2017 THREAD Orbital are back! Whatever happens will happen again! - Page 7

crank · #61 12-27-2018, 12:23 PM

interesting. I tried listening to it when it first came out and got bored after the third track. I'll have to go revise.

iamneorev · #62 12-27-2018, 01:10 PM

I absolutely love Wonky and Monsters Exist. I got into Orbital when Snivilisation was released. Snivilisation and In Sides are both amazing. Middle Of Nowhere, The Altogether, and Blue Album were alright, but not as good. Wonky, Monsters Exist, Snivilisation, In Sides are my goto. Got to see them in Brooklyn earlier in the month. First time seeing them live and it was awesome! I highly suggest everyone to check them out live. Very powerful.

iamneorev · #63 12-27-2018, 01:12 PM

holden · #64 12-27-2018, 06:31 PM

Just because lists are fun to debate...

1. In Sides
2. Orbital 2 (Brown Album)
3. Snivilisation
4. Monsters Exist
5. The Middle of Nowhere
6. Wonky
7. The Altogether
8. Blue Album
9. Orbital (Green Album)

Why the debut so low? Just a collection of singles that hasn't aged well (maybe hence their interest in some rerecording? Granted, Chime and Belfast are lovely classics). US and UK editions considered. Blue is fine, but nothing particularly memorable. Admitedly, an EP stretched to album length. To be honest, 4-7 could jostle for position, and I might be recollecting B sides in this assessment, many of which I like more than album cuts.

Top 3 are pretty unshakable. Just glorious 90's concept techno.

iamneorev · #65 12-28-2018, 02:44 PM

Hmmm... gotta think about this one...

01 Wonky
02 Snivilisation
03 In Sides
04 Monsters Exist
05 Blue Album
06 Orbital 2 (Brown Album)
07 The Middle Of Nowhere
08 The Altogether
09 Orbital (Green Album)

Top 4 are solid from front to back, absolutely love them all equally. The rest have their strengths and weaknesses. I do agree their debut sounds quite dated.

holden · #66 12-29-2018, 03:47 PM

Interesting that you rate Wonky #1. It's solid, and as soon as the beats and analog fuzz lead kicked in at the start of "One Big Moment", my thought was "Yes! This is Orbital...much better than Blue". But is it best? To each their own, sir!

Orbital are tough cookies to crack. They have plenty of anthemic classics, but also a lot of noodly "fillers". Maybe every band does, just a matter of how much you appreciate them. Having discovered Orbital relatively late (bought Work in 2002), their early albums might carry more import as being "classics". Once I got to The Altogether, it did seem a mess on early listening, but really, it's no less varied than anything before. I'm fine with their latter day output, but really only Monsters Exist has struck me as consistent and forward-looking.

But hey, they're back, seemingly set on more output, and I really can't consider any of their albums as being bad. All have plenty of "quality seconds"!

purlieu · #67 02-07-2019, 08:38 AM

Snivilisation
In Sides
Brown
Green
Monsters Exist
The Altogether
Wonky
The Middle of Nowhere
Blue

The first four are classics, and cemented my love for the band. Snivilisation took me a long time to really 'get', but once it sunk in I absolutely loved it.

I hated The Altogether for the longest time, but a few years ago it suddenly clicked. I think it's often criticised for being so different to their earlier stuff, but I think it was totally essential: I enjoy The Middle of Nowhere, but it was clear they were working to a formula there: The Altogether strikes me as a really daring album in hindsight. It makes a huge break from the acid house, techno and breaks that led their '90s work and pushes their electro influences forward. It's such a startlingly different sound palette that it immediately feels un-Orbital - especially as they really bring the poppy side of electro forward, shortening the run time and throwing in a traditional 'song' on an album for the first time. I don't think it's an entirely successful experiment - the second half is a bit underwhelming, and 'Meltdown' is totally out of place - but I admire it for its bravery.

Blue is pretty mediocre. 'Transient' is a beautiful opener, and the following four tracks are decent, although closer to b-side quality than your average Orbital album track. The last four tracks are a career low point for me.

Wonky has some wonderful stuff on it, a couple of real classics ('One Big Moment' and 'New France' are among my all-time Orbital favourites), but a few too many concessions to modern EDM to feel consistently excellent for my liking.

Monsters Exist... oh, I dunno, I feel like there's a better album in there, with a bit of a shuffle around, and a couple of longer tracks. Paul reckons people don't have the attention span to listen to long records these days, and yet the one consistent criticism of the last four albums has been that the songs are too short! Daft bastard. Buried Deep Within ends just as it gets going, which disappoints me every time I listen. The End is Nigh sounds like The Chainsmokers. And Brian Cox can fuck off. Transport a couple of tracks from the bonus disc over to replace them (I'd say Kaiju, To Dream Again and the Coxless closing track) and you've got an album that's genuinely the equal of their first four. As it is, the 3CD HMV deluxe version is still excellent value and a bloody great album, it's just a shame about those little niggles that stop it being the album it should be.

The 30th anniversary thing is exciting. Ten old tracks reworked in their current live style, ten tracks remixed... I'm wonder if we'll have a DVD to accompany it? Only they've done far more than ten to make it up to 30, hah. Still, even though a few of these are little more than patterns to watch on YouTube, this would still be a good watch:

Belfast
Speedfreak (Moby Mutation)
Halcyon
Lush
Are We Here?
Belfast/Wasted
The Box
Satan
The Saint (Version 1)
The Saint (Version 2)
Style
Much Ado About Nothing Left
Funny Break
Illuminate
One Perfect Sunrise
The Gun is Good
Never
Straight Sun
New France
Wonky
Christmas Chime
Kinetic 2017
Copenhagen
Tiny Foldable Cities
P.H.U.K.
The End is Nigh

stimpee · #68 02-13-2019, 09:31 AM

My tracklisting:

The Raid
Tiny Foldable Cities (Kareful Remix)
A Long Way From Home
There Will Come A Time (Instrumental)
Dressing Up In Other People's Clothes
Analogue Test Oct 16
Tiny Foldable Cities
Vision One
Fun With The System
Copenhagen
Hoo Hoo Ha Ha (Beat-Herder mix)
Buried Deep Within
P.H.U.K.
To Dream Again
Kaiju

Found a way to listen to Hoo Hoo Ha Ha, and that was to remove the farty trumpets completely. Brian Cox is also muted. The track "Monsters Exist" just has a high pitched vocal and loses momentum after a cool intro. The Raid is a nice slow way to get into the album, and i've kind of ordered by BPM.

Quote:

Originally Posted by purlieu

Monsters Exist... oh, I dunno, I feel like there's a better album in there, with a bit of a shuffle around, and a couple of longer tracks. Paul reckons people don't have the attention span to listen to long records these days, and yet the one consistent criticism of the last four albums has been that the songs are too short! Daft bastard. Buried Deep Within ends just as it gets going, which disappoints me every time I listen. The End is Nigh sounds like The Chainsmokers. And Brian Cox can fuck off. Transport a couple of tracks from the bonus disc over to replace them (I'd say Kaiju, To Dream Again and the Coxless closing track) and you've got an album that's genuinely the equal of their first four. As it is, the 3CD HMV deluxe version is still excellent value and a bloody great album, it's just a shame about those little niggles that stop it being the album it should be.

holden · #69 02-13-2019, 07:09 PM

I like your setlist, Stimpee!

I'm okay with the original "Hoo Hoo Haa Haa", as the horns don't bother me, and it's a fun track. But I definitely would add in several of the bonus disc tracks, maybe swapping out some of the latter album tracks.

Still, it's awesome that Orbital are again producing and at a pretty high level. As I wrote above, "Monsters Exist" is one of the stronger records in their discography for me.

iamneorev · #70 02-13-2019, 08:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by holden

I like your setlist, Stimpee!

I'm okay with the original "Hoo Hoo Haa Haa", as the horns don't bother me, and it's a fun track. But I definitely would add in several of the bonus disc tracks, maybe swapping out some of the latter album tracks.

Still, it's awesome that Orbital are again producing and at a pretty high level. As I wrote above, "Monsters Exist" is one of the stronger records in their discography for me.

I agree with ya. Monsters Exist, Wonky, In Sides, and Snivilisation are my favorite Orbital albums from front to back. I can throw those on any day and enjoy them from start to finish.