1993. 10. 'orbital 2' - orbital

i had to go into the way-back machine for this one... not on spotify, not on either of my iPods -- but still squirrelled safely away in the hard copy archive... not sure i'd listened to this CD in 15 years -- certainly had been a while... i'll be putting it on my iPod soon enough, because i'm glad i dragged it out of deep sleep... it really did take me back -- not only to going out dancing while i was a student, but just to that whole time in general... i remember people referring to this stuff as ambient long before the word electronica entered the english language... i really enjoyed this type of techno to the other, harder techno that also was around at the time... i wanted my music to sound lush and trippy and layered for a very, very long time -- and this does it... i'm not sure whether or not "the kids" still listen to dance music/electronica that sounds like this -- i hear a lot of EBM (oontz, oontz, oontz) around, but i don't club regularly enough anymore to know if this kind of atmospheric, "after party" music is even still out there...

also not entirely sure how popular this album was in the US -- in the UK, it was enormously popular, and so was its follow up 'snivilization'... i was already spending school time in the states but holiday time almost entirely in the UK by the time this album came out... i remember 'halcyon + on + on' being on a sampler i picked up for 99p at vinyl exchange in manchester -- i think it must have been an ffrr label sampler, because i remember going back to buy this CD and 'morning dove white' by one dove at the same time... i only really remember this kind of music hitting anything like the mainstream in the US after 'trainspotting' came out and everyone was listening to underworld because of 'born slippy'...

if you need something to set a mood that's a little bit relaxed but still precise, cool and sophisticated, this really is the album for you... can't wait to get it on my iPod -- we've been apart for WAY too long...