Orbital - Classic or Dud?

listening to Thirty-Something now. not a bad way to spend 2.5+ hours but this band's constant focus on early material irks me. I think like 2/3rds of the running time is dedicated to the singles on the first 2 albums. outside of 3 minutes of "Where Is It Going?" all the new mixes are from the first 4 albums. they have plenty of quality material after that! oh well. the new single "Smiley" is pretty great at least.

Nothing important about their output / legacy occurred after 1996. They are right to focus on that material since everything after has been poor retreads of previous ideas. Orbital stand to only weaken their legacy by continuing to put out music. Also, that stache is awful and I'm pretty sure one of the brothers is a drug addicted asshole with minimal talent. At least he comes off that way in interviews.

^bad take

Wonky was great, and it was from 2012!

Wonky was great, and Middle of Nowhere and Blue Album even more so

"Tiny Foldable Cities" was a strong single from a few years ago. Rest of the album didn't quite live up to it though.

Will probably listen to 30 Something tonight. I like the concept and it was inevitable after two proper best-ofs already.

I liked Wonky and Blue Album. Some songs on those albums anyway. I still think there was nothing new or exceptional in comparison to what came before those two. But hey, if you have a different opinion, that's great. Billions of opinions in the world, and mine is one of them.

I could buy them being a legacy act after Middle of Nowhere, but that album is not merely great but important in the context of their career overall - “Spare Parts Express” and “Nothing Left” arguably form a pinnacle of certain aspects of their whole deal.

ya for me Middle of Nowhere is their most exciting album, those first 3 tracks especially, what a rush

Altogether & Blue both have their moments. I agree they were pretty out of ideas by then. But Wonky was a real return to form. it's true that it doesn't really add much to their sound but I think it captures most of what's good about them in a relatively short period of time

Monsters Exist is fairly spotty - it occurred to me recently that this was probably supposed to follow the modernized Orbital approach of Wonky but they switched directions halfway through. I think the bonus tracks are the remnants of what the album originally was gonna be.

It's cool that Diversions is on Spotify but wish all of their 90s EPs were up esp. Radiccio, The Box three-parter and the Satan Live triple set. Some of the new remixes are alright e.g. Lone's TGWTSIHH

it took me years to really appreciate Middle of Nowhere and realize it's closer to In Sides than Altogether and the last great album they put out. it's like something changed. plenty of good tracks in follow up albums, sure, but something was gone. Monsters i can't even bring myself to listen to, and i tried to the point where i just started hating it.

Thirty-Something is nice but i wish they really got into their old catalogue instead of just the same tracks they play live each time.

does anybody else have issues with the last track on second CD skipping? i contacted the distributor and they sent me a replacement CD and it's ("like a cry for survival!" - lol this is playing as i'm typing this) it's got the same issue. oh well, there are 3 more versions of Belfast!

I feel Middle of Nowhere was their last truly "great" album, but oddly enough the Don't Stop Me / The Gun Is Good single from 2010 is as good as anything they released in the early/mid 90's imho and it's crazy to me these two tracks dropped out of nowhere just sounding truly classic and nothing else they've dropped this century (weird to type that) comes close for me.

Maybe it's my deep deference to Zardoz, but The Gun Is Good would be in my top 10 of Orbital tracks... seriously.

Okay no - it's definitely the well placed Time Bandits sample too. Good lord that track slaps so much

New yesterday: a John Tejada mix of Orbital rarities on their youtube channel

This rarities mix of their old stuff is great.

xps to nashwan:

https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/orbital-tell-sde-of-archival-reissue-plans/

ty

new one coming.

is ANYONE excited? Out of my favorite 90s album-oriented electronic acts, Orbital has fallen off hardest.

I don't think they fell off that hard! Ok their last album wasn't too great but my personal theory there is they switched directions midstream and rushed things. Anyway looking at the tracklisting it appears to be kind of a Chemical Bros. type affair with guests on every track. dunno if that'll be a good thing or a bad thing but I've always liked the way they've used vocalists in the past. it doesn't look like anything from the BBC session above made it. I hope that stuff comes out in some form.

i'm into it but they've been releasing a slow trickle of new stuff for awhile now

monsters is the only orbital album i can’t bring myself to listen to, i hope it won’t be the case with the new one
but last time they had a bunch of guests we got Altogether, so..

first single is out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FM7XeaSO0M

Sounds like a Sleaford Mods track, with a dance beat.

I loved, and still love, Tiny Foldable Cities but don't remember the rest of that album that much

I'm liking Dirty Rat. Their new stuff from the 30 Something comp was all ardkore and acid nostalgic and this feels like a development from that. It's better than "Ibiza" as well.

Incongruent guest appearances? I wasn't thinking Chemical Brothers, I was thinking the hodgesplodgey Altogether and some of their collabs from that wider era.

imo the problem with Altogether wasn't the collabs it was mostly the other tracks

cough illuminate cough
but yeah, other tracks also

Hodgesplodgey to extend beyond the collab(s) and into their Doctor Who tribute, their Ian Dury tribute and...

...omg it fits the informal album thread a bit!

I like Illuminate! you know how Talking Heads wrote The Overload based on how they imagined Joy Division to sound like just based on the reviews? Illuminate sounds like that for Ed Sheeran. I think the dinky melody and the slurred vocals are funny. it has some killer remixes too.

i like the track, i just wish somebody else did the vocal
the vocalizations at the end make me cringe/laugh each time i listen to it

fiiiiree wooughhks in the bluuuugh

“Illuminate” is great and I also like Monsters Exist

“Illuminate” is great and I also like Monsters Exist

is ANYONE excited?

looooved the big chunk of new tracks in the BBC mix

I feel so strongly, I had to post it twice

I like the more melodic stuff on Monsters Exist - Tiny Foldable Cities, PHUK, Vision OnE, even Hoo Hoo Ha Ha. plus a bunch of the bonus tracks. the rest sounds like they were trying to make something darker and more soundtracky but didn't really have the time to finish it. I really think they changed directions midstream.

I'm enjoying this BBC mix. This lowkey trolling worked out well for me.

i wonder if those BBC mix tracks will be on the bonus CD, haven't seen the tracklist for it

the three new Hartnoll-written tracks from the mix are on it*, it's just the two you'd expect not to make it that were exclusive (bummer obv tho, they should be a double-A):

Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song) (feat. The Mediaeval Baebes)
Day One (feat. Dina Ipavic
Are You Alive? (feat. Penelope Isles)*
You Are The Frequency (feat. The Little Pest)*
The New Abnormal
Home (feat. Anna B Savage)*
Dirty Rat – With Sleaford Mods
Requiem For The Pre Apocalypse
What A Surprise (feat. The Little Pest)
Moon Princess (feat. Coppe)

Bonus tracks

The Crane (feat. Dina Ipavic)
Year Of The Bat
Lost In Time

yeah the Numbers remix and Spicy were both awesome. probably some licenscing issues with the latter though.

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

definitely sounds like classic Orbital

Heard a snippet of this today, banged my head like a mofo

sounds so much like classic orbital i thought it was a remix!

sounds great on first listen
and loving dirty rat way more than i thought i would

there is certain quality in last tracks like they finally stopped caring and it translates into great music

I’ve probably listened to parts of the BBC mix as much as any other piece of music this year

Even if the rest of the album, after that new material and the two singles, sucks, it’ll still be one of their best four

Ringa Ringa's excellent. Plays like a composite of great Brown and Snivilisation ideas.

promo just forwarded, digging in

okay "New Abnormal" is a solid fucking banger

so uh sounds like this'll be better than the last one

It's good IMO! "Requiem for the Pre Apocalypse" is also awesome.

great to hear, was so disappointed with monsters

ringa ringa has been stuck in my head for days, i want a 20 min version