Orbital - Classic or Dud?

I've only got a clutch of Orbital songs that a mate burned for me way back - keep meaning to rectify this but haven't got round to it.

Get the following albums IMMEDIATELY:

Orbital 2 (Brown Album)
Snivilization
In Sides
The Middle Of Nowhere

Those four are essential listening; the others all rank from very good to great but these four are just completely unimpeachable.

^ OTM!

Yep. Well except for the others all rank from very good to great... The Altogether?

I've always maintained that The Altogether is a very good album. Listening to it again over the weekend reaffirmed that belief.

Having said that, it's probably their most-skippable.

tbh if you're gonna get two then In Sides and Middle Of Nowhere are absolutely absolutely essential. and if it's one SONG then "out there somewhere (pt.2)" is yer poison.

I can't say it better than Dan just did.

middle of nowhere sucked

rong

it was pretty clear from the saint theme single and most of In Sides they had their waterskis on and were ready to go but I held out hope and then WHOOSH right up the ramp and through the air

middle of nowhere is fucking brilliant dude

Ha! I skipped the Altogether apparently. Didn't even realize it existed until now. I guess Middle of Nowhere really did make me lose interest until the last album!

Just bought In Sides off iTunes.

Middle of Nowhere didn't outright suck, though, I just found it mediocre. Too mediocre for them.

Wise move, chap. Now don't forget Orbital 2 (the Brown album).

The Brown Album is great, though a lot of my love for it is down to, you know, memories of happy times. I'm thinking in particular of that concert in The Point where I was entertaining a cousin I barely knew who couldn't understand why everyone was so friendly. Great days, Gay, great days.

Most of the albums are very, very good as everyone's saying. This would also be a great starting point (for the total Orbital newcomer, at least) as it contains a bunch of good album tracks and more. Just avoid the Kirk Hammett collaboration, which i think is track 4 or 5:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AXANMS8QL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

The first four-five tracks on The Middle of Nowhere are fucking amazing.

Still, Snivilization is better.

And then In Sides is better still

^^^^exactly

The first four-five tracks on The Middle of Nowhere

this is, like, most of the album, and even then "nothing left" is good IMO and i chill with "style"

tru "in sides" is boss tho

I love "Style" but I'm not forcing that on anyone.

I think "Nothing Left" is pretty overrated, esp. when compared to the 1-2-3 KO of the first 3 tracks.

yeah but you're comparing it with flat-out brilliance

the main synth-line of "Know Where to Run", especially the bend and stutter at 5:35... oh man.

actually I marginally prefer "i don't know you people" to "know where to run" and "otono" is wonderful too, it's more like a 1-2-3-4-5 KO

Sometimes "Otono" is my favorite song on the album.

'nothing left' is one of their best ever tracks. and it's two tracks. and the opening track is golden. i used to think it wasn't that hot... but it is.

I'm not gonna fight you on that. "Nothing Left" isn't bad, it's just that I adore the first three songs on that album so much it's a little frightening.

Well I just listened to the whole album from tracks 3-8 (first two extremely familar/no need) and I didn't notice a dip in enjoyment during the last three. If anything, the vocal sample in Style and subsequent drum build actually enhanced my pleasure.

Although when I now listen to "Way Out ->" I'll probably recant. ;)

I've always thought that "Know Where To Run" would do serious damage at, like, a proper rave. The synth hooks in that are quite amazing. Middle Of Nowhere was an album I was massively into right around the time I first tried pills and that track and second half of "Nothing Left" just seemed like extended love songs to drugs. I almost wonder if this album was kinda the Hartnolls playing on the twin meanings of "psychedelic" in dance music - in a much more deliberate and grandiose manner than they had before bar "Impact (The Earth Is Burning)".

"I Don't Know You People" is the weak track if only because the specific sounds seem too tied up with big beat - and the implied allusions to funkiness undercut the ostensible menace.

Whereas "Style" (which I adore) is ostensibly about levity but in fact is melancholy and sublime.

is the weak track if only because the specific sounds seem too tied up with big beat -

does not compute...

yea 'nothing left' to me is an almostly terrifyingly bleak (lol ACHINGLY BEAUTIFUL amirite) track, don't find it easy to listen to. getting into challops mode, though the first track and last (two) track(s) of 'in sides' are my prog-techno jam for all time, maybe MON is... their... best album!

though the first track and last (two) track(s) of 'in sides' are my prog-techno jam for all time, maybe MON is... their... best album!

this is terrifyingly close to being in complete accord with my own views

was there ever an original version of "speed freak" available?

"does not compute..."

It's not that big beat is bad, I just think they can't make those sounds fit the vibe they're going for. When big beat did menace it was through a certain blunt heaviness, and 1999 model Orbital were a bit too prissy to go there - which is why all the other menacing tracks on Middle of Nowhere are basically Detroit Techno X Sasha.

(the Sasha reference is not meant to be a diss - listen to the Xpander EP he released only a few months later! Between that and Hybrid I spent 1999 thinking prog-trance was about to become an extended Orbital homage - it was not to be, of course...)

I guess it's kind of funny, I loooove Orbital, but only have the brown album (the 2cd version with the live set on the other disk). That one thread about not buying other albums by bands you like becuase it would ruin the mystique or whatever springs to mind. I'd probably do well to get In sides and snivilization, but I'll leave it at that.

but that kind of superstition is crazy-insane madness and any rational adult should realise this

actually he's just being sensibly frugal

brown album + snivilization is all you really need

uh NO

In Sides is one of my favorite albums of all time

wow i agree with El Tomboto. Something about In Sides just killed it for me. I think I was just over Orbital by the time it came out. I remember not even being all that excited about it. I eventually bought Middle of Nowhere, but never got into it at all. I couldn't think of one song from it. Snivilization was always my favorite.

I'm reading this thread realizing that out of all of the groups I've ever been a really devoted fan of, Orbital was dropped abruptly and haven't had a single urge to listen to anything by them since. Maybe it's finally time to revisit them.

OH GOD WHY HAVE I GOT NO ORBITAL ON MY WORK COMPUTER

you motherfuckers

But yeah, Snivilisation>In Sides>>Brown>MoN>>>Green>>>Blue>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Altogether

Or In Sides>>Brown>>Snivilisation>>Green>>MoM>>Blue>>Altogether

brown is best

Brown is the best starting point, very possibly, either that or InSides depending which angle you're coming from. Brown for dancefloor/big field orientated techno, InSides for pretty living room listening.

I still think Brown, especially the four or five tracks that work as a continuous mix, is the best and possibly earliest manifestation of how to do a techno album without going down the dreaded 'album dance' route.

I'm talking in mainstream album-buying circles here, at least.

InSides for pretty INCREDIBLE MAJESTIC 'OMG IT'S THE RAPTURE AND I'M FLOATING UP TO HEAVEN' living room listening

^ add italics, quote attribution