Orbital return (again)

Orbital return

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More than two years since announcing their second split, in October 2014, Orbital have once again settled their differences and announced a reunion – along with a series of festival tour dates and new music.

 

The British dance duo, brothers Paul and Phil Hartnoll, will break their silence with three outdoor events confirmed so far for this summer. They headline Forbidden Fruit in Dublin, Standon Calling in Hertfordshire and the Bluedot festival at Jodrell Bank radio telescope near Manchester. There’s new music, too, with a new single Kinetic, available to listen to below.

 

 

At the time of their last split, Paul Hartnoll said: “Orbital had stopped working properly. We had a great four years since getting back together in 2008, but it was time to move on.”

 

Orbital’s 2017 reunion is, according to a statement, more than the re-forming of a musical partnership. It is: “The end of a little-known, unhappy standoff between two brothers, an estrangement that lovers of Orbital’s euphoric music might find surprising.”

 

The statement says the relationship between Paul and Phil “has often been tempestuous. Worse than musical differences, they’ve been through the personal clashes and resentments that only brothers can really understand.”

 

“I didn’t speak to Phil for five years after we split in 2012,” explains Paul. “It was horrible. It’s like a black stain on your heart.”

 

The statement adds that Paul was haunted by a childhood photograph of the Hartnoll family on holiday on the Isle of Wight. This was a constant reminder of the separation from his brother. “You feel terrible,” he says, “and you want to fix it.”

 

During their split, Paul worked on his own album 8:58 and the Clarke:Hartnoll album 2square with Vince Clarke, as well as film and TV soundtracks, including American Ultra and Peaky Blinders. Phil, who says he did not want to split up in the first place, spent his time DJing internationally.

 

Realising there was something lacking in his career, Paul approached his brother and promised to change his controlling nature.

 

“I tried to turn Phil into me, and that drove us both mad,” he admits. “Now it’s just, be yourself. Be you. So far, it’s working brilliantly. It’s really good to be talking and working together again.”

 

“Orbital is too big a thing for us to leave behind,” adds Paul. “I always wanted us to be the Status Quo of techno – I’m Francis Rossi, by the way – because I always admired their staying power and their total, tough, motorik thing. If those two guys made their peace, so can we.

 

“We’ve a tempestuous relationship, not because we don’t love the music, but because we do. Sometimes it’s been impossible to carry on. But we’ve sorted it out now. And this time, we’re going to keep it.”

 

The duo previously split in 2004, releasing the Blue Album as what many believed was their final statement. They returned in 2009 for a series of 20th-anniversary shows, and recorded a further album, Wonky, in 2012.

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I always wanted us to be the Status Quo of techno

I enjoyed the last farewell tour.  I kinda wanted it to be my final memory of them.

Seeing them at bluedot festival would be pretty cool though.

  On 2/2/2017 at 3:06 PM, fletcher said:

 

  Quote

 

I always wanted us to be the Status Quo of techno

 

 

I enjoyed the last farewell tour.  I kinda wanted it to be my final memory of them.

 

Seeing them at bluedot festival would be pretty cool though.

 

it was probably said jokingly, but when rendered to text it sounds... cringy I guess.

New, 2017, version of Kinetic on the Guardian website (sorry, I couldn't work out how to get the Soundcloud link), I'm not impressed on first listen, would have preferred something completely new.

Yeah, I couldn't get a direct link to the song either. Guessing it's a private link.

It's not hideous (much, much better than the updated Satan on Wonky, at least), but not great. My guess is they wanted to put a track together quickly to announce their return and show they're working together again. We'll probably get signs of proper new material late this year.

  On 2/2/2017 at 4:02 PM, BUNKUM said:

New, 2017, version of Kinetic on the Guardian website (sorry, I couldn't work out how to get the Soundcloud link), I'm not impressed on first listen, would have preferred something completely new.

mweh...still prefer the frank dewulf remix.

from fecking 92.. 25 years old this basterd

  On 2/2/2017 at 4:21 PM, purlieu said:

Yeah, I couldn't get a direct link to the song either. Guessing it's a private link.

 

It's not hideous (much, much better than the updated Satan on Wonky, at least), but not great. My guess is they wanted to put a track together quickly to announce their return and show they're working together again. We'll probably get signs of proper new material late this year.

I kinda grew to like the version of Satan on Wonky, in fact I liked that whole album much more than I ever expected to after my first listen.

They're the Gallagher Bros of techno

  On 2/2/2017 at 4:34 PM, BUNKUM said:

I kinda grew to like the version of Satan on Wonky, in fact I liked that whole album much more than I ever expected to after my first listen.

 

On the whole, I'm surprised just how much I like Wonky. It's a sad reality that they'll never create anything as good as their first four albums (+ associated EPs) again, but Wonky turned out to be a thousand times better than initial expectations. New France has become one of my favourite Orbital tracks.

But I hate Beelzedub and usually skip it. It's the only time they've obviously aped somebody else's sound, rather than incorporating it into their own (you can hear the same dubstep and dnb influences a couple of tracks earlier on Distractions, only it still sounds like Orbital), and that just makes it sound really tacky to me.

they probably just want some more money

(this is not said in a negative way at all - touring makes money for artists that certainly deserve all they can get)

  On 2/2/2017 at 7:52 PM, dr lopez said:

they probably just want some more money

 

(this is not said in a negative way at all - touring makes money for artists that certainly deserve all they can get)

Pretty much this - boys are getting older and need to think of when they can't/won't work anymore.

lots of money in electronic music nowadays...

weird that I'd never heard of the original Kinetic track, this new mix sounds decent. I never listened to anything they put out after The Middle of Nowhere, bar a few single tracks that didn't impress me at all. saw them a few times live back in the 90s, would be hard to beat those shows.

Always loved kinetic...like the new version. Never forget seeing them live 1999 at Nautica stage in the Flats in Cleveland. AV show reversed 1999 to 666 during "Satan". Cheese, but special to 16 year old me.

I eagerly await their version of 'Bula Quo'.

It's like a more boring Nothing Left 2

I'm not taken with the vocal warping, but I like the rest of it quite a bit. It's very, very Orbital. Like slipping into an old, comfy jumper. Frankly, that's probably the most we can expect from them at this stage, so at least they're delivering.

wow that new track sounds really fun, could be straight from the early 90´s, its like they completly oversleep the last 20 years of electronic music.

  On 8/30/2017 at 5:28 PM, kloffy said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si5WxvxOrZM

I really liked that. Glad to have em back!

Ha, I love how they're so unabashedly set in their ways

That's fucking excellent, love these guys so much

  On 8/30/2017 at 11:57 PM, Kavinsky said:

wow that new track sounds really fun, could be straight from the early 90´s, its like they completly oversleep the last 20 years of electronic music.

Right?! SO much fun! The pan flute sample!