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. [Similar to the 2024 deluxe edition of Orbital's debut, the 2025 reissue of Orbital 2 includes non-album material from the same time period, as well as live recordings. This includes the Radiccio EP as well as additional mixes of "Lush 3" and the duo's Peel Session. There's also "Impact USA (The Earth Is Burning: Diversion)," an improved version of "Impact" issued on Diversions, an American compilation that also included the Peel Session and "Lush 3" remixes. The reissue's only previously unreleased content is a live concert recorded at the Limelight in New York, which must have been recorded straight from the mixing board, as it contains no crowd noise or applause. The pair run through material from their first two albums and concurrent EPs and singles, including "Kinetic" by side project Golden Girls, and the performances are similar to the studio versions but a bit raw and spontaneous.] ~ Paul Simpson