Orbital - Orbital 2
NME.COM feature on Orbital - Orbital 2 album including album review, artwork, tracks, listen now, tour dates, discography and more.
Album Review
Release date: 20 October 1998
Orbital : The Altogether
Torch-spectacled duo become Paul'n'Phil's Mobile Wedding DJ Service featuring David Gray. Run away
2001 is not a good time to be a balding dance boffin. Underworld have imploded, Fatboy Slim is down the dumper and the Prodigy are lost in Met Bar hell. Perhaps in an attempt to circumvent this trend, the shiny-pated Paul Hartnoll took the unprecendented step of growing his hair the last time Orbital had a new album to promote (1999's 'Middle Of Nowhere'). But it hasn't...
- Apr 25, 2001
Tracklisting click track to read more
- Time Becomes
- Planet Of The Shapes
- Lush 3-1
- Lush 3-2
- Impact (The Earth Is Burning)
- Remind
- Walk Now...
- Monday
- Halcyon And On And On
- Input Out
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Orbital News
Orbital announce plans to release their first material in six years
Dance duo line up double A-side single ahead of Glastonbury comeback
Orbital, Simian Mobile Disco, Tricky for Glade festival – ticket details
First wave of acts announced for Hampshire event
Orbital, Tindersticks and The Magic Numbers added to SOS 4.8 festival
Spanish festival already features Franz Ferdinand, The Horrors and Madness
Orbital - Orbital 2: Wikipedia Album Entry
Orbital 2 is the second album from the British electronica duo, Orbital. It is also known as the Brown Album to differentiate it from Orbital's 1991 eponymous debut. It was released in May 1993 and reached the #28 on the UK album charts.
On Orbital 2 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 monickered pieces entitled "Lush" but still proving themselves capable of making quality pop music on "Halcyon + On + On", with vocals from Kirsty Hawkshaw of Opus III.
The album begins with the same speech sample (by actor Michael Dorn in Star Trek: The Next Generation) which opened their first album.
The second song, "Planet of the shapes", contains a sample from the movie Withnail & I, saying "even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day".
The brothers enjoy aural puns, and the use of the sample from Star Trek: The Next Generation (which appeared on the opening of their first album) was meant to infuriate listeners by making them believe for a few seconds that they had bought a mispressing. The muffled intro on "Planet of the Shapes" has the intentional addition of record static and crackles, followed by the sound of a needle skipping grooves then scratching across the record, also meant to infuriate fans, who bought the vinyl edition, by making them think their copy was less than mint.
This album is featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die alongside their 1994 LP 'Snivilisation'. It (along with the In Sides album) was also included in Q magazines "90 Best albums of the 1990s"
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