Orbital C/D

On September 21, a reunited Orbital (Brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll) will perform new music and classic cuts in the US for the first time in five years, at the inaugural Electronic Music Awards, live from downtown Los Angeles on Twitter. The performance follows a successful UK run of impressive performances at the WAM Festival in Spain, Forbidden Fruit in Dublin, Supersonic in Japan, the Brussels Summer Festival, and the Bluedot plus Standing Calling festivals in the UK. Additionally, the duo announced December 2017 dates at both London Hammersmith Apollo and Manchester Apollo which sold out in less than 24 hours upon announcement.

The duo’s new single, Copenhagen, which has been playlisted by BBC 6 Music, is streaming now. Orbital’s performance at the EMAs, personally requested by Executive Producer Paul Oakenfold himself, will be the duo’s first live show in the US in five years with a new album on the horizon.

I am reminding myself that Blue is actually really good

it holds a special place in my heart because it was the first album they released since I got into them, and it also led to me discovering Sparks. as a whole I'm pretty lukewarm on it though. it sounds more like fragments of several different (potentially great) albums than it does anything coherent by itself.

I kind of wonder what they're up to now. I remember they were planning to do this 30th anniversary album in the style of Kraftwerk's The Mix, along with something new. But it doesn't look like anything's on the horizon.

When they are together in interviews, i'm not sure which one, but one of them looks like he's taken too much speed and has a tenuous grip on reality. They seem to not be on the same page. I don't think they're viable as a duo capable of creating interesting music anymore. At this point they should just start focusing on any live recordings they have sitting around and coast through their 60s by pressing up old live shows and reissuing 12"s and where the f is the In Sides reissue? Anyway, I don't think a 'new' Orbital release would make me shell out the cash as much as a catalog reissue would.

this is a group where i mostly like their singles but their b sides are good too but i pretty much like most everything up to the altogether and i like you lot from the blue album but everything else and since does not impress me much!

I've recently come to view them a modern version of Kraftwerk - they have a timeless sound and so many excellent melodies that speak for themselves, and their body of work is often characterized by their singles despite having several excellent albums. and much like Kraftwerk it's not so much about losing their way as it is having nowhere left to go. I thought Wonky was great and parts of Monsters Exist was as well but with both of them I can't help but notice how all the good parts are just throwbacks to stuff they did in the mid-90s. their recent live albums are very good, but I can't imagine getting too excited about anything else, considering their setlist has basically been the same since 2001. still, whatever they do, I'm on board. and yes it's criminal that their back catalogue hasn't gotten reissued yet, they're like the only high-profile 90s electronica albums you can't find on vinyl now

I thought it was interesting to see in an interview with both of them (not sure how recent exactly, maybe very but within the last ten years I guess) Paul just flatly said he was the composer of the Orbital stuff. I think the writing credits have always been mostly or entirely for both of them and it seems like at some point he's felt entitled to claim that. Fair enough.

I figured that was the case given how Orbital-esque Paul's solo albums are. Phil's only non-Orbital thing is a duo called Long Range which sounds like something totally different (and it's not very good for that matter). I had assumed that was where a lot of the tension was coming from.

When they are together in interviews, i'm not sure which one, but one of them looks like he's taken too much speed and has a tenuous grip on reality. They seem to not be on the same page. I don't think they're viable as a duo capable of creating interesting music anymore.

That's Phil. They haven't really been creating as a full duo since Blue in 2004 - Phil only co-wrote one track on Wonky, and worked on half of Monsters Exist. I get the impression (from the multiple breakups, their interviews, and the credits) that Paul brings Phil in just about as much as he can stand, for the more banging or squelchy techno stuff, and that their relationship as brothers is better for it. (Also, based on their output afterward, probably that the first breakup was prompted by an imbalance in writing contributions despite a shared credit and publishing.)

And Phil is obv essential to the live energy and improv.

At this point they should just start focusing on any live recordings they have sitting around

TBF they're not really taxing your patience with two new albums in 17 years, and they've released four triple live albums, a quadruple live compilation, and a best-of with some live tracks on it, in that time :)

Paul did perhaps waste an opportunity by putting all that old live stuff on youtube instead of Bandcamp last year, but probably wasn't expecting to still be indoors ten months after he started...


considering their setlist has basically been the same since 2001

Those 2017/18 live albums look to have been hits-heavy specifically because they were getting recorded - otherwise their non-festival setlists in recent years are mostly new stuff with four '90s classics spaced out to keep the old farts' attention.

ha ha xp, I typed that and then relistened to Monsters Exist and a live session to confirm my confidence

xp thanks, i need to investigate their live releases. I didn't realize they had so many.

The fan-made six-hour career-spanning live box set is also very worthy of investigation

(discussed in the other Orbital Classic Or Dud thread two years ago)

OK, Orbital have never done very much for me but I'm about 40 minutes into this live set ^^^ and I'm liking it a lot more than any of their albums. Thanks for that link!

🎧. 🎶 👍🏻

thank u sic for that link. working on this presentation is going to be a lot more merciful.

The Gun Is Good is imo the last great classic Orbital track they put out.

thanks, i need to investigate their live releases. I didn't realize they had so many.

I just remembered that one of the two new albums also had a full live album as a bonus disc!