Orbital 2 [ORIGINAL RECORDING REISSUED]

Orbital

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 3, 1993)
• Original Release Date: May 1993
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued
• Label: Rhino / Wea
• ASIN: B00004T6UZ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (82 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,914 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #7 in	Music > Dance & Electronic > Techno
  #19 in	Music > Dance & Electronic > Ambient
  #57 in	Music > Dance & Electronic > Electronica

Track Listings

1. Time Becomes

2. Planet of the Shapes

3. Lush 3-1

4. Lush 3-2

5. Impact (The Earth Is Burning)

6. Remind

7. Walk Now...

8. Monday

9. Halcyon and on and On

10. Input Out

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

After their groundbreaking debut, brothers Paul and Phil Hartnoll quickly put trendy tags like "rave," "techno," and "hardcore" behind them. With Orbital 2, the brothers went to great lengths to show that some of their primary interests lie beyond the dance floor, as influences like Miles Davis and Steve Reich crept into the fragmented, floating arrangements. Atmospheric tracks such as "Lush 3-1" and its near relative "Lush 3-2" transcended established electronic formulas by breaking away from regular beat patterns, and they borrowed Opus III vocalist Kirsty to create the catchy, entrancing mesmerizer "Halcyon + On + On." Orbital had come a long way from their breakthrough single "Chime," and by all indications would never go back again. --Aidin Vaziri

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Take a ride through the crazy world of Orbital, September 16, 2001

By	Tracher (Skopje, Macedonia) - See all my reviews

Back in 1993, when today's legendary second Orbital album named the "Brown Album" came out, it was an album with something unheard of at the time, it was a masterpiece that started a revolution. Although it's in the same vein as their first "Yellow/Green" CD, it has a very different, more complex structure.

It starts with "TIME BECOMES" a sample borrowed from Star Trek, a vocal sample spoken by Worf which goes: "there is the theory of the Moebius, a twist in the fabric of space, where time becomes a loop...where time becomes a loop" and on and on and on, almost 2 minutes of non - stop hilarious mixture of sounds ( Orbitals's humorous side, which is much more noticeable on "Snivilisation", as there are more vocal samples).

..."even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day"...
starts "PLANET OF THE SHAPES". Slow, loops up and down, left and right, and suddenly explodes into a 10 minute harsh and at moments beautiful ambient melody. "PLANET OF THE SHAPES" fades out slowly, the same way it started...

..."even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day"...
and then you're off! "LUSH 3 -1" will come at you so fast you won't know what hit you. And it gets even better! It stretches on to "LUSH 3 -2". It's calmer but it's also more intense.
Unnoticeably it flows into another 10 minute delight, the chillingly dark and scary "IMPACT (The earth is burning)". It's really beautiful, one of the best tracks on the album.

"WALK NOW..." is more different than the last four tracks. It's much calmer, and it's probably the most danceable track on the whole album. It's constantly followed with a buzz - like sound that flows in the background of the song making it really hypnotic.

"In - Sides" had the best for last, and the "Brown album does the same. "HALCYON + ON + ON" is a classic, one of Orbital's all - time best songs, and one of the most favorite of all Orbital fans. Don't get confused if you hear just too much about it, or seeing it on various soundtracks and compilations. It has that recognizable enchanting sound. You hear a piano playing over a keyboard layer with one of those beautiful smooth spaced out female vocals over a mid - tempo bass line. Another true electronic ballad from the true masters and innovators of progressive electronic music.

The album ends ("INPUT OUT") the same way it started, Orbital (brothers Paul and Phil Hartnoll) having a laugh. It's another vocal sample going round and round.

With this (and "In - Sides"), Orbital elevated electronic music to a higher level, and introduced many people to electronic music, and more importantly they pawed the way for many other electronic acts.
This is truly one of the best, most important and original electronic albums ever.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars non-stop transcendent experience!, December 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Orbital 2 (Audio CD)

I've bought 3+ copies of this album in the years since it was first released, because I keep lending it to people and it doesn't come home :-). This is by far the peak of the Hartnoll brothers' catalog of releases; only "Chime" comes anywhere close, and then only for one track. Don't *even* bother with the newer stuff. Part of what makes this album so amazing is its continuity- you put it on, and it flows mesmerizingly from one track to the next, one perfect moment after another. This is 90's rave in its pure state; made before electronic music fractured into a billion genres, the brothers put in a bit of everything, not too much of any one, and the result is far more than the sum of its parts! Rhythms vary from straight up tec-trance-style 4/4 to what might be considered breakbeat, but really is more like a slowed-down D&B beat structure. Ambient washes of lush (pun intended) sound complement and smooth selectively sparse uses of harder-edged noises. The use of sitar sounds on "Planet of the Shapes" and digeridoo on "Walk Now" (they should have called it "dance like a madman now") lends the mix a delightful trippy world-beat flavor that subtly adds to the overall sense of a musical "journey through the mind." Production is excellent; these tracks sounds good through headphones AND big hulking stacks. And you may not find the same thing, but I hear a theme throughout the album, echoing from the first bizarre intro track (a looped-over sample of Worf from ST:TNG): "There is the theory of the moebius- a twist in the fabric of space where time becomes a loop." Put this on repeat on your CD player and you'll soon be voyaging through mindspace, as well. In a word, superb.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Have electronica, May 26, 2000

By	[e-mail] (Boston, Mas.) - See all my reviews

This is Orbitals' best album except possibly In Sides. It's really best not to compare them but call one the 'best of the older stuff' and the other 'best of the newer stuff'. The Brown Album/Orbital 2 is the best of the older stuff. It begins with the Hartnolls having fun with the Star Trek vocal sample "there is the theory of the Moebius..." from The Green album's Moebius and takes off from there. The brothers expand on the happy dance tunes of that album here; they keep the dance beats going while getting a bit more experimental with synths, sounds, and moods. The best tracks include the spacy Planet of the Shapes, the hard-hitting apocalyptic Impact (the earth is burning), the synth-saturated Remind, and of course Lush 3-1 and 3-2, which are aptly named. I strongly recommend this album, but don't listen to people who tell you that the newer material is unworthy in comparison, because that is simply not true. Start with this album if you are new to Orbital, then sample some of the newer stuff and see how you like it.