Orbital
Product ID: 177155612
Product description Orbital - S/T - Cd .co.uk In the late 1980s, as American house and techno imports flooded Britain and the Acid House movement was sweeping the nation, brothers Paul and Phil Hartnoll were busy building Britain's own interpretation of the sound. Named for the illegal "Orbital" raves taking place around the M25, they dragged their equipment from party to party, playing live PAs of their homegrown dance music to enthusiastic crowds of revellers. Their 1990 single "Chime" was (and still is) the anthem of many a British raver, and their self-titled 1991 debut remains a classic. Opening with the exquisite mid-tempo anthem "Belfast", and containing the "Chime", "Satan", and "Fahrenheit 303" singles, this album captures the innocence and energy of the nascent rave scene. --Matthew Corwine Review When Orbital’s self-titled debut (usually called ‘the Green album’ to differentiate it from its similarly eponymous follow-up, ‘the Brown album’) emerged in 1991, the rave music that had fuelled 1988 and 1989’s Summers of Love was starting to have mass appeal. Viewed in retrospect the early-90s were a golden age for electronic music, before the twin assaults of the government’s legislation against ‘repetitive beats’ in the 1994 Criminal Justice Bill and, with the death of the large-scale free party scene, the conformity of the superclub era.    Orbital’s debut single, Chime, was produced on a cassette player for the princely sum of £2.50, a remastered version making it to number 17 in the singles chart in 1990. Alongside Rhythim is Rhythim’s Strings of Life, Chime represents one of the most influential pieces of electronic dance music ever written. It appears in a live version on the Green album, underlining the Hartnoll brothers’ commitment to gigging at a time when most techno acts tended to stick in a DAT and goof around. The version here is as vital as the original single release, the sunlit stabs of its introductory passage shattering against that timeless, endorphin-firing descending metallic riff.Similarly striking, albeit more reflective, Belfast weaves a constantly phasing electronic squiggle – the aural equivalent of a sparkler writing in the air – and major-chord keys around a sublime choral sample from Hildegard von Bingen’s O Euchari. Soundtrack to the end of countless weekends, the track sits exquisitely poised between a joyous beauty and powerful melancholy. As it slows in tempo during its last two minutes you can feel yourself slipping off into a weightless drift.The Green album contains several stunning individual tracks – the aforementioned Chime and Belfast; the sleek machine that is Oolaa which, like so many Orbital productions to follow it, sounds like it has a core of pure crystal; the jaw-grinding rave dynamics of Speed Freak and The Moebius’ blocky trance – but it remains very much a collection of standalones rather than an album that benefits from being heard in a single sitting. Indeed, the tracks featured were recorded over several years, with no particular intention of being grouped together.Later Orbital albums would be much more coherent in theme – witness the anti-Criminal Justice Bill statements of Snivilisation or the environmentalist messages embedded in In-Sides – but for all its disparateness, the energy and creativity at play on the Green album make it irresistible. --Chris Power Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off in a new window
A**R
Three Stars
OK
L**T
Five Stars
Perfect wind down
D**
👍
👍
T**T
Five Stars
Good
M**S
Classic techno that beggars belief
There must be a track for just about every kind of music lover on this album. I discovered it when I was 14, a bit young to attend the Orbital raves but I have not stopped listening to it since. The "green" album begins with an understated sparse, hypnotic track (The Moebius) which invites Kraftwerk-style contemplation of machines and men, followed by "Speed Freak", which clicks and clatters away in an 80's funk style before opening into "Oolaa" - has anybody noticed that sample from War of The Worlds? Slightly menacing, bleeping its way into a Desert Storm which is a dubbed-out, wavering whirlwind of bleary synth sounds and piano stabs. Fahrenheit 303 starts life as a patter of percussion before metamorphosizing into a jazzy, funk-oriented monster of warm bass and trancey keyboards. After that, it's all metallic clonking, clanking and early gurgly 303 noises in Steel Cube Idolatry, in fact it sounds like the Hartnoll brothers were playing drums on the Eiffel Tower - a precursor for "Are We Here" which would be yet another epic four years later. High Rise comes next, perhaps this is the only track on the album that could be said to have aged. A bouncy drum and bass pattern oscillates between hip hop and funk, followed by an ascension of bleeps which twist and turn before reaching what is, for me, the highlight of the 90's and all electronic music since then - the spiritual sounding introduction to Chime which would become their signature tune. Not surprising as this live version is truly fantastic. I love the piano break in the middle before the original tune kicks back in, the two patterns overlapping like lay lines. Brilliant! Chime bleeds clicking and clanking into Midnight which is a very strong track, one for the nighttime - try it in the car. And to smear the listener with a final, heavy dose of full-fat cream, without trying to sound overtly sexual, the final anthem, Belfast, is quite simply a beautiful ending to a fantastic, ground-breaking album - all the way back from 1991!This album will never die, and although I will, I'm taking this with me because Chime is my clock and I will never tire of its ticking. A must have.
O**L
One of the better ones....
Of the few techno full lengths to emerge from the mid-life of the british scene, this is easily one of the best. None of the LPs released in that era are very stylistically coherent, and this is no exception, so on first listen it sounds rather patchy. However, taken track by track it shows off brilliantly Orbital's early mastery of their machines.It does have some flop tracks - but it has more great ones. Anyone who's ever listened to British techno has heard Orbital work their synth magic on 'Chime', but the slight ambient/symphonic streak present in tracks like 'Midnight (Live)', 'Belfast' and 'Desert Storm' is what marks Orbital out as both pioneers and masters of the early alternative/ambient techno sound.(As a side note, you may wish to buy this for 'Speed Freak'. Along with N-joi's 'Adrenalin', it is a strong contender for the ultimate in acid house/techno excess)
T**S
It started green and will end Blue....
Wow. what can I say . i've just heard that Orbital are about to release there 6th and final album. Its been a 15 year rollercoaster ride of sounds and emotion for me. The first time I heard this album was 1993 , croyde bay , devon. It was about 5 in the morning and some one had it on a tape player we had round a camp fire. To this day Belfast sends shivers down my spine. The brothers Hartnoll and never failed to move me with there music. Some of the best gigs Ive been at were orbital. If you are a fan of Orbital or just wandering what they sound like and fancy a cd to try then I think this is the one , its the first and in many ways the finest.
P**S
orbital - Yellow or Red (i've never quite decided)
What can I say about this album. If you've never heard of Orbital and you want to know what the're about buy this album.It's timeless in my eyes. I first bought this album back in 1991, the same year that the brothers released Belfast, A stunning track that never fails to impress me. I've seen Orbital twice now 1994 & 2002 and both ocassions they finished the gig with a medley of belfast and doctor who and every one in the place was just smiling with a gentle rocking motion (truly moving).this album is 15 years old and not aged a day
Trustpilot
2 months ago
2 weeks ago