Orbital - Wonky

very nice. I didn't have quite the history with the group - I got into them via the Work 1989-2002 collection (which, in retrospect, was pretty much the worst way to get into them), but I think you pretty much nailed it. never really thought of the "ten years out" idea but that rings pretty true, huh?

I'm pretty sure I stole that idea off this thread"

!

really enjoyed that review

For all the talk of 'Beelzedub' as their spin on dubstep it sounds to me the most retro of all the album. Puts me in mind of such big beat staples as 'Atom Bomb' by Fluke or 'We Have Explosive' by FSOL.

Opener 'One Big Moment' starts with layers of quiet, sampled voices, a little like 'Forever' from Snivilisation, before dropping a beat and a reverberating synth riff and a slowly developing melodic topline that will have a Pavlovian effect on tens of thousands of people of a certain age. You could interpret that cynically, or you could put your hands in the air.

so fucking OTM

btw typo: it reminds less of Burial or Skrillex than it does the Hartnoll's own history

How's that a typo?

Apostrophe in the wrong place. Possessive plural.

Good review, mr. Mouthy.

Cheers.

I have purchased a ticket for the Bristol gig. Anyone from here going?

This is great fun. I'm totally feeling the Insides comparisons. An all-out party record that balances head, heart and body very well. Also the first Orbital album I've bothered to check out since the one after Insides. Might have to do a bit of backtracking and listen to the others now.

I wouldn't bother really.

haha, okay. Actually I'm not even sure I've heard all of Middle of Nowhere. Insides was such an important, pivotal record for me (the first couple of paragraphs in Mouthy's review are basically identical to my life experiences), that I think I must've thought "There's no way they can top that" then I heard Style and that Saint thing and thought, "yeah they're not gonna top it".

The best bits of Middle of Nowhere are maybe my favourite Orbital if I'm really honest.

yeah, that first half is really something, and the singles on the second half pretty much rule too

"Spare Parts Express" / "Know Where To Run" / "Nothing Left 1" / "Nothing Left 2" for me.

"Middle of Nowhere" is very fine too and I actually really like "Style", but the other tracks are next level.

lol I think I'm the only person on Earth who really digs "Otono"

I like "Otono", but it's definitely third tier on that album.

Always wanted to hear the Pooka albums actually, I actually have the single for "City Sick" somewhere for some reason, and I remember a friend told me their second album was fantastic.

This Pooka? Shift is pretty interesting, especially for its time (2001), esp the track "One in a Million". My understanding is the sometimes IDMish backing is very much an outlier in Pooka's catalog.

Wonky is on US spotify today; cracking it open now!

one big moment is LOVELY, totally vintage

I just picked up green, brown, and snivilisation w/in the past month or two and they're all v good! It's strange that I have five (!) of their albums now and yet still feel like I'm just getting into them

total first world problems but can I say how irritated I am that the US domestic release of this is an iTunes exclusive

^^^^ otm, super annoying

If you guys want to paypal me I can post you CDs from the UK?

hmm, maybe? let me check how much ordering from amazon.co.uk would be

ha the special edition from amazon.co.uk will cost me $20 with shipping, so I'm gonna go that route; thanks though!

I think "Wonky" is my favorite song of the year so far

It had been bugging me for ages what 'Wonky' reminded me of and it's actually 'Jump And Shout' by Basement Jaxx, the combination of insane build and an MC who's simultaneously on top of the build and part of it.

when are Orbital and Underworld going to synch up their schedules and do a joint tour that I can fly over to the UK to see

mmm hmm

This is extremely enjoyable. I like the experimentation with more analoguey noises.

kind of hard to believe that "Stringy Acid" didn't exist before this album came out, i'm already retroactively inserting it in my mid-late 90s memories

apparently it was an outtake from those days

I'd like to qualify my earlier endorsement by saying that the brostep track is dreadful. All other tracks are good, I particularly like New Fance and Where is it Going?

This album was pretty cool first time I heard it, but I'm just not drawn in enough to really love it. everything's in place, but i dunno.....

saw them on Saturday and they were incredible, seemed to have slashed much of the new stuff out of the set for Australia sadly - though what was there sounds very much of a piece with the old material in that setting.

SO MANY forty-somethings off their faces around us!

I want them to release a real live album so badly

like the UW 3-disc Live in Tokyo set if possible, something more than just an hour

those screeching synths in the end of "One Big Moment" would sound so massive live, c'mon boys

This album was pretty cool first time I heard it, but I'm just not drawn in enough to really love it. everything's in place, but i dunno.....

― Scary Move 4 (dog latin), Tuesday, May 8, 2012 6:33 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yep

album is a con that makes me doubt all of my orbital love ever, but this remix has a nice bit in the middle

https://soundcloud.com/orbital-4/where-is-it-going-steve-mac

credited to steve mac and phil

3 months pass...

huh

What do you mean by "album is a con"?

i don't hear a lot of spontaneous life in most of these tracks, which is especially jarring given what they're trying to do. doesn't even sound rote, sounds contrived. not going to be a convincing argument if these tracks actually create joy for you.

i like "never" though.

I'm increasingly feeling that this album is content rather than music. I still quite like it, and think its their best since Middle of Nowhere, but I don't love it.

>album is a con that makes me doubt all of my orbital love ever

If you'd said this about 90% of The Altogether I might have understood, but wrong target with this one - the great tracks on here still sound great to me, and I've *hammered* this album.

I'm with Bill, this album still sounds pretty f great to me