Track Listing

1. Moebius
2. Speed Freak
3. Oolaa
4. Desert Storm
5. Farenheit 303
6. Steel Cube Idolatory
7. High Rise
8. Chime
9. Midnight
10. Belfast
11. Untitled
12. Macro Head

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10771 in Music
• Released on: 1991-10-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .18 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
In the late 1980s, as American house and techno imports flooded Britain and the Acid House movement was sweeping the nation, brothers Paul and Phil Hartnoll were busy building Britain's own interpretation of the sound. Named for the illegal "Orbital" raves taking place around the M25, they dragged their equipment from party to party, playing live PAs of their homegrown dance music to enthusiastic crowds of revellers. Their 1990 single "Chime" was (and still is) the anthem of many a British raver, and their self-titled 1991 debut remains a classic. Opening with the exquisite mid-tempo anthem "Belfast", and containing the "Chime", "Satan", and "Fahrenheit 303" singles, this album captures the innocence and energy of the nascent rave scene. --Matthew Corwine

CD Description
This debut album from London's "bleep and bass" pioneers, the Hartnoll brothers, collects most of the thumping, home-made tracks that had been tearing up the underground "orbital raves" of London (from which they took their name) for the previous two years on vinyl. Their spine-tingling signature anthem "Chime" is here, along with the moody techno and Star Trek samples of "The Moebius". Meanwhile, "Desert Storm" and"Oolaa" shake and shimmer like dance floor hallucinations. For some listeners these old-school mixes of electro beats, sampler loops, and knob twiddlings will bring on a chemical rush of nostalgia. Others will just want to dance like it's 1991 and marvel at how influential this album obviously was on the vast output of electronica that followed in its wake.
From the Enya-esque vocal drowning in the whirlpool of sonic love on "Belfast" to the scintillating grid lines and chill-out ambient gliding of "Midnight", this release proves Orbital was setting trends from the get-go. One of the firstmajor techno releases to come out of the UK, this release (also known as "the Green Album") showed England could make techno tracks as brilliant as those coming out of the U.S., and then some.

Customer Reviews

The beginning...
I own all five albums and it's interesting to see how orbital have evolved from the green album. This is by far their most simplistic album. By Orbital's standards, that's not a bad thing but the relatively primitive loops do show up in comparison to their other albums. An excellent display of staggeringly strange and unique synths such as those on Oolaa remedy this and indicate the experimental and redefining nature of their albums yet to come. It's defintely worth purchasing if you already own the latter four and especially for Belfast which to this day remains one of their standout tracks. It shows the foundations from which Orbital evolved from and which indeed many following electronic artists would attempt to imitate. Overall, I think it deserves four stars as it helped redefine a genre which many considered at the time to be a momentary phenomenom. The Hartnol brothers proved them wrong with this landmark album.

One of the better ones....
Of the few techno full lengths to emerge from the mid-life of the british scene, this is easily one of the best. None of the LPs released in that era are very stylistically coherent, and this is no exception, so on first listen it sounds rather patchy. However, taken track by track it shows off brilliantly Orbital's early mastery of their machines.

It does have some flop tracks - but it has more great ones. Anyone who's ever listened to British techno has heard Orbital work their synth magic on 'Chime', but the slight ambient/symphonic streak present in tracks like 'Midnight (Live)', 'Belfast' and 'Desert Storm' is what marks Orbital out as both pioneers and masters of the early alternative/ambient techno sound.

(As a side note, you may wish to buy this for 'Speed Freak'. Along with N-joi's 'Adrenalin', it is a strong contender for the ultimate in acid house/techno excess)

orbital - Yellow or Red (i've never quite decided)
What can I say about this album. If you've never heard of Orbital and you want to know what the're about buy this album.It's timeless in my eyes. I first bought this album back in 1991, the same year that the brothers released Belfast, A stunning track that never fails to impress me. I've seen Orbital twice now 1994 & 2002 and both ocassions they finished the gig with a medley of belfast and doctor who and every one in the place was just smiling with a gentle rocking motion (truly moving).this album is 15 years old and not aged a day