(July 2010) Remember Orbital? Those two brothers with the little headlights on their heads? You know… the blokes who used to perform all those legendary, skull-shatteringly loud live sets? Released those key albums that helped set a myriad of people off on a journey into the realms of underground electronic music? Them. Remember how they split many years ago so that they could pursue their own solo projects?
Yes I thought so… so where the hell did this come from?
Apparently the answer is that this is simply a tentative, standalone single release of two new tracks that they are showcasing in their live sets and on tour, and it is the touring circuit they wish to pour their energy into rather than operating under the pressures of having to record material for album releases. Which sadly means it is unlikely that we will be seeing a new Orbital LP any time soon.
So what of this new double-a side single then? Well, the Hartnoll brothers certainly haven’t lost their wicked sense of humour and there’s a new-found inventiveness to this release, from the Gulf War rendered as Space Invaders cover art through to their usual memorable use of samples. What we get here is a sort of mix of their “Middle of Nowhere” and “The Altogether” sounds, the uber-analogue bleeps from the former mixing nicely with the fun factor from the latter. It also means that if you’re expecting a return to Brown Album dance impact or Snivilisation era atmospherics, you might be a little disappointed.
“Don’t Stop Me” prominently features a queasily pitch-shifted sample of Tina Charles’ vocals from The Buggles famous “Video Killed The Radio Star,” making her sound like she’s gargling marbles whilst being ducked underwater. Charming. In the first half there’s familiar synth squidginess, a stomping bass melody and the interjecting sample (that I can’t place at all even though it sounds familiar) of someone shouting “Shut up, SHUT UP, SHUT UUUUUUUUP!,” and then lighter jingling, bubbling fx in the latter. It’s a poppy, moderately infectious track that apparently sounds much more impressive live, which is easy to believe.
It is the AA-side track – “The Gun is Good” – that really delivers the goods though. It prominently features samples from cult sci-fi Z-Movie Zardoz, meaning that those of us unfortunate enough to have seen it and been imprinted with the emotionally scarring image of a gun-toting Sean Connery sporting a push-broom mustache and wearing nothing but a dayglo-red nappy will have to suppress a shudder every time we listen to it. “The Gun is good! The penis is evil!” All the staples of a great Orbital track are here: squeaky pads, clanging percussion, reverberating wails, an infectious rhythm and fantastically paced build-ups to addictively danceable climaxes. There’s even a wonderfully dramatic break mid-way during which we hear a sample of David Warner in his role of “Evil” from Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits ranting about God and the creation of the world.
If there’s one small problem with the release it’s the formats. They went to the trouble of printing up a very nice card sleeve for the promo CD-r and then didn’t bother to actually release a full CD version. You either have to pony up the dough on eBay for a promo or choose between one of the worst vinyl pressings I have ever come across in my life or go for intangible MP3 files, which I’m sure a substantial cross-section of Orbital fans will not like. Why?
This minor gripe aside, it’s good to have Orbital back and on good form after the disappointing swan-song that was Blue Album. If instead of an album we can look forward to irregular single releases like this then that’s good enough for me.
Welcome back P&P!
Don’t Stop Me / The Gun is Good is out now on ACP. [Listen | Purchase]
