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Orbital - Live At Glastonbury 1994 (Vinyl)
If Daft Punk’s 2006 Coachella concert was the moment that the great American public was introduced to live electronic music, then Orbital’s 1994 Glastonbury festival gig was the spark that sent British dance music into orbit, 12 years earlier. By this point, live dance music was already pretty well established in the UK. Even so, 'Live At Glastonbury 1994' was huge for Orbital and for British music fans as a whole, paving the way for dance music to take over the UK mainstream in the mid to late 1990s and helping to make the humble festival into a staple of British life.
Physics permitting, the best way to enjoy Orbital’s Glastonbury 1994 set would be to travel back in time and watch it live. Second to that - and eminently more practical - is watching the attached clip of the band playing 'Chime' at the climax to the iconic gig, the crowd looking like they might levitate with excitement as the song’s synth riff explodes into life.
This is the first time that the whole eight-song concert (nine with the intro) has been released and even though the LP 'Live At Glastonbury 1994' can’t compete with the live video footage of the gig, it does a surprisingly good job of capturing the set’s communal ecstasy on record, with the roars, whistles, stomps and claps of the huge crowd poking through the mix at opportune times. To hear the scream of appreciation when the tickling, teasing synth lines of 'Remind' give way to hard acidic burble and punishing kick drum is to feel the sweet adrenaline of a perfect concert moment burst through the veins.
By 1994 Orbital were already veterans of live electronic music and they knew how to work a Saturday night crowd. Riffs are extended, synths are tweaked, beats are teased and their songs climb towards prog-techno-rave peaks that are largely faithful to their original versions. It’s not exactly a subtle sound that the Hartnolls blasted from the Glastonbury stage that Saturday night but it’s not particularly heavy either, at least by today’s standards, with Orbital relying on colourful synth riffs and huge builds to carry the day, their sound caught somewhere distinctly Orbital between rave, techno, what would soon be known as IDM and progressive house. It’s hearteningly live too: right at the end of 'Sad But True' at the start of 'Impact' you can hear a breakbeat looping just out of time, which gives an idea of the heart-in-the-mouth experience this gig must have been for the Hartnoll brothers.
The duo also have a knack of picking vocal samples that are perfectly primed for huge festival crowds - the voice on 'Are We Here' that ponders human reality, for example, seems to get right inside the collective unconsciousness. Orbital sound enormous here, their music designed for the masses, a world away from the sweaty Detroit basements in which techno started. And it really doesn’t seem that far from here to EDM super festivals and vast DJ light shows.
The three tracks taken from Orbital’s second eponymous LP (known as 'The Brown Album') - 'Remind', 'Impact (The Earth is Burning)' and 'Walk Now' - are incendiary and 'Chime' is, well, 'Chime', a rave classic that has endured into dance legend and beyond, a track made in one take under the Hartnoll brothers’ stairs that screams with freshness and profundity and will do so forever more. I don’t know if the version on Glastonbury 94 is necessarily better than all those other takes on Chime that exist. But it is certainly the best placed of all, coming as the howling climax to this historic gig.
Orbital at Glastonbury 1994 was an event, a 10/10 festival gig and TV phenomenon that would be vitally important for dance music history and British cultural life as a whole. After Glastonbury 1994 no one questioned that electronic music could be performed live; and everyone wanted to go to festivals. Dance music became an integral part of the British festival experience and an integral part of British life, where it would stay until everyone got bored around the turn of the Millennium and The Strokes came along to save rock.
Orbital’s headline gig was a musical happening; but it was never just about the music. It was about the time, the people and the way the music lifted them up, together; it was about hope, possibility and optimism, about dance music coming 180 degrees from its rave infamy and slamming right into the mainstream. No live album can come close to recreating that. But Glastonbury 1994, the record, runs it pretty close, a fire flash of energy, creativity and synchronicity that is one of the most important live electronic music albums ever made. (linenoise@substack.com)
Vinyl 2xLP Standard Black / Transparent yellow & blue
Tracklist:
SIDE A
1. Forever 9.52
2. Sad But True 10.52
SIDE B
1. Impact 9.29
2. Remind 6.28
SIDE C
1. Walk Now 8.00
2. Are We Here? (Part 1) 10.19
SIDE D
1. Are We Here? (Part 2) 05.24
2. Attached 9.12
3. Chime 7.29
If Daft Punk’s 2006 Coachella concert was the moment that the great American public was introduced to live electronic music, then Orbital’s 1994 Glastonbury festival gig was the spark that sent British dance music into orbit, 12 years earlier. By this point, live dance music was already pretty well established in the UK. Even so, 'Live At Glastonbury 1994' was huge for Orbital and for British music fans as a whole, paving the way for dance music to take over the UK mainstream in the mid to late 1990s and helping to make the humble festival into a staple of British life.
Physics permitting, the best way to enjoy Orbital’s Glastonbury 1994 set would be to travel back in time and watch it live. Second to that - and eminently more practical - is watching the attached clip of the band playing 'Chime' at the climax to the iconic gig, the crowd looking like they might levitate with excitement as the song’s synth riff explodes into life.
This is the first time that the whole eight-song concert (nine with the intro) has been released and even though the LP 'Live At Glastonbury 1994' can’t compete with the live video footage of the gig, it does a surprisingly good job of capturing the set’s communal ecstasy on record, with the roars, whistles, stomps and claps of the huge crowd poking through the mix at opportune times. To hear the scream of appreciation when the tickling, teasing synth lines of 'Remind' give way to hard acidic burble and punishing kick drum is to feel the sweet adrenaline of a perfect concert moment burst through the veins.
By 1994 Orbital were already veterans of live electronic music and they knew how to work a Saturday night crowd. Riffs are extended, synths are tweaked, beats are teased and their songs climb towards prog-techno-rave peaks that are largely faithful to their original versions. It’s not exactly a subtle sound that the Hartnolls blasted from the Glastonbury stage that Saturday night but it’s not particularly heavy either, at least by today’s standards, with Orbital relying on colourful synth riffs and huge builds to carry the day, their sound caught somewhere distinctly Orbital between rave, techno, what would soon be known as IDM and progressive house. It’s hearteningly live too: right at the end of 'Sad But True' at the start of 'Impact' you can hear a breakbeat looping just out of time, which gives an idea of the heart-in-the-mouth experience this gig must have been for the Hartnoll brothers.
The duo also have a knack of picking vocal samples that are perfectly primed for huge festival crowds - the voice on 'Are We Here' that ponders human reality, for example, seems to get right inside the collective unconsciousness. Orbital sound enormous here, their music designed for the masses, a world away from the sweaty Detroit basements in which techno started. And it really doesn’t seem that far from here to EDM super festivals and vast DJ light shows.
The three tracks taken from Orbital’s second eponymous LP (known as 'The Brown Album') - 'Remind', 'Impact (The Earth is Burning)' and 'Walk Now' - are incendiary and 'Chime' is, well, 'Chime', a rave classic that has endured into dance legend and beyond, a track made in one take under the Hartnoll brothers’ stairs that screams with freshness and profundity and will do so forever more. I don’t know if the version on Glastonbury 94 is necessarily better than all those other takes on Chime that exist. But it is certainly the best placed of all, coming as the howling climax to this historic gig.
Orbital at Glastonbury 1994 was an event, a 10/10 festival gig and TV phenomenon that would be vitally important for dance music history and British cultural life as a whole. After Glastonbury 1994 no one questioned that electronic music could be performed live; and everyone wanted to go to festivals. Dance music became an integral part of the British festival experience and an integral part of British life, where it would stay until everyone got bored around the turn of the Millennium and The Strokes came along to save rock.
Orbital’s headline gig was a musical happening; but it was never just about the music. It was about the time, the people and the way the music lifted them up, together; it was about hope, possibility and optimism, about dance music coming 180 degrees from its rave infamy and slamming right into the mainstream. No live album can come close to recreating that. But Glastonbury 1994, the record, runs it pretty close, a fire flash of energy, creativity and synchronicity that is one of the most important live electronic music albums ever made. (linenoise@substack.com)
Vinyl 2xLP Standard Black / Transparent yellow & blue
Tracklist:
SIDE A
1. Forever 9.52
2. Sad But True 10.52
SIDE B
1. Impact 9.29
2. Remind 6.28
SIDE C
1. Walk Now 8.00
2. Are We Here? (Part 1) 10.19
SIDE D
1. Are We Here? (Part 2) 05.24
2. Attached 9.12
3. Chime 7.29
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