| Orbital | ||||
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| Released | 24 May 1993 | |||
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| Length | 65:44 | |||
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| Producer | Orbital | |||
| Orbital chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Orbital | ||||
Orbital (also known as Orbital 2 or the Brown Album) is the second studio album by English electronic music duo Orbital, released on 24 May 1993 by Internal and FFRR Records. Like the duo's debut album, the album was officially untitled.
The album peaked at number 28 on the UK Albums Chart.
The album begins with "Time Becomes", which uses the same speech sample by the actor Michael Dorn in Star Trek: The Next Generation (Time squared - season 2 episode 13, Worf - 20'30 : "There is the theory of the Möbius. A twist in the fabric of space where time becomes a loop") which opened their first album. The piece uses phasing, a technique popularised by Steve Reich, in which two identical samples are repeated at slightly different speeds. The brothers enjoy aural puns, and the use of this sample again, as well as the muffled intro on "Planet of the Shapes" with intentional addition of record static and crackles, followed by the sound of a needle skipping grooves then scratching across the record, was meant to trick fans who bought the vinyl edition into thinking their copy was less than perfect.
The second song on the album, "Planet of the Shapes", contains a sample from the movie Withnail & I ("even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day").
The duo aimed to make more atmospheric music than the dance raves of their first album. They used more complex rhythms and denser arrangements on the appropriately named pieces entitled "Lush".
"Impact" samples a line from "a French film dubbed into English" with a "conspiracy, alien plot" that the band no longer remembers the name of. [2] [3] [4]
Meat Beat Manifesto were an influence on the album, after Orbital toured with the group in the United States ahead of recording it. [5] The breakbeat on "Impact" was provided by Jack Dangers [6] and "Remind" is an instrumental re-recording of Orbital's "Mind the Bend the Mind" remix of "Mindstream" by Meat Beat Manifesto, which removed all elements of "Mindstream" from the piece. [7] The remix and final work was inspired by the Fabio Paras remix of React 2 Rhythm's "I Know You Like It". [8]
"Walk Now..." samples the sound of a Sydney zebra crossing alert and a didgeridoo, which were both recorded after a trip to Australia to perform at an illegal rave named Welcome 92. [9]
"Halcyon + On + On" is a slightly shorter, more upbeat and melodic remix of their 1992 song "Halcyon". The title is inspired by a contemporary advertising slogan used by the Ariston washing machine company ("Ariston + on + on").
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  [10] |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music |  [11] |
| Entertainment Weekly | A [12] |
| NME | 9/10 [13] |
| Q | [14] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [15] |
| Select | [16] |
| Slant Magazine | [17] |
| The Village Voice | C+ [18] |
| Vox | 8/10 [19] |
The album received widespread acclaim. In the UK, NME praised the record, saying, "The techno album is a doughty brute to master. Only a few have managed it successfully [...] but Phil and Paul Hartnoll have done it twice... The expression 'intelligent ambience' is bandied around to describe spacey dance music with undue regularity, but Untitled actually satisfies the description. Scientific and terrific." [13] Q also recognised that the duo had made a second successful album, saying, "Like their first album, Orbital's current effort is a finely balanced combination of muso trickery and astute dance tracks... Again, like the latter, it benefits from repeated listening." [14] Select stated that "the marvel is that they create such vastness in your ear from micro-minimalist ingredients", and described the record as "infinitely inventive, unique in its conception and electronically sexy". [16]
Melody Maker claimed that "This new album (untitled, like the first) puts them firmly back in the firmament". In a reference to the most talked about band at the time of the album's release, Suede and their sexually ambiguous frontman Brett Anderson, and including a pun on "Anarchy in the U.K.", the debut single by the Sex Pistols, the review concluded, "As warm as plasma and as eerie as ectoplasm, Orbital's (out-of-)body-music is the true sound of Androgyny-in-the-UK." [20] Vox observed that "this collection sees Paul and Phil Hartnoll drifting still further into the heart of the machine, touching upon the sometimes fragile soul of Techno", before declaring that "Orbital are still leading the field". [19]
This album is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die alongside their 1994 LP Snivilisation . [21] Along with 1996's In Sides , it was also included in Q magazine's "90 Best Albums of the 1990s". [22] In 1996, Mixmag ranked the album at number nine in its list of the "50 Best Dance Albums of All Time". [23] In 1999, Ned Raggett ranked the album at number 21 on his list of "The Top 136 or So Albums of the Nineties". [24]
On cassette, "Planet of the Shapes" was re-titled "Planet of the Tapes" and placed as the first song on side two, before "Walk Now..." in the track listing; the track is identical.
The title "Planet of the Shapes" is also a reference to the 1968 film Planet of the Apes .
"Halcyon + On + On" and parts of "Lush 3-2" were used in the 1995 Mortal Kombat film soundtrack. The 1995 movie Hackers also used the track "Halcyon + On + On". The ending of the movie Mean Girls uses the song "Halcyon + On + On" in the final scene. The ending of the movie Teen Spirit also used the song "Halcyon + On + On".
The Chemical Brothers are an English electronic music duo formed by Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands in Manchester in 1992. They were pioneers in bringing the big beat genre to the forefront of pop culture.
Orbital are an English electronic music duo from Otford, Kent, England, consisting of brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll. The band's name is taken from Greater London's orbital motorway, the M25, which was central to the early rave scene during the early days of acid house. Additionally, the cover art on three of their albums showcase stylised atomic orbitals. Orbital have been critically and commercially successful, known particularly for their live improvisation during shows.
Utah Saints are an English electronic music duo consisting of members Jez Willis and Tim Garbutt. The band had three top-ten and another five top-40 singles on the UK Singles Chart in the 1990s, as well as number-one dance tracks in the UK and US. They were notable for pioneering use of sampling technology, in particular, their practice of manipulating samples from mainstream pop, rock, R&B and soul songs and combining them with contrasting dance beats, using the samples in a new context. The band wrote, produced and mixed all of their own music. The duo were joined on stage by additional musicians when they played live from 1991 to 2001. They were one of the first electronic groups to play as a live collective and supported both the Shamen and U2 live at 10 stadium shows. Since then the duo have performed live sets themselves.
Exit Planet Dust is the debut studio album by English electronic music duo the Chemical Brothers. It was first released on 26 June 1995 in the United Kingdom by Junior Boy's Own, Freestyle Dust, and Virgin Records, and on 15 August 1995 in the United States by Astralwerks. The album was recorded between August and November 1994, with "Song to the Siren" performed live. Its title is a reference to their departure from their earlier name the Dust Brothers.
Meat Beat Manifesto, often shortened as Meat Beat, Manifesto or MBM, is an electronic music group originally consisting of Jack Dangers and Jonny Stephens that was formed in 1987 in Swindon, United Kingdom. The band, fronted by Dangers, has proven versatile over the years, experimenting with techno, breakbeat, industrial, dub and jazz fusion while touring the world and influencing major acts such as Nine Inch Nails, the Chemical Brothers and the Prodigy. Some of the band's earlier work has been credited with influencing the rise of the trip hop, big beat, and drum and bass genres.
Satyricon is the fourth studio album by British electronic music group Meat Beat Manifesto.
"Right in the Night (Fall in Love with Music)" is a song by German electronic music duo Jam & Spoon, released by JAM! and Dance Pool as the second single from the duo's second album, Tripomatic Fairytales 2001 (1993). It is a Eurodance song with elements from progressive and vocal trance. It is based on "Leyenda" by the classical composer Isaac Albéniz and features vocals by American vocalist Plavka, with lyrics by Nosie Katzmann. The flamenco-styled riff in the song is played by duo member Jam El Mar, who was trained as a classical guitarist.
"Halcyon" is a song written and performed by Orbital, dedicated to Phil and Paul Hartnoll's mother, who was addicted to the tranquilliser Halcion (Triazolam) for many years. It was released as Radiccio EP in the UK and Japan, and as Halcyon EP in the US.
Orbital is the debut studio album by English electronic music duo Orbital, released on 30 September 1991 by FFRR Records. Orbital self-titled their first two albums so the "Green Album" is an unofficial name to distinguish it from the second album. The Mutations EP refers to the album as L.P. C.D. M.C., thus titling the album after the "LP" / "CD" / "MC" on the front cover of the respective format.
In Sides is the fourth album by British electronic group Orbital, released in the UK on Internal on 29 April 1996.
The Middle of Nowhere is the fifth album released by Orbital. It was released in 1999, where it peaked at #4 and spent 7 weeks in the UK albums chart.
The Altogether is Orbital's sixth studio album and was released in 2001. It features guest vocals by the Hartnolls' brother-in-law David Gray, a sampled Ian Dury, a sample from "Sober" by Tool and a version of the Doctor Who theme. It was Orbital's last studio album for FFRR and received a mixed critical reception.
"The Box" is a single by the British electronica duo Orbital. Taken from their 1996 album In Sides, the single was released in 1996 and reached number 11 on the UK Singles Chart.
This is the discography for Meat Beat Manifesto.
"Chime" is the debut single from the British electronic group Orbital. It was originally recorded on cassette tape and allegedly cost less than £1 to produce. The track was originally released in December 1989 and was a big underground success. In 1990, it had a wider release on FFRR Records, and reached number 17 on the UK Singles Chart.
Peel Session is an EP by Orbital. It is the commercial release of a session first broadcast on the John Peel show on BBC Radio 1 on 10 September 1993.
III is an EP released by the techno duo Orbital. The title has a double meaning, referring to it being their third single release, and having three tracks. Two of the group's best known tracks, "Satan" and "Belfast", made their first appearances on the EP. "Belfast" was first discovered by David Holmes and Ian McCready when they booked Orbital to play their "Space Base 4" night at the Art College in Belfast on 12 May 1990. Orbital left a demo tape which included the track that was subsequently named "Belfast" in recognition of the positive experience they'd had in the city.
The discography of the electronic dance music duo Orbital consists of ten studio albums, three original score albums, three live/session albums, six compilation albums, two DJ-mix albums, four extended plays, and eighteen singles.
Wonky is the eighth studio album by Orbital, released on their own ACP label in the UK on 2 April 2012, and exclusively through iTunes in the United States and Canada on 17 April 2012. The album is their first since the Blue Album in 2004 and the first since they reformed in 2008. It features vocals from Zola Jesus and Lady Leshurr.
Austin Collins, better known as Au5, is an American electronic musician from New Jersey. Au5's music encompasses a range of electronic genres such as dubstep, house, trance, drum and bass, drumstep and ambient, and he is known for fusing the characteristics of trance and dubstep in his music. Au5 is best known for his releases on Canadian label Monstercat, some of which have received millions of views on YouTube.
Arguably it was Orbital, and this album in particular, that cemented the idea of a dance long-player as a cohesive artistic statement...
