Interviewed summer 1994 at Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam

On the grounds of the old Westergasfabriek the Triple X festival took place. A multi-cultural and especially multi-media spectacle which was very arty but thankfully saw it’s highpoint with the final evening. A techno festival organized by the Oscillate sound system from Birmingham. In the receptionroom of the complex, inbetween forever repeating media experiments and internetting Macintoshes sits one of the brothers Hartnoll, Paul. Orbital seems to fit right in with this electronic circus. Paul: “I’m very impressed. Things like this are never organised England. There’s so much to see. Yesterday we saw Diamanda Galas who sang her mass against Aids. It took an hour and twenty minutes and she only uses her voices, that was very impressive.”

Paul can appreciate non electronic music, they have started that way: “We both played a bit of guitar, but in the end we started buying more and more electronic stuff. First a rhythmbox then a keyboard. And in no time the guitars were lying in the corner collecting dust.” Starting to make electronic music can be quite an investment. Orbital got robbed and from the insurance money they bought the best stuff they could find. Paul: “Later we discovered that one of the burglars used to be one of my best friends. And a few weeks back we received a letter from him, in which he wrote he was very sorry about the whole thing and he had enjoyed our set at Glastonbury immensly.”

Since the success of ‘Halcyon’ and the by the musicpress much lauded second (brown) album, Orbital is seen by many as leaders in the field of electronic listening and dance music. Paul: “We don’t see ourselves this way. The press is always looking for new heroes and now it’s our turn. But there are enough bands around who are just as good.” The third album ‘Snivilisation’ they recorded in four months time. Orbital told the English musicpress that this album would be influenced by Jungle techno. A fast and loud breakbeat variant that’s getting popular by the minute in England. Paul: “That’s typically the press. We are not only influenced by Jungle, we listen to lots of music. Not only house, but also hiphop and rock. We make no difference and all those elements you can find in the music.” That also becomes clear later that night. Orbital makes music live that wouldn’t ashame a rockband. Very loud, rhythmic and melodic, elements that are in many kinds of music. Paul: “On the stage we improvise as much as possible. We haven’t got a set backbone over which we solo. But we have a few sequencers going on at the same time. And during that we mix in elements or mixe them away again. That way we can react to the crowd. We make a mix of the songs right on the spot.”

Orbital not only stands out musically or live. Also their videos are impressive. Take for instance ‘Lush 3′, video-8 recordings of public fleemarket, it did very well with MTV. Paul: “We don’t use computer graphics in our videos because we don’t have the money. And even if we had, we aren’t that impressed with the common techno graphic clip. It usually looks dumb or just ugly. I’d rather see a combination of the two like in an Orb video.”

It’s difficult to make any political statement because of the kind of music Orbital makes. Without lyrics you don’t get very far, but with the title ‘Snivilisation’ they do want to comment on the world. Paul: “We mean to say that sivilisation is so relative. The world around us can be uncivilised in so many ways. But not that I think that Orbital is holy, I’m also lazy, I watch too much television, litter the street. It’s more an observation than a political statement.” Orbital doesn’t want to force their own views on to others. Still there’s one subject Paul wants to say something about. The Criminal Justice Bill is a new law in England with which the government will get more control over youth culture. After accepting the bill, it will be illegal to squat and on raves, described in the CJB as “a public gathering where the music played can be identified as rhythmic and repetitive”, the police will have a tool to be more aggressive and throw people in jail for a long time. Paul: “Ofcourse we’re against it. People get robbed of their freedom completely.” Someone who’s even more angry by this is Luke Losey of Pressure of Speech. He and Mickey Mann are the extra members of Orbital when they play live. Luke is responsible for the light and Mickey, who also did the production for the second album, does the sound. “If the CJB is accepted I’m thinking of leaving England,” says Luke, “and I’m not the only one. There are many bands who think the same.” The pressing atmosphere in England right now can be heard on Pressure of Speech’ “Art of State”.