Orbital

Orbital's first album had been made with raves in mind, and on their second, in 1993, Phil and Paul Hartnoll turned the same machines toward something slower and wider, techno built to hold your attention at home as much as in a field full of people.

Like the first, it has no title, and fans know it as the Brown Album. The pieces are long, most of them seven to ten minutes, and they build slowly, layering patterns that shift against each other until a melody comes up through them. The brothers said they wanted it more atmospheric than the dance tracks of their debut, and the two “Lush” pieces are dense and busy without ever getting hard. They also have a sense of humour about it. “Time Becomes” reuses the Star Trek line about time looping that opened their first record, phased against itself the way Steve Reich phased tape, and “Planet of the Shapes” starts with fake crackle and a skipping needle meant to make vinyl buyers think their copy was faulty. Touring America with Meat Beat Manifesto fed into the breakbeats of “Impact (The Earth Is Burning),” and a trip to play an illegal rave in Australia brought back the didgeridoo and crossing signals on “Walk Now…”. Near the end comes “Halcyon + On + On,” a reworking of a single that is about as euphoric as electronic music gets without raising its voice. It's a dance record with room to think in, and it's where Orbital became more than a rave act.