Orbital: Work: 1989-2002 : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

In 1989, Paul and Phil Hartnoll set out to reinvent American house and post-punk music; in the process, they perfected English techno. Though they work within a discipline that doesn't encourage albums, Orbital have made six beautiful and challenging discs. Work 1989-2002 collects some of their finest tracks and includes several remixed and non-album versions. It spins through slamming cross-fusions, such as "Satan Spawn" -- which patches a Butthole Surfers sample to riffs by Metallica's Kirk Hammett -- and inspired appropriations, such as 1994's "Are We Here?" wherein Orbital turn the break-beat mania of jungle into a lush undergrowth for their crystalline melodies. This is classic techno: Even when they uncoil an eerie chord or a pummeling rhythm, Orbital make gorgeous music.

(RS 905 - Sept. 19, 2002)