Return-Path: From: rsgour@aol.com X-Mailer: America Online Mailer Sender: "rsgour" Reply-To: "rsgour" To: bzs@world.std.com Date: Fri, 29 Oct 93 00:15:44 EDT Subject: Chaos4.Orbital Artist Profile - Orbital The proliferation of rave and techno over the past few years has managed to revolutionize the way people think about music. Not long ago, instrumental electronic music was thought to have little appeal beyond the avant-garde, experimental set. But bands like Orbital have changed that by striking a balance between man and machine and aiming it straight for the dance floor. Orbital, comprised of brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll, have recently released their second album, "Orbital 2". The most striking thing about the duo is their emphasis on anonymity. The new CD looks just like the first one, and includes no pictures of the band on the cover. Live, the group likes play right on the dance floor and would rather have the audience go off and dance then look at them. Late last year, Orbital embarked on their first American tour, performing as part of a package with Ultramarine and Meat Beat Manifesto that was a traveling version of the Limelight's "Communion" nights. While on the road, the group tested out bits and pieces that would later be incorporated into the second album. The track "Walk Now" particularly came out of material from the live show. "The approach to it was just going into the studio," says Phil on the making of the LP. "We didn't have a concept or anything like that. We just went into the little space that we've got and recorded a load of things that we'd wanted to get out of our system for a while. It's the same sort of approach as the last one, with no overall concept. The only thing we did do on this one was that we wanted to try out the mixing of the tracks, like we did in the first section, mixing one track into another." On one of the albums tracks, "Halcyon," Orbital do stray away from the formula of instrumental songs with the occasional spoken word sample by using an actual vocal hook. But that is actually sampled from Opus 3's "It's a Fine Day" and was originally done just for fun. "Before she did this project with Opus III we had met Kirsty at these parties and were always saying 'oh, you have to come down and sing'," says Phil. That never happened and when the Opus III record came out and it had ac cappella vocals on the B-side, Orbital couldn't resist sampling it. Phil doesn't rule out the possibility of Orbital collaborating with Kirsty, if they both manage to find the time in their busy schedules. Live, Orbital create an experience not really tried before. Most of the music is pre-programmed, but the whole set is interactive. While many techno band use baking DATs, Orbital run everything off sequencers and have their equipment set up so they can always manipulate it. So while they may not actually play very much, they are constantly starting and stopping loops, bringing up and removing tracks and creating a truly live remix of every song. Orbital prefer to actually play on the dance floor rather than on stage, as they hear exactly what their audience hears. "We're in this sort of unexplored area where you're playing music that's like what you hear on records but we're actually doing it and improvising with the structure as we're going along," says Phil. "The closer we are to the audience, the better we feel because we can react to them or play with them a lot more." Orbital's current set-up allows them to perform an entirely different show each night if they choose. In the future, they would like to make their show even more interactive by using MIDI to also control the lights and visuals. Orbital are about to go out on road with another travelling club package tour. This time, they're part of NASA's "See The Light" tour, performing on a bill with Vapourspace, Moby, and Aphex Twin. The show is more dance oriented than the Communion tour, as that had been geared towards bringing rock and dance together. Phil says that in the future Orbital will always seek new and different touring situations. "I find it very frustrating because we're over in the UK and I'd like to contact all the people in the local areas and sort out a sort of club night and be more interactive with the local people and get the DJs and maybe a local electronic band," he explains. "But consequently, it never really happens exactly the way we want to do it because we are across the water and it seems a lot more difficult because of the finances of budgeting a tour. So you have to compromise on a few things." Copyright 1993 Bob Gourley. This article may only be reproduced electronically and for non-profit purposes. Contact rsgour@aol.com