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#29

I think the music of orbital is pretty fantastic up to the middle of knowhere and then it starts to drop off. They are one of my favourite bands and I first saw them in 94 on the snivilisation tour where they played on a scaffolding tower in the middle of the venue. Brown album and Snivilisation still my favourites, they were real pioneers at that time both musically and live.
However after seeing them live for nearly 30 years, it does get a bit samey playing the same tracks year on year, I’d love a tour where they played something different, some new tracks mixed with some tracks they haven’t played for a few years, and perhaps give halcyon, chime and impact etc a miss.

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#30

They’ve been using that Belinda Carlisle sample in the live sets since 94 and the carpenters sample since 2012 on the wonky tour

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#31

This album certainly had a character all its own. It lived in my discman for a while. I did a lot of walking in those days.
It’s almost excessively gloomy without much positivity to balance it out.
I’d love to ask the Hartnoll bros what was going in with their lives when they produced this.

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#32

I think it’s their last great album in fact I think the first 2 tracks Way Out into Spare Parts Express is the best piece of music they’ve ever done

#33

I really enjoy the muted trumpet on this track.

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#34

This one’s my favorite.

I never thought it “gloomy”… intense, brooding and angry in places. I think I know what you mean though. The few voice samples sound lost, unhinged. A lot of the melodies and breakdowns are psychedelic, mimicking a loss of control. Personally, I’ve always heard the music as indulgently revelling in its own abandon.

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The Newsround theme sample!! (which probably is just a UK thing)

“ Tootled “ on The Altogether which samples Tool! I think of them as a synth band more than a sample band, but they have some choice samples here and there.

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EDIT: it wasn’t Newsround. It was New Worlds by BBC Radiophonic Workshop. My apologies.

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#35

It was definitely on newsround with John Craven, the track is called new worlds but it was the theme tune to newsround

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#36

I’m glad I’m not the only person who thinks that! I couldn’t find references to back up my memory in a 3min Wikipedia & Whosampled search so I decided my memory was wrong.

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#37

By far my favourite of theirs… resonated with me when I watched Hackers back in ‘95

Still gives me chills.

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#38

No you are definitely right

Loads of samples on snivilisation

Opus 3 on halcyon

Butthole surfers on Satan

Style - oh l’amour by dollar

Ian Drury on oi

Loads of em

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#39

Also my favourite :slight_smile:.

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#40

:exploding_head:

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