This might be a short lived poll - dunno how many Orbital fans we have here.

Ah, nice to see a thread dedicated to my favourite band of all time!

In Sides is not only my favourite Orbital album, but also my favourite album full-stop!

I had seen Orbital on TV performing at the 1994 Glastonbury (a now legendary set), and live on MTV, playing mostly material from Brown and Snivilisation, and remember watching my VHS recordings many times and being totally intrigued and amazed at the performance, light-show, and most of all the incredible music. So, when In Sides came out in early 1996, I bought it and was completely blown away.

For me, it's the ultimate electronic music album. Based around a loose concept of environmental awareness - every track is epic and moving and totally original. I can't name anything that sounds like In Sides, including Orbital's other work. At 26 minutes, tracks like Out There Somewhere are what Mozart would write if he was around today, but supplied with technology from a thousand years hence, and scoring the greatest science fiction movie of all time.
There are moments of intimate, sinister calm (The Box), road-raging, adrenaline-fueled techno (P.E.T.R.O.L), and euphoric mind-altering bliss (The Girl With The Sun In Her Head), yet everything sits perfectly together on the album, creating an unparalleled journey into organic, futuristic sound.

[/gush]

i saw them at glastonbury last year, going only on my love of halcyon & on & on, and my not wanting to see muse, and they rocked arse! i really need to get some of their albums!

Got 'the gush', Jessop?! Steady on, sir - I know Orbital are great, but there's a limit!

'In Sides' for me too, without question, with 'Middle Of Nowhere' and 'Blue Album'
currently tied in second place. They have slowly but inexorably crept into the top
spot as my bestest band, ever, and look set to stay put for a good long while yet.

Gonna have to say Middle of Nowhere.
In Sides didn't cut it for me cos I dislike the last track. (The Saint) Good music but crap theme tune.

Well officially, The Saint is not the last track - that was tacked onto the rerelease in 1997 to tie in with the single. So, stop the CD after Out There Somewhere, and you have the perfect album!

Looks like it may be a landslide for In Sides - I've gone for it just over Brown & Blue.

But a word for the other albums, so far neglected - Brown is my second fave LP, what with the awesome middle suite of Lush, Impact and Remind, and one of Orbital's finest moments, Halcyon + on + on as a finale.

Snivilisation is my third favourite - Forever, Are We Here, Kein Trink Wasser - all some of Orbital's best work, and again, a strong theme throughout, with an excellent use of samples and breakbeats.

Green is fourth - classic dance tunes that really do stand the test of time. Chime is legendary, as is Belfast, but gems like Oolaa and High Rise keep the interest throughout - happy memories.

Middle of Nowhere next, possibly tied with Blue - but MoN's opener, Way Out will always give me goosebumps and flashbacks to my first live show in 99.

Blue features three of the best Orbital tracks ever - OPS, You Lot and Tunnel Vision, but overall lacks imgination enough to make it higher than the classics.

The Altogether is without doubt their worst album, and a general pile of poo. I hated the single, hate most of the tracks on there, and without the inclusion of Shadows, Doctor, Tension, and Meltdown, would be entirely worthless. Sorry!

Insides is one of my favs of all time...I love the girl with the sun in her hair....could listen to it over and over again...and often do!

Px

Same here - for some reason it took me seven years to get round to seeing 'em.

Ok - new task - fave tracks on each album.

Green - Chime, Belfast

Brown - Lush, Impact, Halcyon + on + on

Snivilisation - Are We Here?, Forever

In Sides - The Girl With The Sun In Her Head, The Box, Out There Somewhere

Middle Of Nowhere - Way Out, Spare Parts Express, Nothing Left

The Altogether - Tension, Last Thing

Blue - Transient, You Lot, Acid Pants, One Perfect Sunrise

I feel I should also mention the Satan CD singles - if you bought all three of them you have a nifty little live mini album, so to speak.

And Orbital had to be experienced live - managed to see them about half a dozen times, the most memorable being at Somerset House, and their last 'proper' gig (not festivals) in Brixton.

Indeed, all of Orbital's singles/EPs are brilliant. The Box, with it's 4-part suite is incredible - parts 3 and 4 are even better than the album versions, and that's saying something.

The live versions on the Satan CDs are superb - they gave me a real sense of the intensity of a live show, before I'd seen them, and I still blast out those tracks today.

The Radiccio EP is excellent - Halcyon, Naked and the Dead, and Sunday. Quite how the last two didn't make the Brown album goes to show the quality of the material!

The Satan EP (original release, not 1996 live CDs) features the first version of Satan, brilliant alien-abduction track LC1, and the classic Belfast.

A personal favourite of mine is the Times Fly EP, which has two versions of Times Fly, and The Tranquiliser.



I only saw them three times, but each time was special. 99 was the first gig at Cambridge (supported by Plaid, no less), 2002 at Somerset House is probably my favourite, which a really good set of Orbital classics, then Brixton last year - poor sound, but a great experience.

Okay - favourite tracks (I've put most of these down already, but anyway)

Green: High Rise, Steel Cube Idolatry, Belfast

Brown: Impact, Remind, Halcyon

Sniv: Forever, Are We Here?, Kein Trink Wasser

In Sides: TGWTSIHH, Out There Somewhere, Dwr Budr

MoN: Way Out, Nothing Left

TA: Hmm...Shadows, Doctor?, Meltdown

Blue: OPS, You Lot!, Tunnel Vision.

Ive got special Obital glasses....you know the ones with the lights at the side...treasured posessions!

Px

Good stuff. Did you buy them online?

No, I was given them by a friend at a new years eve party a few years ago... in fact Ive got 2 pairs....I will post some piccies, but I warn you, I do look very stupid in them!

In-Sides by a mile. Doubt there will be many votes for The Altogether though (very patchy)

I saw them once on TV at some festival or other, and remember thinking that it seemed very unbalanced what was going on. There was one bloke who seemed to be really concentrating on what he was doing, and then another bloke who just stood there waving his arms around a lot, and every now and then he'd press a button or flick a switch. This kind of music isn't my thing, and I certainly won't slag it off, but that's hardly what I'd call a "Live performance", some people stood still flicking switches (even the bloke doing all the work). Surely it would have been much easier (and with identical results) to just play a recording? It's probably my lack of knowledge, but I just felt like even if I really liked the music, the "live" version wouldn't be something to get remotely excited about.

But they do play live, or did before they stopped being Orbital - I read once that they could spend a coupla months sorting everything out for the live gigs in order that they could 'play' live and improvise - the live versions do differ from the recorded tracks - factor into that the light show/back projections and the atmosphere, and you got yerself one hell of a show!

Totally agree with you there, Andy. One of the best 'improvised' sequences was the special gig that Q Magazine sponsored at Hammersmith Palais in October 2000, which opened with Funny Break (an amazing rendition which had a fantastic extended intro compared with the more immediate album version and later live versions), before melding expertly into Spare Parts Express, continuing without a break into Impact (both parts) - a non-stop medley of 28 minutes - you could really tell they had put a tremendous amount effort into designing the segues from track to track, it was an amazing live experience, and of the six times I managed to see them live, it was second only to their Somerset House show in 2002. Also made it to their last ever Brixton gig too, and though it wasn't particularly their best set list (despite the inclusion of You Lot and One Perfect Sunrise), it was still a great gig, and I wouldn't have missed it! Just chuffed I managed to get the opportunity to see them as many times as I did.

I went to my first Orbital gig at Brixton in '99, where the combination of their audio-visual experience immediately crystallised for me - during 'Know Where To Run' (audience just went nuts, felt like I was at a rave or something) and 'Satan' (all the dark imagery combined with the '1999' spinning slowly round to reveal the '666' was an extremely powerful moment). As a relative newcomer to the Orbital world, having only ever bought 'In Sides' (and truthfully not given it anywhere near enough of my time), I was rather caught off-guard; it was quite the epiphany! An immediate reappraisal of 'In Sides' and that was me hooked.


Okay, fave tracks:

Green - Belfast, Chime, Midnight

Brown - Lush, Halcyon+On+On, Impact

Snivilisation - Forever, Attached, Sad But True, Kein Trink Wasser

In Sides - Out There Somewhere?, TGWTSIHH, Adnan's, The Box

Middle Of Nowhere - Spare Parts Express, Nothing Left, Way Out ->, Style

The Altogether - Last Thing, Funny Break, Illuminate, Shadows, Tootled

Blue - You Lot, One Perfect Sunrise, Pants, Transient

Satan CD singles, certainly.

Fave Orbital B-sides: Mock Tudor, Old Style, Beelzebeat, Monorail

Fraid so, Nonus - go sit in the corner and think about what you've said.

Playing live electronic music is notoriously difficult, and a great deal of work goes into the performance. Basically, the raw elements of each track is programmed into the computer, but sequencing the separate parts is what the live show is all about. It's like a band playing together, with the drummer (here replaced by a drum machine loop) providing the beat, and guitarists etc creating melodies (again, another loop of sound from the computer), and vocalist singing (maybe replaced by a looped vocal sample in Orbital's case) all at the same time, hence producing a live piece. The guy who appears to be concentrating on stuff, Paul, is generally doing the sequencing, so the separate musical elements come out right, and the guy waving his arms, Phil, most often is manipulating the sound live by tweaking things.

Then of course, there are the visuals - lighting, special effects, video etc - which are programmed to run with the music to enhance the experience. Don't tell me you didn't think that was bloody cool! My favourite live effect was during the MoN tour, when the rotating boards at the rear parted to reveal a giant disco ball!

I went for Green cos its got Chime and Belfast on it. There are probably better Orbital albums but those 2 tunes totally blew me away the first time I heard them. Anyone here like 808 State?. They were pretty good too.

That was BRILLIANT!

Yeah, they have some good tunes and should be-respected for their experimentation with fusing electronic and other forms music, but they never affected me in the same way emotionally as Orbital and others have done. Pacific 808 is a bona-fide 'rave' era classic in the same way as Orbital's Chime, or FSOL's Papua New Guinea is, but my favourite record of theirs is ex:el, which features Lift, Cubik and In Yer Face - all brilliant!

My best single from that era is the single of Papua New Guinea with around 8 remixes on it. I think Orbital do one of them. They're pretty much all classics cos its such a hard tune to screw up.

I don't believe they did Ron, but PNG is a brilliant tune, even now.

Just dug the 12" out - the full list of mixes is:

12" original

Andy Weatherall mix

Dub mix

Journey to Pyramid mix

Monsoon mix

Graham Massey mix

Dumb Child of Q mix


The Weatherall mix (all 11 minutes) is best.

808 State will forever have a place in my heart for Pacific State in it's various guises - I have a couple of their albums on vinyl, the aforementioned 'ex:el' and a US import (I think), '808 Utd. State 90'.

I rekon the Graeme Masseys my favorite but the Andrew Weatherall mix is a beauty too. I'm gonna dig it out as soon as I finish work. I think I might give Accelerator a listen too.