Orbital retire

After 15 years working together as Orbital, Paul and Phil Hartnoll have announced that their forthcoming LP the ï¿½Blue Albumï¿½ will be their last. Following the albumï¿½s release on 21st of June, Orbital will play Brixton Academy on 25th of June followed by their last ever English live show, closing the second stage on Sunday June 27th at Glastonbury.

ï¿½I think we feel that Orbital has run itï¿½s course,ï¿½ says Paul Hartnoll. ï¿½Weï¿½re both pursuing different avenues with our music. And weï¿½ve been sat, as brothers, in the same room for 15 years nowï¿½and studios are always confined spacesï¿½I think itï¿½s time for a change.ï¿½

Since their first single, ï¿½Chimeï¿½ 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 1989ï¿½when Chime was recorded onto their dadï¿½s cassette playerï¿½noï¿½one expected things to come this far, least of all the band themselves.

The brothers extraï¿½mural 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. ï¿½If anything,ï¿½ says Paul ï¿½Itï¿½s closer in character to our first album than our later ones, if only because we made it in our own time and for ourselves.ï¿½

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. ï¿½Itï¿½s nice to know that weï¿½re finishing, itï¿½s not many bands that do that. They tend to just fade away. And itï¿½s nice to have our last gig at Glastonbury. Itï¿½s gonna be a party set, a best of Orbital. Weï¿½re not gonna sit there and try and promote the new album. I think if weï¿½re gonna do a last gig we should do distilled set of all the best stuff weï¿½ve done. And thatï¿½s what weï¿½re gonna do, play all the stuff thatï¿½s stuck around for all this time because they are the favourite ones. This will definitely be our last ever live shows,ï¿½ confirms Paul, ï¿½Although Iï¿½m sure Status Quo keep telling themselves the same thing.ï¿½

10 Comments

Acieed Ed 28-04-2004

They have made some great tunes – but I willa dmit, I don;t have anything from themon Tape, Vinyl, Cd or MP3… Well, at least the Cardinal has a couple of CD’s, hope that can make up for my lack of stuff from them.
De Kardinaal 29-04-2004

Try to check out In Sides and Snivilisation. By far the best albums they made. Hopefully the Blue Album will be a good “farewell” album too.
distorientation 01-05-2004

Don’t forget the brown album, probably my favorite. Must admit I don’t have much of them either, brown and a promo of Walk Now… and that’s it. Haven’t heard anything interesting by them for a long time, but I’m also hoping the last is not the least.
De Kardinaal 02-05-2004

A few tracks on the brown album rock and can be considered as the backbone for their excellent live appearances. Tracks like Lush,Impact and Halcyon have been part of their live set since 93. In particular using the combination of Bon Jovi and Belinda Carlisle samples into the Halcyon performance can be seen as a creative, imaginative and successfull experiment. Although they released a dvd already a few years ago it might be worth to check out.
Secret Agent 19-06-2004

No offence, but is a new album by Orbital really the thing we are desperatly waiting for???
m 20-06-2004

ip-check on the secret agent please.. 😉
Acieed Ed 20-06-2004

Different people – different taste! Some are waiting for this, others are waiting for that. Choose for yourself and let others choose for themselves.
De Kardinaal 27-06-2004

FYI:Orbital heeft wat met kleuren. Die groene en die bruine mogen tot hun beste albums gerekend worden, en nu is er die blauwe. ‘The Green Album’ en ‘The Brown Album’ werden gevolgd door uitstekende platen als ‘In Sides’ en ‘Snivilisation’, maar albums als ‘The Middle Of Nowhere’ en vooral ‘The Altogether’ vielen tegen. En net op het punt dat je wellicht wil afhaken, maakt ‘The Blue Album’ alles in Ã©Ã©n klap weer goed. Alle ingrediÃ«nten die Orbitals sound zo uniek maken, zijn terug te vinden op deze cd. Van Kraftwerkiaanse electro in ‘Pants’ tot acid in ‘Acid Pants’ met medewerking van The Sparks! En in het laatste nummer ‘One Perfect Sunrise’ zingt Lisa Gerrard, wat gelijk het allerlaatste stuk muziek van Orbital is geworden. De broertjes Hartnoll houden het voor gezien, maar dit laatste wapenfeit is een meer dan waardige afsluiting voor je collectie. Orbital: bedankt!(Source: Boudisque)
AED 28-06-2004

Report from Glastonbury about this perfomance – there will be on emore on BBC Radio 1!
de kardinaal 08-12-2004

Orbital have decided to sell some of their redundant kit. Playback Systems will be organising the sale and distribution of the equipment via thier own website. Here is what is for sale:-

40 Input Yamaha 02R mixing Console (used to mix “The Altogether”)
Yamaha 03d Mixing console
Soundcraft Ghost analogue mixing console (used on 2004 tour)
Korg Z1 Synth
Quasimidi Polymorph Synth
Korg TR Rack Synth
EMU Morpheus Synth
EMU E6400 Sampler (fully expanded)
Korg Electribe EA1
Korg Electribe ES1
Korg Electribe ER1
Ensoniq DP 2
Mackie 1402 VLZ mixer
Alesis Quadraverb
Novation Supernova
Drawmer Dual Gate

There are no set prices at time of writing and they will most likely go under an auction style sale.

If you have any enquiries relating to these items, please either call Playback on +44 (0)1273 671 297 or email them at orbitalgear@playbacksystems.com

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