After achieving U.K. chart success with their first album and a handful of EPs and singles, most notably the debut recording and Top 20 hit "Chime," techno duo
Orbital leveled up with their second full-length, incorporating much more complex and atmospheric arrangements, as well as more advanced forms of cunning audio trickery. The intro track, "Time Becomes," uses the same Star Trek sample that opened their previous album, then repeats the phrase "where time becomes a loop" as a sequence of
Steve Reich-inspired phasing patterns. "Planet of the Shapes" then loops dust-caked vinyl crackle along with the snide remark "even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day." The subtle humor and trippy vibes hardly indicate what's in store for the rest of the album, which contains some of the most sublime electronic music ever created. "Lush 3" (included in two parts) incorporates ecstatic melodies closer to trance and progressive house than anything on the first
Orbital album, with the second half nodding to their roots in acid house. "Impact (The Earth Is Burning)" addresses the environmental concerns that have been central to
Orbital's work since the beginning, along with shuffling breakbeats and tough but gleeful acid synth melodies. The song features a breakbeat provided by
Meat Beat Manifesto's
Jack Dangers, and it segues into "Remind," which is essentially the instrumental to
Orbital's remix of
MBM's single "Mindstream." The track's spiraling melodies spill over, illuminating a vivid path through the darkness. Most revelatory of all is "Halcyon + On + On," which became the duo's most well-known track through its frequent usage in films, and remains their most beloved work. Reversing and layering
Kirsty Hawkshaw's vocals from
Opus III's "It's a Fine Day," an ambient techno classic in its own right, the song conjures a feeling of dancing atop clouds like no other.
Orbital's debut established a melodic, cerebral alternative to the more hedonistic, headstrong rave music that was conquering the charts in the early '90s, but their second album went further, adding a greater sense of hypnotic propulsion while capturing blissful emotional states. ~ Paul Simpson
