Orbital (but not On+On+On)

For some reason I re-evaluate my opinion on certain artists every so often. I’m never sure why I do this. Is it to ensure my taste is what I think it is? Am I really so unsure of myself that I have to check to see if I really enjoy the music in my collection? Yet, I’m glad I do this, as I sometimes learn to appreciate the genius of artists I have previously dismissed.

One group I knew carried all the ingredients for great music, yet one I never warmed to, were Orbital. My brother was always a big fan; but somehow they left me cold. I disliked their music chiefly because of the track ‘Halcyon’. The reason I hated this track was because it samples of the abhorrent ‘Opus III’ track ‘It’s a fine day’. I found the original song intensely irritating and it doesn’t matter how you reverse, fade and otherwise manipulate the sound of the vocal, I will always dislike it. Ok, so I shouldn’t dismiss an artist because I didn’t like one of their biggest hits, but I hated (and still do) that track intensely.

Another reason I never liked Orbital much was because ‘Chime’ was always too slow and had been surpassed by the time I became fully aware of it in the early 90’s. The more electronic and experimental nature of Orbital’s back catalogue passed me by as I became obsessed with the frenetic dance music that was abundant in the 1990’s. The next time I became aware of Orbital was when ‘Style’ was doing the rounds in 1999. I hated it. Still do.

So what possessed me to buy ‘Work’ in 2002 I will never know. I liked a few tracks but not enough to listen to it more than a handful of times and certainly not enough to rip it to my hard drive. Their version of the theme to ‘The Saint’ and their remix of Kraftwerk’s ‘Expo 2000’ were good and made me realise there was a true ‘Orbital Sound’, yet it didn’t really make me want to listen to their work.

For some reason 2010 finds me quite obsessed with the music of Orbital. Some kind of early 90’s nostalgia has brought me back to ‘Belfast’, ‘Satan’, ‘Remind’, ‘Lush’, and ‘Choice’. More recent work such as ‘Funny Break’, ‘Illuminate’ and ‘Nothing Left’ are also mesmerising to me.

Having purchased their entire back catalogue, I still feel it is something of a mixed bag in terms of quality. They definitely have a tendency to be over indulgent and some tracks (‘Bath Time’, ‘Style’, ‘Halcyon’ etc) I find intensely irritating (I can’t warm to ‘The Box’ at all either I’m afraid). Yet when they get it right, well, Orbital are capable of hitting highs no other artist is capable of. Listen to tracks such as the live version of ‘Remind’ from their last ever Peel Session in 2004 and you will realise that Orbital were at one time, a groundbreaking and indispensable part of not only dance music, but electronic music in general. Make no mistake: they are important.