Heard it a couple of times, but seriously dude it can only suffer HORRIBLY in comparison to Out There Somewhere. Like, we’re talking ‘a pleasant song’ vs. ‘one of the greatest pieces of music ever written’. Even if you escape the comparison it’s only ‘kinda good’. But fair enough, maybe I need to hear it more!

one of my 5 least favourite Orbital tracks ever I’m afraid (along with Bath Time, Style, Easy Serv and Tootled).

It tries hard to end their career on a high and doesn’t quite manage. I keep meaning to pick up the single cos What Happens Next was the b-side and that rocks.

“One Perfect Sunrise” is totally gorgeous, wtf.

The spurious “Out There Somewhere” comparison is baffling because I don’t think there’s any implication here that this is meant to be considered the best Orbital track of all time. If we’re gonna go that route, then I think “Meltdown” kicks this track firmly in the ass and that should have been their career-ending kiss-off, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t like “OPS”.

I like it so much due to Long Way Round

I hated OPF for ages until I heard it walking along the river about a week before Glasto 2004 and it suddenly clicked. If you accept it’s supposed to be a big girly overly sentimental trancey goodbye then it’s great. It’s the breakdown I like.

(If it suffers in comparison to anything its Belfast or Halcyon both of which are infinitely superior)

and i don’t know much orbital besides halycon and this so i must be missing something. recommend me some tracks.

Chime

Belfast

Impact USA

Forever

Are We Here?

The Girl With The Sun In Her Head

Out There Somewhere (Pts 1 and 2)

Satan (Industry Standard)

Way Out

Spare Parts Express

You Lot

Should do you nicely.

Glib recommendation: Get all of their albums.

Serious recommendation: The four albums Orbital 2 (Brown Album), Snivilization, In Sides and The Middle of Nowhere are completely impeccable. All of the others have flashes of extreme brilliance mixed in with things that, in and of themselves, are fine but don’t fully gel. Selected tracks from those albums that I would encourage you to check out:

“Lush”

“Remind”

“Impact”

“Forever”

“Sad But True”

“Are We Here?”

“The Girl With The Sun In Her Head”

“The Box”

“Out There Somewhere”

“Way Out”

“Spare Parts Express”

“Nothing Left”

(lol xpost)

Dan, I was simply thinking of Orbital’s lengthy closing show-stoppers, and my mind was naturally drawn to compare what I regard as their best (and one of the great closing show-stoppers in music history) (I mean, amongst the pantheon of Mozart, Bach, Davis, and GY!BE), and this one, which doesn’t IMO work nearly as well, lacking the intricacy and the indelible pattern the final four or so minutes of OTS burn into your brain.

...but as Matt DC says, I’d probably need to hear it more than twice before it starts to make sense.

‘Out There Somewhere’ is a great piece of work but i never ever want to listen to it (see also a lot of BOC stuff i find too gloomy/haunting)

whereas i often get an urge to hear everything else on ‘In Sides’. it is odd i know.

LOL we’ve had the “you are mental for finding that song gloomy” conversation before, right?

not so much ‘gloomy’ but sinister and ‘dark’ yes. it is about abduction and uncertainty after all. but then so are a lot of tracks i do like listening to, probably.

The first part is sinister and dark, the second part is joyous and uplifting.

and the last 4:50 are the greatest 4:50 in music history (basically, right?), both uplifting and emotionally overwhelming, evoking thoughts of both beauty, mortality, the infinite, and one’s own desperate insignificance within it, joy and sadness in the most poignantly balanced equation music has ever set the human ear to solve.

you know what I mean?

that’s your interpretation but i’m not convinced as you know. i can’t remember exactly what the Hartnolls said about the piece but it was something like ‘part 1 is the suspense and 2 the realisation that things have gone wrong/not as expected’ rather than ‘rescue/resolution’ theme (which i think ‘Meltdown’ does have, making it more satisfying, and i stress this, in A way).

i think Orbital convey joy/uplifting without melancholy or a particularly sinister edge on these tracks: Are We Here (single edit, not the album version which obv. has that extended dark sequence), Way Out (a bit ‘spooky’ perhaps but only in a carnival sense), Frenetic, One Perfect Sunrise...the latter being the only one i dislike (because it reminds me of a cross betwee Dreadzone’s ‘Little Britain’ and that Charlotte Church ‘opera trance’ song mainly). there might be one or two more.

Nothing Left 2 perhaps

*the second ‘both’ is erroneous and unnecessary, pretend it isn’t there.

i think Orbital convey joy/uplifting without melancholy or a particularly sinister edge on these tracks

Dude, CHIME!

Matt speaks truth

Can we get Louis laid for Christmas? Guys? Whipround?

“now that’s what i call quality seconds” etc.

For a second I thought “whipround” meant something completely different (and terrifying).

I wouldn’t want you getting me laid, Dan...