Orbital - In Sides Poll

If I could vote for a single moment it would be the transition between boxes 1 & 2.

ledge: the original US 2-disc release of In Sides had the entire "The Box" single on its second disc as one continuous track, which included the vocal mix and both of the fantastic untitled remixes (forever <3 "Version 1")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51gS3qG926M&feature=related

I bought the single separately, and yeah version 1 is terrific. That incredibly atmospheric creaking intro, like suddenly waking up on board the Marie Celeste. And then the massive cheesy harpsichord section always brings a huge grin to my face.

I am sure my pick must be out there somewhere.

Best thing ever sithin this particular genre.

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcROasdOkFbsr8n-cZdfhSVKw7k-yRYYCZ1c7YX2EEFwqRxyuF-nKIZaYh3U

Girl With Sun, I think.

OTS 2, runner up Dwr Budr

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Correct.

Hmmm... GWTSIHH never struck me as a highlight. Maybe I should reassess.

I really love the sweep of GWTSIHH, the best Orbital tracks are almost all very landscape-y and this one encapsulates that perfectly. Amazing slow build as well. Correct winner IMO.

Also I suspect it has live drumming (the album credits 'drumming by Clune' but doesn't say which track(s)).

Adnan's is a good track, shame it got nowt.

Pretty sure I read way back when that GWTSIHH had live drumming. It's probably my favourite track by Orbital.

The highlights for me were always Dwr Budr, Adnans and OTSW II

this went pretty much how I expected it to. Dwr Budr and Andans are both quite amazing but the first and last tracks here are so stunning that it's hard to vote anywhere else.

surprised P.E.T.R.O.L. got no votes! would have been my #2.

lol I think I got so swept up in an Orbital listening frenzy that I forgot to vote, which explains the goose egg for "Adnan's"

I've not had a proper Orbital listening frenzy in a while. I think next month might bring one on.

yeah I think I'm going to have to get there too, especially as I'm continuing to hear good stuff about the new album

The new album's sent me back through the catalogue. Rejected The Altogether as a straight-up dud but it has its moments.

Funny Break, Last Thing, Doctor and Meltdown are all pretty great. The rest I have no desire to ever hear again. Still maintain that Middle of Nowhere is massively underrated.

Yeah, MoN is great.

Thirded.

The first two tracks on the Altogether are great! If you dump stuff like "Oi!", "Pay-Per-View", and "Tootled" for the B-sides on Disc 2 - "Monorail", "Beezlebeat", "Doctor Look Out", and "Mock Tudor" - it's a much stronger album. Also, I kinda like "Illuminate". I know it's dumb as hell.

I am semi-angry that I can't play The Altogether on Spotify

Was the David Grey song "Illuminate"? I always liked that one more than practically everyone else on the board. (xp: okay everyone but frogbs)

and yes MoN is absolutely underrated

Fourthed. Suffers only by comparison with In Sides. Way Out, Spare Parts Express and Nothing Left 2 are all classic.

Fifthfted (??), it's their Beacoup Fish or Surrender, its not quite a knockout classic but holds up much better in retrospect

never would have occurred to me to consider Beaucoup Fish in that category, but then again I'm one of those ppl who doesn't like Second Toughest...

Their songs are so beautifully structured - busy and unpredictable without (most of the time) feeling cluttered. Very few electronic producers can do that.

I've always felt that they were the best at writing good, solid hooks in their music (look at "Impact" for Christ's sake), and when they started leveraging that into weirder/more ambitious stuff they really took off. I think a lot of electronic guys had the experimental leanings that Orbital had but didn't have the talent to pull it off!

yay, this took me back
it's all about bigpipe style

hmm

Two other tracks were included on the [style] single. They were "An Fhomair", which is a heavily reworked version of album track "Otono" (featuring Pooka on vocals), and "Mock Tudor", a blend of heavy club beats and baroque-style melody in 7/4 time

i thought i had the single but don't recall an awesome sounding baroque club workout.

Oh goddamn, Know Where to Run from 5:00 :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

An absolutely stunning album which still holds up now, IMO. Would have voted for 'Dŵr Budr'.

Belatedly OTM-ing Ledge's post from 2 years ago. Feel like MoN is secretly the album where Orbital perfected their own take on dance music qua dance music dynamics: the frenzied peaktime pinnacles of "Know Where To Run" and "Nothing Left" in particular. When the former drops into those scary arpeggios it's just @_@

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAsZQI0pvvw

I might put this on, actually, haven't listened to it for a while.. Orbital 2 tends to be the album of theirs I listen to the most, but whenever I put this on it always blows me away to the point where I think "why am I not listening to this more often?"

surprised TGWTSIHH won this. Dwr Budr is the best sleeper track.

I'm not surprised, it's a perfect thesis statement for the album.

This should have been one of those polls where every track got a vote.

Adnans is so great. You're right.

I love this record so much. The Box used to play on the local Radio Free station (along with the Chemical Bros.) when pretty much nothing else electronic was airing, and so Orbital got me super into techno and electronic music and changed my life 4ever.

Having a late night listen to this on the headphones. Man, what an exceptional record. The hammered dulcimer on 'The Box' is pure gorgeousness.

This album was 20 years old last Friday. I bought it on Monday 29 April 1996. In Teignmouth Woolworths.

Incredible to think it's that old. It still holds up extremely well, production-wise.

One thing that always bothered me about this album was this faint high-pitched noise on "The Box 1", right after the drums come in till the end of the track. I always thought it was some sort of mastering glitch. Anyway I've been listening to my Orbital albums again and I noticed that suddenly I can't hear it anymore. I remember hearing that as you get older you lose the ability to hear some high frequencies and I'm wondering if this is an example of that. Might explain why it was there in the first place! Anyone else hear it?

this album is still incredible, of course. "Out There Somewhere?" is such a singular accomplishment in the genre, I'd forgotten how cool it was when the mutated "Lush 3.1" synths show up. And the second half is just gorgeous. Feel like they'd taken on a prog fetish around this time, between this and the full-length version of "The Box" that some versions come with.

I might have to have a listen to hear what you're on about - any excuse to listen to this still marvellous piece of work!

Phil Hartnoll just outed Paul Hartnoll as being Gammon.

Man, this record still makes me so ecstatic. Adnan's is gorgeous, I'd forgotten what a pleasure it is to hear it.

Still one of the greatest albums ever recorded

there were some interesting tidbits in the twitter listening party: https://timstwitterlisteningparty.com/pages/replay/feed_143.html

also on this track we were approached by green peace to record a track powered by their solo lorry , so the whole thing was recorded using only the power of the sun. A fitting tribute to Sally indeed . Cricky I’m welling up just writing this down now after all that time.

— Orbital (@orbitalband) May 15, 2020

has there been an artist poll for orbital?

talking about The Box:

I did get to meet John Barry when we were interviewed together at his house once. he was asked if he'd heard this and he said ' yesss, its hardly the persuaders is it " OUCH! love him the straight talking yorkshire man!

— Orbital (@orbitalband) May 15, 2020

yeah the green peace tidbit is in the liner notes and added to the album's "wow"-ness at the time for me

When are they gonna repress this? Could make a fortune

I was replaying this a few weeks ago. DJP otm, it's peerless.

I've been listening to it a lot in the car. It's such a great driving record. I've been extending journeys to let it wash over me.

still don't think there's another piece of electronic music like "Out There Somewhere"

this must've been the first album they used live drumming on? i don't see anything in the credits on green/brown/snivilisation. i do vaguely recall halcyon drum programming credited to somebody else but can't find it now.

Out There Somewhere? (Part 1) – 10.42 0

This is egregious

egregious
/ɪˈɡriːdʒəs/
adjective

1. outstandingly bad; shocking.
"egregious abuses of copyright"

2. ARCHAIC
remarkably good.

which one did you mean? :-)

the shocking and bad one

Part 2 is so good tho, just hoovered up the votes I guess