Album Club Discussion #12: Orbital ["The Brown Album"]

[ordinaryperson]

Orbital ["The Brown Album"] by Orbital

AM Ranking: #756
Genre: Techno
Release: 24 May 1993
Label: Internal & FFRR
Ranked Songs: Halcyon (#3695)

Wikipedia • RYM

01 | Time Becomes
02 | Planet of Shapes
03 | Lush 3-1
04 | Lush 3-2
05 | Impact (Earth is Burning)
06 | Remind
07 | Walk Now...
08 | Monday
09 | Halcyon + On + On
10 | Input Out



Any type of opinion can be expressed on these discussion threads, you can post just a few words or a couple of paragraphs, you can even rank the tracks if you wanted to. New discussions will be posted on Fridays, so that users will have the time over the weekend to listen to the album and form their opinion on it.

HINT FOR NEXT WEEK'S ALBUM
Next week's album is the last album by a member of the 27 club

[Huangal70]

Halycon is a great song

[Madzong]

Agreed. I have got a lot of Orbital's music including the single version of 'Halcyon' (which was included on the US version of their first album). I have to say that I prefer the extended remixed version 'Halcyon + On + On' which appears on this album. It was a reasonably big track and ended up on lots of soundtracks at the time e.g. Hackers. It was pretty much the main reason that I bought the 'Brown Album' in the first place and it is definitely most well known track on the album. Personally, I think the rest of the album tracks pale in comparison

[spiritualized]

A monument in the techno Pantheon.
Orbital succeeded in merging beats and melody with their Brown Album. Planet of the Shapes, Lush, etc... are all fabulous tracks. They would go on being reasonably successful later on (I really quite like In Sides, and to a lesser extent, Snivilisation), but this is their peak.

Fun fact = for all the Trekkies out there, does anyone know where the first track comes from ?

A really strong 9/10

[FrankLotion]

Another great surprise! This sounds like a much dancier and eclectic version of the trancy techno The Field would be doing later on his albums. As mentioned above, Halcyon and On and On is a standout, also the way the tracks are spaced apart on the album art make me wonder if the album is supposed to be broken up into separate movements, which would give it another fun layer! I’ll admit the intro and outro were a little tedious to me but otherwise I’m glad I finally sat down with this because it was a blast.

I’d say underrated at this point.

Favorite Tracks: Lush 3-1, Lush 3-2, Impact (the Earth is Burning), Walk Now..., Halcyon and On and On