Orbital – The Altogether

It's an interesting thing to revisit an album which holds special memories for you, only to learn that many have very different feelings about it. As someone who loves a lot of deeply uncool music it's very familiar. And of course intellectually I know it's just the fundamental nature of taste. But I do wonder - is it just the memories that come with hearing this when it came out (when I was 17/18) that make it special? Or maybe the fact I wasn't placing it in a wider musical context, or comparing it against Orbital's earlier work helped me appreciate it on its own merit more?

Who knows. All I can really say is that I played this album to death, and I still love it today. It has a lovely balance between the emotional power of the more accessible side of electronic music, with the free-wheeling variety of the more experimental side - never slipping too far into either formula or abstraction. There's a playful sense of fun, but also a wide range of emotion. I can understand why it's not for everyone - and why it's maybe not considered with the same reverence that their earlier albums are. But ultimately, even 20 years since I first heard it, with all the ways my tastes have shifted in those years - it still moves me like it did then, which is all that really matters.

The sleeve credit to the sample of 'Surfin' Bird is incorrect. They actually sampled The Cramps version of the song. Confirmed here -
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=sCoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA26&lpg=PA26&dq=orbital+tension+cramps&source=bl&ots=LJyd8HXj8Y&sig=tURQQxMFM-CAdZphIOGRfYg1RjM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAGoVChMIv57XipCWxwIVZlrbCh32NQhP#v=onepage&q=orbital%20tension%20cramps&f=false

Not to say this album doesn't have its merits, but in general it's not to my taste. The one track that really stands out, though, is "Tension." It sounds like something Jez from "Peep Show" would have made. It strikes me as laughably bad and annoying, especially as a lead track for an album by a group of their stature and proven talent. It sounds like a parody of techno. The least they could have done is put a donk on it. I wonder how many people formed their initial opinion of the album based on this track. Subjectively, it's just awful. I like their cover of the Dr. Who theme, though, at least they have a cheeky sense of humor.

Just rediscovered this in my car CD folder. Slightly blown away by its awesomeness. Why was this never released on vinyl?

My copy doesnt have any documentary on funny break...instead it plays the funny break vídeo again. anyone else having this issue?

Utterly fed up by the negative reviews The Altogether received.
I'm an absolutely massive fan of Orbital and each album has been an evolution, this was a really good one.

The Altogether is an incredibly brave collection of tracks. They sit well individually from each other, but also work together to form an advanced body of work.
I can understand that some fans would not be able to relate this album to previous releases. However, there is a great amount of innovation here and the sound pallet is very creative - much more diverse than say, The Middle of Nowhere.

I loved this album from release and whenever I listen to it again through the years, I remain unchanged.
There are huge dance tunes in here like Oi!, Tootled is soooo tight!
Pay Per View is so far from what Orbital had done before, but it is genius - possibly some of the best production that Orbital has ever released.
There are too many good tracks to go through here, the only one that maybe drags a bit is Last Thing.

The only thing I utterly hate about this album is that it never came out on vinyl.
MiniDisc would have been a nice option ; )

How is it possible to not pick "Illuminate" as the lead single from this album? That song is stellar, got crossover appeal with David Gray, and could have rescued a rather lackluster album, yet the record company choose "Funny Break"? Seems like a case of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory...

I also wonder if the Hartnolls ran empty on inspiration at this time or the label worked against them, several of the songs seems to be expanded from snippets they recorded for the TX:Nothing documentary a couple of years earlier.

In my opinion, this sequence would have made the album a worthy follow up to "Middle of Nowhere":

Beelzebeat
Funny Break (Weekend Ravers)
Pay Per View
Last Thing
Doctor?
Monorail
Shadows
Illuminate
Beached

Orbital cut ties with their club roots - temporarily at least.

The Altogether got a lot of flak when it came out, from myself included. The chunky drum sounds, the long unfurling epics interspersed with occasional club bangers: all gone. Orbital's pop album: something, it seemed, that nobody really wanted. Strong lead single - and the most classic-Orbital sounding track here - 'Funny Break', gave listeners false expectations. So the disappointment on initial plays led to an understandably negative response.

In hindsight, I find it a lot easier to be positive about the album for what it is: a very brave record. Previous album The Middle of Nowhere was solid, but found them out of new ideas - Orbital by numbers. Instead of continuing down that path with diminishing returns, they decided to mix things up entirely. The snippets of pop songs and '70s sci-fi that littered their tracks in the past now take the fore. Parts of the record - most notably 'Shadows' - preempt the hauntology movement, with a strong influence from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. 'Waving Not Drowning', ties together folky acoustics and basic analogue electronics in a disturbingly cheery kids TV theme. 'Pay Per View' skews lounge music into strange territories; 'Tootled' does the same with metal, sampling heavily from Tool. 'Tension' and 'Oi!' have tongues firmly fitted in cheeks, retro sounds and chirpy melodies mashing together rockabilly and rave.

It's not all great. 'Last Thing' is b-side quality, 'Doctor?' is a novelty step too far - a fun live track that should have been kept to the stage - and the less said about David Gray's appearance on 'Illuminate' the better. 'Meltdown' is decent but totally unfitting for the album. The album's artwork is really quite bad, even by the retro tongue-in-cheek feel of the album (bring back the old logo and swirly emblem!)

The Altogether is never going to be reassessed as a masterpiece, but I think it's time it gets a wider reappraisal. It's a bold record, a band trying a totally different approach after taking their classic sound as far as possible. It's intentionally retro sounding, and intentionally poppy, so those kitsch, cheesy sounds people often complain about are being unfairly misjudged. It might not be the most successful experiment ever, but it's an irable one, and one that yields some excellent results in hindsight.

The US version features a generous, if slightly muddled, bonus disc, featuring all the original non-album material from the 'Style', 'Nothing Left', 'Beached' (sadly not 'Beached' itself, with the rights being owned by 20th Century Fox) and 'Funny Break' singles, plus the Altogether DVD bonus track 'Monorail'. Although these are almost all ostensibly the band's remixes of their own material, Orbital come from the same school of artists as FSOL and Underworld when it comes to reworking their own tracks into wonderful new, often unrecognisible, tracks. The menacing electro-breaks of 'Beelzebeat', for instance, started life as 'Funny Break', although one would never know by listening. 'An Fhomhair' is an acidic (and far superior) take on TMON's 'Otono'. 'Weekend Ravers' turns 'Funny Break' into a storming progressive trance number. 'Old Style' begins by reprising the melody from 'Style', before moving into an entirely new piece with an early rave feel. The sole wholly original piece here, 'Mock Tudor' is possibly the best, a stunningly beautiful piece of analogue techno in 7/4.

In of consistency and track quality, this bonus disc is one of the finest discs in the band's extensive catalogue. Unfortunately, the production styles of The Middle of Nowhere and The Altogether are incredibly at odds, giving the mixed running order a somewhat clumsy feel. 'Beelzebeat' seems immediately garish when followed by the chunky analogue sound of 'Nothing Left Out'; 'Monorail' suffers similarly sat between two more TMON-era pieces. A purely chronological running order, putting the various 'Style' mixes next to each other would have made an equally unsatisfying listen, but I still think the running order could do with more work to make the disc sound more cohesive.

Regardless, despite the criticisms I do have of this two CD set, they are mostly minor in comparison to the numerous highlights found here. To any newcomers to Orbital potentially put off by the negative response The Altogether has received, I'd strongly recommend giving this 2CD set a listen, as there is a lot to love if approached from the right perspective.

To sum it up in a nutshell this is the contractual obligation album. The songs (if they can be called that) "Tension", "Oi!", "Tootled", "Waving Not Drowning" and "Meltdown" are more about sticking two fingers up to the label than pleasing the fans...

I have approached this album with caution, knowing how many negative reviews it's gathered over the years. Of course I knew "Funny Break" years before, but only this morning I have finally listened to the album in its entirety. And it sounds great! It's right on par with "The Middle of Nowhere" and even "Snivilisation", and not even a bit less interesting. It cannot be compared with Green or Brown, because it's different in style. You need to make up your mind what you expect of this album, before taking it on. Electronic music was different back in the early 90's when Green and Brown were released, and it is no surprise that the highly successful techno innovators such as Orbital have altered their sound ten years after that. It's intriguing, involving, and still makes you move every now and then. The only flaw I would say is its lack of signature climax, an anthem you anticipate by the end of the album; instead, "Funny Break" strikes right at number 2, which is not the way Orbital have usually set their tracks. Anyway - don't listed to the reviews - go and listen to it!