Orbital C/D

I'm listening to the whole of the Blue album for the first time. I admit I don't remember a thing about Middle of Nowhere, which was the last time I bothered listening to their work, but I know it was nowhere NEAR as interesting as this Blue album stuff. "Acid Pants" still hits me the wrong way - kind of a poor cousin to Satan and other things they've done in the same vein, I think, but other than that, I'm pretty well flabbergasted by this. There IS a small element of the first album in it, I think, in it's raw primitive weirdness. But I think this is a good thing.

I really owe you ilxors this, I mean, if it weren't for this thread, Orbital probably would have remained a very pleasant memory for me.
It feels really nice to return to them after so many years. I've also kindof put some demons in my personal life to rest lately, and it just feels right to revisit these guys who once meant the whole world to me. Thanks.

I'm terribly jealous of those who can catch the last shows, but I guess I shouldn't be. I saw them at least three times, and I feel lucky/grateful just for that.

'You Lot' is classic Orbital tho, awesome stuff - it has that sinister aspect i tend to find unnerving, i find it very macabre tho of course that's the point - but there's that point where it all's really kicking off that must rank up there with all time great Orbital moments, and the effects on the vocal do remind me of BOC's '1969' too. 'Initiation' would be my other big fave. and i like 'Transient' as it's something a little different. find 'Acid Pants' a bit dull/done. 'One Perfect Sunrise' is too Dreadzone/new-agey for my liking.

So essentially there are three tracklistings floating around at the moment

Make that four, woops five!!!

(blue in shops today)

i want to hear the Ray Keith remix of 'Chime'. only just saw Dan's mentioning of it!

Is the official tracklisting, and the awesome "What Happens Next" is a b-side.

So much of their music is majestic and ethereal (my fav being the live version of Out There Somewhere - Irvine Plaza live mix), but it's that same tone that's increasingly made them feel a little too fuzzy to maintain their pull/relevance.

I've since developed more of an appetite for tension in sound and themes, to excite a sense of the present moment, rather than the remember-a-time-when-chillouts-were-so-psychedelic-man type nostalgia that pines for great present moment's of years passed.

But that's just one song -- I'd say that "The Box" and "PETROL" (also from In Sides, of course) provide plenty of tension and immediacy.

(I may have completely misunderstood your argument, though)

Let's face it -- "OTS" is as proggy as techno gets. Not everyone wants to sit through a 26 minute techno opus about alien abduction as an allegory for the crucifixion. Sometimes you just want to play the last four minutes of "Impact USA" over and over.

OTS might be a bit of an electro-cinematic extreme, but I'm also thinking of The Tranquilizer and Sad But New.

The most recent piece from them that I heard was "Ska'd For Life" on their Back to Mine mix. They were still all about exploring that gluey membrane between pop/electronica genres - which I've loved for many years - but while I agree a lot of their gear has a strong sense of immediacy, it just seems to suffer a lack of critical intensity that other producers seem to understand better.

I think I've said this before though.

The Altogether was far too quirky/playful for my liking. They were trying to recapture the spirit of 1990. Too much "hands in the air" stuff.

I love Orbital, but I love them like a precious beautiful piece of porcelain on the mantelpiece which will essentially always stay the same. They're just not one of those artists/acts/bands that are capable - at least with each other - of really moving beyond their own admittedly wonderful formula.

Incase anyone is offended by what I've said I will freely admit I haven't heard The Altogether or the soundtrack they did "Octane". But if The Altogether was their step forward, clearly to many it was little more than a step in the wrong direction.

But then I don't like to treat any music like "a precious beautiful piece of porcelain on the mantelpiece"; I want a certain amount of robustness alongside my beauty, a certain pragmatism with my idealism.

Well, I'm not sure it's fair to say they didn't *progress* along a certain path, and that's not what I meant. But let me use an example. (and you're free to say it's a bad one) I don't recall any of Orbital's albums hitting me in the gobsmackingly surprised way Radiohead's Kid A did. I do think The Box EP was the closest thing to what I might have called a real surprise from them, a broadening of the horizons. It takes a special kind of band/artist to grow to that extent, it might even take a certain brilliance they simply don't posess, and how could we fault them for that? Surely none of us are even a smidgen as brilliant as they are.

But imagine what they might do free of each other's tether? For this I am hopeful, as I'm sure they are themselves. If I felt like weeping, I don't anymore. Good for them, you know?

However I don't think Radiohead are a good comparison for a few reasons.

a; The 'group dynamic' is totally different to the 'fraternal duo dynamic', and almost necessitates a greater level of diverse creative input and intra-group friction leading to creative change.

b; The 'experimental rock band dynamic' is totally different to the 'techno duo' dynamic (related but different to above).

c; R'head consciously set out to change (with every record but especially) with Kid A for a myriad of reasons that would and could never influence Orbital's work.

d; Shocking and dramatic change is not necessarily more radical or worthy or 'changing' than slowly evolved, subtle change.

No two Orbital albums, to me, sound 'of a kind' in the way that Kid A and Amnesiac do.

But since we're talking about Orbital, they may indeed be the kings of live performance, so...

Sick, before I peter out on this board, what's your opinion of Octane? Or is there a review I missed somewhere?