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30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spoiled by Orbital, June 23, 2003
In 1998 I purchased Snivilisation, In Sides, and a handful of other seminal electronica albums, little knowing that I would spend the next five years searching for a musical experience as fulfilling as Orbital's best work. The more time I spent scanning the electronica landscape, the easier it became to convince myself that the sonic experiments of Autechre, Aphex Twin, et al. amounted to satisfying listening. "Glitch Hop;" "Drill 'n Bass": as with any genre, the more precise and fiercely territorial the sub-genre, the more sterile and academic the music. Everything is cerebral, everything has a "point." Texture trumps melody, technique trumps emotion. Every recommendation must come with a qualification - eg., "If you can tolerate the sounds of children's nightmares, or automobile parts being fed into a psychotic drum-machine chipper, then you might like..." This may sound overly critical, and I do love the aforementioned artists, in all their prickly glory. But it is possible to have too much of a good thing. So I pulled out Snivilization again, only to be reminded anew of how stunning it is, and how it makes most of the work by others in the field seem peurile by comparison.This is truly a masterpiece, flaws and all. Though In Sides is a more perfect work, Snivilization is arguably more ambitious: it contains multitudes. Stunningly emotional, fiercely political, sweeping, intimate, grandiose, mystical, quirky. Most of all, effortlessly confident. Listening to this album reminds me of watching an actor on the verge of stardom in his breakthrough film role. Somehow it captures that startled, injured innocence, the reaction of pure artistry when confronted with the ambiguities, complexities, and harshness of the world for the first time. I know I'm waxing a bit eloquent here, but there really is a reason so many people find Snivilization and In Sides so cathartic. In these two albums, I believe the Hartnolls set out very deliberately to catalogue the insecurities of the modern era, and then propose a transcendent musical solution that is remarkably free of New-Agey self-importance. If you have any ear for electronic music, you simply must listen to these albums. (Unfortunately, the Bros. seriously lost the plot on their subsequent releases.) About the music. I can't really improve on what others have said, and the album is so multifaceted that any analysis probably says more about the listener's mood at the time than anything else. After many, many listenings, I will say that Kein Trink Wasser has emerged as a surprise favorite. There is something about this track that epitomizes the appeal of Orbital for me. It begins with what sounds like an attention-starved child banging on the same piano key over and over again, then almost imperceptibly other piano melodies are introduced and begin to interplay and weave around the simplistic core. What was initially annoying is suddenly startlingly poignant. Just as the listener begins to surrender and drift along with the music, the piano stops. Again an incongruous element is introduced; instead of the annoying piano we hear a cheesy 80's sounding drumbeat. Not very promising. But the music continues, more layers are added, until suddenly the piano is reintroduced and everything comes together in such a masterful way that I am floored every time. This is what separates Orbital from most other electronic artists: their music is always full of wonderful surprises, but rarely sadistic. The ultimate goal is always to provide solace and transcendence to the listener. The album is perfectly bookended by two magnificent opening tracks - Forever and I Wish I Had Duck Feet - and two stunning closing tracks - Are We Here? and Attached. But I won't describe them, you'll have to listen to them yourself.
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- the new music site from IMDb and Amazon.
