Artist: Orbital
Title: 30 Something (LP)
Label: London Records
Cat. #: ORBITAL30
Release Date: 29.07.2022
Orbital have released their new album ‘30 Something’, alongside new single ‘Smiley’.
Out today on double CD, quadruple LP boxset and digital formats, ‘30 Something’ is a musical celebration of the pioneering career of the hugely influential electronic music duo comprised of brothers Paul and Phil Hartnoll. The pandemic meant that Orbital missed their actual thirtieth anniversary, but it gave Paul and Phil pause to think and find a way to celebrate their past that was actually about the future. Unlike other Best Of’s, the ‘30 Something’ contains reworks, remakes, remixes and re-imaginings of landmark Orbital tracks based on the duo’s unrivalled live show. ‘Chime’, ‘Satan’, ‘The Box’, ‘Impact’, ‘Halcyon’, and more appear in new ‘30 Something’ guises, familiar yet new, time reversing, yesterday becoming tomorrow. The album involves Orbital-inspired artists and DJs, including Joris Voorn, Dusky, Jon Tejada, Logic1000, Jon Hopkins, Shanti Celeste, Yotto, and long-time supporter David Holmes, who reworks ‘Belfast’, the iconic track that got its name in his hometown.
‘Smiley’ is inspired by Orbital’s origins as part of the late 80s rave scene and also references the iconic Smiley Face pop culture symbol that is officially 50 years old this year. Trademarked by French journalist Franklin Loufrani in 1972, the image was famously adopted as a symbol of Acid House. The track samples the infamous ‘A Trip Round Acid House’ edition of ‘World In Action’, the ITV documentary which introduced millions in Middle England to what their kids were getting up to at the weekend and which includes an interview with a 20-year-old Paul Hartnoll, describing how he was beaten up by police while attending a house party in Sevenoaks.
“We wanted to do something that represented where our heads are at now but wearing the clothes from back when we started,” comments Paul of ‘Smiley’. “So to chronicle thirty years of Orbital you’ve got this track that chronicles the very start of dance music in Sevenoaks. It’s our origin story.”
“And to make the very important point that, in civil rights terms, basically we all got beaten up by the police for having a party,” adds Phil. “Could never happen now, everyone would film it on their phones. Instant police brutality case.”
Though they might not have envisioned it when they recorded debut single ‘Chime’ inside a cupboard at their parents’ house for less than a fiver, Orbital would go on to become giants of electronic music. Phil and Paul Hartnoll both redefined what dance music could do and the place it took within popular culture itself. Their music has influenced and inspired artists from Björk to Bicep and the brothers have collaborated with minds as diverse as Madonna, Kraftwerk and Professor Brian Cox, and – in one of their many memorable Glastonbury performances – an actual Time Lord, in the shape of Doctor Who actor Matt Smith.
Despite its inauspicious beginnings at the Hartnoll family home in Kent, ‘Chime’ became a huge hit on the underground rave scene and when re-released by FFRR Recordings in 1990 it leapt into the UK Top 20. It was an unwitting act of cultural subversion that placed the Cabaret Voltaire and Crass-loving siblings in the inauspicious surroundings of Top Of The Pops, where they pointedly unplugged their synthesisers and wore anti-Poll Tax t-shirts – sticking two fingers up to both the stuffy BBC and Margaret Thatcher’s government.
Following 1991’s debut album and a string of successful EPs, their second self-titled album – aka The Brown Album – cemented Orbital’s position as musical visionaries. With four tracks linked together into a 26-minute epic, it broke down and rebuilt ideas of what electronic music could do. A career of creative leaps quite unlike those usually seen in the fast turnover world of dance music followed, including creating soundtracks for Hollywood films including 1997’s Event Horizon, and most recently for Mike Myers’ new Netflix series The Pentaverate, which premieres on May 5.
Alongside their boundary-pushing work in the recording studio, Orbital earned a reputation as one of the best live acts on the planet. Unlike many of their dance contemporaries at the time, Orbital didn’t rely on pre-programmed DAT tapes and instead took a far more fast-thinking, improvisational approach, meaning that any gig can present a multitude of organic mutations of their songs.
They completely reinvented the notion of what a “dance” act could do live and turned multitudes of rock fans on to the limitless pleasures of electronic music. It’s not for nothing that the band’s colossal set at Glastonbury Festival in 1994 is regularly cited as one of the greatest gigs of all time.
Following a hiatus between 2004 and 2008, the brothers re-united and Orbital continue to record and perform across the globe, still pushing, still working, inspiring a whole new generation of talent. They’ve had their separate projects but Orbital is their centre of gravity. “It’s what I love doing,” Paul says simply. “It’s what feels right. Back at the start, it was all about doing something new, trying to sound like Cabaret Voltaire or Severed Heads but then we accidentally sounded like ourselves. And we still work like that.”
“What’s been amazing for me is looking at our past and thinking of all the people who’ve come to see us, they are absolutely brilliant, warm and create such an amazing vibe. They are now bringing their kids to our gigs, they love it,” says Phil.
“Now we’re diving into our past and reminding ourselves, blimey, we really did that,” says Paul. “And it’s still got something to say.”
Tracklist – Double CD:
CD1
1. Smiley
2. Acid Horse
3. Where Is It Going? feat. Stephen Hawking
4. Impact (30 Years Later And The Earth Is Still Burning Mix)
5. Satan (30 Something Years Later Mix)
6. Chime (30 Something Years Later Mix)
7. Halcyon (30 Something Years Later Mix)
8. Belfast (30 Something Years Later Mix)
9. The Box (30 Something Years Later Mix)
10. Are We Here? (Dusky Remix)
11. The Girl with the Sun in Her Head (Floex Remix)
12. Halcyon & On (Logic 1000 Mix)
CD2
1. Belfast (ANNA Techno Remix)
2. Impact (John Tejada Remix)
3. Chime (Octave One Remix)
4. Halcyon & On (Jon Hopkins Remix)
5. Are We Here? (Shanti Celeste Remix)
6. Belfast (Yotto Remix)
7. The Box (Joris Voorn Remix)
8. The Girl with the Sun in Her Head (Lone Remix)
9. Impact – Rich NxT Remix (Edit)
10. Chime (Eli Brown Remix)
11. Belfast (David Holmes Remix)
Tracklist – Quadruple Vinyl Boxset:
A1. Smiley
A2. Satan (30 Something Years Later Mix)
B1. Where Is It Going feat. Stephen Hawking
B2. Impact (30 Years Later And The Earth Is Still Burning Mix)
C1. Chime (30 Something Years Later Mix)
C2. Halcyon (30 Something Years Later Mix)
D1. The Box (30 Something Years Later Mix)
D2. Belfast (30 Something Years Later Mix)
E1. The Girl with the Sun in Her Head (Floex Remix)
E2. Belfast (David Holmes Remix)
F1. Halcyon & On (Jon Hopkins Remix)
F2. Chime (Eli Brown Remix)
G1. Impact (John Tejada Remix)
G2. Are We Here? (Dusky Remix)
H1. Belfast (ANNA Techno Remix)
H2. The Box (Joris Voorn Remix)
H3. Are We Here? (Shanti Celeste Remix)