Orbital – The Middle Of Nowhere

Some of yous are not listening correctly, this absolutely rips when played at high volume on a summers day with all the windows open, & bollox to the neighbours. Trust me, play this loud with the bass up. The clean polished electro sound & breaks come into their own on a hot day just begging to be heard loud by everyone & it just begs you to tweak the bass to emphasise the melodies.
It fcuking rocks, yes.

For me, this was the point at which Orbital went bad. From this release onwards, the sound is too clean and over produced, too much going on at the same time. The ion seems to have somewhat gone and is replaced with technical perfection, leaving me with a cold feeling.
The beauty of Orbital at their best was brilliant simplicity with emotion and soul. Their first four albums still blow my mind to this day.

An unspoken gem of pale English whitey funk-tronica wrapped up in a fine Berber rug of sheer genius. Hook laden electro pumping rhythmic intensity, rubbery synthy bass-lines, Kraftwerkian percussion will bob the head and hips into oblivion.. Really the Hartnoll brother 1 upped their ante when they unleashed from the production cages The Middle of Nowhere as this cd represents what true electronica maestros are capable of. In 2018 this album is head and shoulders above the cheap overly hyped and produced electronica.

At the brink of Y2K, Orbital expanded upon their foreboding concepts of “In Sides” with a follow-up record that plunged into Millennial anxiety in a way that few other electronic artists at the time were capable of expressing.

While Orbital retain the propulsive breakbeats and sharp chords in their music that keep people dancing, they also speak of a dystopian future in the album’s theme of a society that has rapidly lost its sense of purpose. In “Way Out,” jazzy music samples that may have been intended to inspire romance and adventure are sent into loops that seem to get left behind as we zoom into synthy hyperspace. The album continues through this maelstrom with flourish (“I Don’t Know You People” features a roaring Prodigy-style electric guitar; “Nothing Left” includes the luscious siren calls of Alison Goldfrapp) up until “Style,” which seems to step away from the flurry and put a few light whimsical finishing touches on a busy painting of an album.

To further this tension in their famous live act, they jolted audiences with huge screens projecting crackling waveforms and rapid-fire video clips that overwhelmed the eyes and ears.

The cover of “The Middle of Nowhere” is nothing but a blurry silhouette walking into a void, with a glossy orbital circle looming over the blankness like an all-seeing eye. The interior artwork of the liner notes is but a scattered collection of snapshots of anonymous people in a busy urban setting, only to be enclosed at the back cover by more emptiness.

It turns out that Nowhere is right where we all are, in our frantic and restless existence. If we don’t stop rushing around in circles, we’ll never get anywhere. With “The Middle of Nowhere,” Orbital implores us to find our “Way Out,” before it’s too late.