Orbital 2 cover

Orbital 2

Released

Orbital have become such a fixture of the UK and international dance music and festival landscape, sometimes it’s easy to forget how unique they are. Emerging right at the peak of the acid house explosion, they cut their teeth as one of the few live acts on the circuit in the most twisted and brain-mangled shows and raves. And their second album, where they truly found their feet, burns with the electricity of those early shows. This is music from a moment when it felt like rave and all the associated mental exploration was altering reality, and when you get swept up in its anthemic strangeness it can still feel a bit that way.

Joe Muggs

Orbital had already made a strong mark in the UK’s incipient techno scene thanks to singles like “Chime” and “Satan.” After an okay but slightly choppy debut, though, 1993’s Orbital 2 made the case that they were flat-out great album artists, start to stop. Excellent sequencing made the whole feel like a great DJ set as songs like “Lush 3-1” and “Impact (The Earth Is Burning)” made for peak after peak, building up to an exultant remix of a 1992 single, “Halycon + On + On.”

Ned Raggett

Suggestions
System cover

System

Trevor Jackson
MT002 cover

MT002

Andrew Weatherall
Ultimate Sushi cover

Ultimate Sushi

Small Fish with Spine
Versus cover

Versus

The Sabres of Paradise
Psychick Rhythms, Vol. 1 cover

Psychick Rhythms, Vol. 1

Psychick Warriors ov Gaia
REIFSMA cover

REIFSMA

IFS, MA
The Pulse EPs cover

The Pulse EPs

Various Artists, The Future Sound of London
Sputters cover

Sputters

LNS, DJ Sotofett
Phorward cover

Phorward

The Shamen
ISDN cover

ISDN

The Future Sound of London