Orbital
By All Music Guide
By All Music Guide
The brothers Hartnoll -- Phil (b. Jan. 9, 1964) and Paul (b. May 19, 1968) -- grew up in Dartford, Kent, listening to early-80s punk and electro. During the mid-80s, Phil worked as a bricklayer while Paul played with a local band called Noddy & the Satellites. They began recording together in 1987 with a four-track, keyboards, and a drum machine, and sent their first composition Chime (recorded and mastered onto a cassette tape for a total production cost of £2.50) into Jazzy Ms pioneering house mix show Jackin Zone. By 1989, Chime was released as a single, the first on Jazzy Ms label, Oh-Zone Records. The following year, ffrr Records re-released the single and signed a contract with the duo -- christened Orbital in honor of the M25, the circular London expressway which speeded thousands of club kids to the hinterlands for raves during the blissed-out Summer of Love. Chime hit number 17 on the British charts in March 1990, and led to an appearance on the TV chart show Top of the Pops, where the Hartnolls stared at the audience from behind their synth banks. Omen barely missed the Top 40 in September, but Satan made number 31 early in 1991, with a sample lifted from the Butthole Surfers.
Orbitals untitled first LP, released in September 1991, consisted of all new material -- that is, if live versions of Chime and the fourth single Midnight are considered new works. Unlike the Hartnolls later albums, though, the debut was more of a collection of songs than a true full-length work, its cut-and-paste attitude typical of many echno LPs of the time. During 1992, Orbital continued their chart success with two EPs. The Mutations remix work -- with contributions from Meat Beat Manifesto, Moby, and Joey Beltram -- hit number 24 in February. Orbital returned Meat Beats favor later that year by remixing Edge of No Control, and later reworked songs by Queen Latifah, the Shamen, and EMF as well. The second EP, Radiccio, reached the Top 40 in September. It marked the Hartnolls debut for Internal Records in England, though ffrr retained control of the duos American contract, beginning with a U.S. release of the debut album in 1992.
The duo entered 1993 ready to free echno from its club restraints, beginning in June with a second LP. Also untitled, but nicknamed the brown album as an alternative to the green debut, it unified the disjointed feel of its predecessor and hit number 28 on the British charts. The Hartnolls continued the electronic revolution that fall during their first American tour. Phil and Paul had first played live at a pub in Kent in 1989 -- before the release of Chime -- and had continued to make concert performance a cornerstone of their appeal during 1991-1993, though the U.S. had remained unaware of the fact. On a tour with Moby and Aphex Twin, Orbital proved to Americans that echno shows could actually be diverting for the undrugged multitudes. With no reliance on DATs (the savior of most live echno acts), Phil and Paul allowed an element of improvisation into the previously sterile field, making their live shows actually sound live. The concerts were just as entertaining to watch as well, with the Hartnolls constant presence behind the banks -- a pair of flashlights attached to each head, bobbing in time to the music -- underscoring the impressive light shows and visuals. The early 1994 release of the Peel Sessions EP, recorded live at the BBCs Maida Vale Studios, cemented onto wax what concertgoers already knew. That summer proved to be the pinnacle of Orbitals performance ascent; an appearance at Woodstock 2 and a headlining spot at the Glastonbury Festival (both to rave reviews) confirmed the duos status as one of the premier live acts in the field of popular music, period.
The U.S.-only Diversions EP -- released in March 1994 as a supplement to the second LP -- selected tracks from both the Peel Sessions and the albums single Lush. Following in August 1994, Snivilisation became Orbitals first named LP. The duo had not left political/social comment completely behind on the previous album -- Halcyon + On + On was in fact a response to the drug used for seven years by the Hartnolls own mother -- but Snivilisation pushed Orbital into the much more active world of political protest. It focused on the Criminal Justice Bill of 1994, which gave police greater legal action both to break up raves and prosecute the promoters and participants. The wide variety of styles signalled that this was Orbitals most accomplished work. Snivilisation also became the duos biggest hit, reaching number four in Great Britains album charts.
During 1995, the brothers concerned themselves with touring, headlining the Glastonbury Festival in addition to the dance extravaganza Tribal Gathering. In May 1996, Orbital set out on quite a different tour altogether; the duo played untraditional, seated venues -- including the prestigious Royal Albert Hall -- and appeared on-stage earlier in the night, much like typical rock bands. Two months later, Phil and Paul released The Box, a 28-minute single of orchestral proportions. It screamed of prog rock excess -- especially the inclusion of synth harpsichords -- and appeared to be the first misstep in a very studied career. The resulting In Sides, however, became their most acclaimed album, with many excellent reviews in publications that had never covered electronic music. It was over three years before the release of Orbitals next album, 1999s Middle of Nowhere. An aggressive, experimental album titled The Altogether emerged in 2001, and one year later Orbital celebrated over a decade together with the release of the retrospective Work 1989-2002. With the release of 2004s Blue Album, however, the Hartnolls announced that they were disbanding Orbital.
