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BEATINK top page > THE DELI top page > Labels > Orbital Music > Orbital - Blue Album
BEATINK top page > THE DELI top page > Artists > Orbital > Orbital - Blue Album

		Orbital - Blue Album album / manufactured by Beat Records / licenced from Orbital Music ('04.7.3) CD (BRC99 / Japanese): 2500 yen

		Orbital - Blue Album album from Orbital Music ('04.7.3) CD (ORBITALCD001 / import from UK): 2048 yen 2LP (ORBITALLP001 / import from UK): 2468 yen

15年の歴史の集大成とも言えるラストアルバム!!

　15年間共に歩んできた、ポールとフィルのハートノル兄弟は本作をオービタル最後の作品にすると発表した。そしてアルバムをリリースした後、今夏に開催される日本国
内最大の屋内テクノ・フェスティバル"Wire04"にてオービタルとしては正真正銘、世界で最後のライブが行われる事が決定した。
　1990年４月にトップ20入りを果たしたデビューシングル"チャイム"で鳴りもの入りでシーンに表れ、以降彼等は6枚のアルバムを発表。エレクトロ・ミュージックの性質や信用性を成長させるのに彼らは一役買い、それは彼らの古巣である初期のホワイト・レーベルやアシッド・ハウス・シーン界隈にありがちな使い捨て可能な匿名性をまったく超越してしまった。
　そして彼等にとって７枚目となる本作は、デビュー以降初めて彼らがレコード会社からの注文やスケジュールから自由となり、03年の丸１年を費やして製作された意欲作。ポールは言う。「もし比べるとするならば、このアルバムは２作目以降よりも1stアルバムに近い。僕らが自分たちの時間をフルに使って、自分達のために作ったものだから」。アルバムを聴いたファンは、トレードマークともいえる彼らのオービタル・サウンドに気づくことだろう。宗教などの過去の作品にも登場するお馴染みのテーマも健在。彼等の15年の集大成が詰まった最後のアルバム。

track#		title
1		Transient
2		Pants
3		Tunnel Vision
4		Lost
5		You Lot
6		Bath Time
7		Acid Pants
8		Easy Serv
9		One Perfect Sunrise

After 15 years working together as Orbital, Paul and Phil Hartnoll have announced that their forthcoming LP "The Blue Album" will be their last. Following the albumﾕs release (date in here) Orbital will play their last ever English live show, closing the second stage on Sunday June 27th at Glastonbury (with possible Scots and Irish festival shows to be confirmed)

"I think we feel that Orbital has run itﾕs course," says Paul Hartnoll. "Weﾕre both pursuing different avenues with our music. And weﾕve been sat, as brothers, in the same room for 15 years nowﾐand studios are always confined spacesﾐI think itﾕs time for a change."

Since their first single, ﾔChimeﾕ entered the top 20 in April 1990 Orbital have released six albums and developed a live show that evolved, by common consent into one of the landmark performance shows of the last decade. They have helped to shape and develop both the character and credibility of electronic music far beyond the disposable anonymity of the first white labels and the acid house scene that they came from. In 1989ﾐwhen Chime was recorded onto their dadﾕs cassette playerﾐnoﾐone expected things to come this far, least of all the band themselves.

The brothers extraﾐmural interests have all informed the character of The Blue Album, the bands seventh, which evolved gradually over the course of 2003 with the band free from record company expectations and schedules for the first time since their career began. "If anything," says Paul "Itﾕs closer in character to our first album than our later ones, if only because we made it in our own time and for ourselves."

Fans will recognise the trademark Orbital sound when they hear it. Familiar themes from previous albums, such as religion, are also present.
"Thereﾕs a couple of references to that," says Paul. One of my favourite tracks, "You Lot" has got this speech from Christopher Eccleston from this fantastic drama called The Second Coming. I just really loved that programme and that speech is quite typically orbital, like our other track Forever, thatﾕs got a speech halfway through and I really love the sentiment behind that. That whole programme was about the second coming, obviously, and God."

"Weﾕve got another track [One Perfect Sunrise] we did with Lisa Gerrard who was in Dead Can Dance, singing on it. Thatﾕs a spin off from something we wrote for a Sunrise scene, in another film ﾉthatﾕs turned out well."

Another audible influence on the album is that of legendary transsexual composer Walter/Wendy Carlos. "Absolutely," says Paul, "I tried to do something with a sort of Clockwork Orange feel, and that became ﾔBath Timeﾕ . It started off by being hummed in the bath on tour before I was about to go and meet everyone for a pint in San Francisco. Got out of the bath and scribbled it down on my laptop and finished it over last summer, adding little bits in buses and vans while I was travelling. And it went on from there. It became like Clockwork Orange and Kraftwerk combined. Electronic music for electronic musics sake, dodging all real instrument sounds. Wheras ﾔEasy Serveﾕ is weird supermarket muzak, almost like hospital muzak. Maybe itﾕs a supermarket where they only sell hospital items. Hereﾕs the lip sectionﾉEither way, itﾕs not going to be a coffee table album. But then weﾕve never done one of them. Maybe a coffee table album at three in the morning, when everyone is blind drunk and no one can remember anything anyway."

With the album complete the band are turning their attention to their final show at Glastonbury. An appropriate venue for a farewell as it was here, exactly ten years before that Orbital delivered a live show that Q magazine listed as one of the fifty greatest live show of all time. "Itﾕs nice to know that weﾕre finishing, itﾕs not many bands that do that. They tend to just fade away. And itﾕs nice to have our last gig at Glastonbury. Itﾕs gonna be a party set, a best of Orbital. Weﾕre not gonna sit there and try and promote the new album. I think if weﾕre gonna do a last gig we should do distilled set of all the best stuff weﾕve done. And thatﾕs what weﾕre gonna do, play all the stuff thatﾕs stuck around for all this time because they are the favourite ones. This will definitely be our last ever live show," confirms Paul, "Although Iﾕm sure Status Quo keep telling themselves the same thing."