Where creativity meets connection
How long has it been? Without trying to hideously age myself, I first saw Orbital roughly 35 years ago. A lot has happened since then, but that feeling of anticipation rears its familiar head as we walk into Brighton’s Chalk. Phil and Paul Hartnoll, this parish’s finest purveyors of machine-made music and good times, have gathered the faithful for a very special evening.
It all kicks off with Choice, a jittering percussive work-out which draws mummers of approval from the clearly adoring crowd. A few songs in, and Satan starts getting them properly hopping about. Fittingly, it’s the familiar tones of Lush that pushes this crowd into a frenzy. While there’s numerous fans ‘of a certain age’ around me, it reassuring to see many younger faces checking out these techno titans.
Orbital aren’t content with just churning out faithful reproductions of their most famous tunes either. Everything sounds fresh and contemporary. I don’t know if this is down to the timeless nature of their music, or if it’s being updated for a modern audience.
Fitting in with this is Lush, which almost sounds like it’s being jammed out behind those expansive banks of equipment. Whether it’s the sweeping sonic barrage or that sensible single pint of medium-strength lager kicking in, I begin feeling a bit tired and emotional. Close your eyes, and you could be in the fields at Glastonbury right now – grass beneath your feet and drenched in bass, thoughts of things like mortgages or children of your own seeming far of in the future.
Snapping back to reality, I remember that tonight is all about the pair’s sophomore album. Intentionally cast into the world without a title, it became known as the Brown Album, spawning a chart worrying single and setting a standard for electronic music. Comfortably existing on the stereos of old hipsters as it does crowded dancefloors, it continues to resonate down the years. Now there’s a four-disc reissue released today, which features all kinds of goodies. So, it’s little surprise that the majority of tonight’s setlist draws from that release.
This is certainly the most intimate venue I’ve seen Orbital in. Earlier encounters required me to strain for a glimpse of the Hartnolls, as they noodled away in near darkness on a distant festival stage. Right now, it feels like they’re in my living room. Well… not mine. Maybe, Elon Musk’s living room. If you absolutely rammed it full of people and flashing lights.
Arguably the highlight of that collection is Impact, which sounds transcendent this evening. I consider getting another beer, but the mass of bodies behind me doesn’t look like it will give way easily, and I’m a bit concerned about missing something special. The euphoria is enough to carry me halfway in a hands-in-the-air rendition of Spicy, before I start to wondering if I might lose my Punk Equity card if discovered dancing to a Spice Girls sample.
And there is a lot of special to go around. It all seems to finish off with the melancholic sounds of Belfast. A tune so beautiful that it makes me again yearn for that weekend in somerset. Before the misty-eyed nostalgia starts to make me mourn that lost youth, the unmistakable chords of Chime draw elation from the crowd, who take the opportunity to get down again. It serves as a reminder that this band, despite their regular forays into student techno, abstract beats and theme tunes can still write a timeless dancefloor hit if the mood takes them. By its nature, music is cyclical. Sounds and styles are constantly get reassessed and contextualized to suit what’s around us. And I’m ecstatic that this pair have remained in our orbit.
Orbital’s Brown Album is available now from all decent record stores.
Image by Steve Double
Mark O'Donnell
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