Orbital- In Sides

Muzik, June 1996

Let's not beat about the bush here. Paul and Phil Hartnoll have turned out some of the very finest techno moments of the last eight years. Of that there is no question.

"Chime", Orbital's first single, is still a wonderful record. The sometimes overlooked "The Naked And The Dead" remains a cracking piece of tribal house music. And their magisterial reworking of Meat Beat Manifesto's "Mindstream" (a track which later surfaced as "Remind" on the second Orbital album) could out-trance the best of the lot.

But it was a cut on the Hartnoll's "Time Flies" (sic- pcm) which really hinted at the sound of things to come. "Sad But New" (a remix of "Sad But True") laced poignant vocals over a rinky-dinky keyboard riff and trippy breaks. It was one of the most engaging compositions of 1995 and formed a structural blueprint which has been renewed, remixed and generally fucked about with on "In Sides", Orbital's fourth album.

Upon hearing the looped, niggling riffs which snake through the album's opening track, "The Girl With The Sun In Her Head", your first reaction will be to think that you have heard the melodies before, but you can't place where. Your second reaction will be, "Why didn't I think of that?".

Coming on like a Sixties soundtrack, "The Box" should be retitled as "Get Hartnoll". You half expect Michael Caine to jump out of the shadows at any moment. "Dwr Budr" (Welsh for "dirty water", all you non-bilingualists) is dark and dangerous, highly focused and confident in its composition. "Adnans" is simultaneously melancholic and uplifting, a trick which Orbital succeed in doing again and again.

By the time they reach the bleepy climax of "Out There Somewhere", the piece de resistance, the Hartnolls know where they are going. They also know where they are at. The urgent undertones are carried along in a tide of emotion and, as a mid-song mini coda breaks in after 12 minutes, you're glad it's Orbital at the controls.

Billed as six unrelated "sound scenarios", "In Sides" neatly illustrates why Orbital remain light years ahead of the competition. Whiule muich of the album is set on a dial marked "home listening", it is still some way in front of the soporific easy-listening muzak of mych of today's ambient fare.

At times, it startles with its raw simplicity, while at others it impresses with its sheer complexity. But in the end, what it comes down to is that only Orbital could mix'n'match the simple and the complex and turn ot something this good.

After all these years, they're still ahead of the pack. Way ahead.

• This review originally appeared in the June 1996 issue of Muzik Magazine.
• Muzik can be contacted at edit@muzik.ipc.co.uk.
• Muzik is published monthly in the UK and costs £2.30.

[ Also: All In Sides reviews ]