Orbital | Work 1989 - 2002
FFRR | CD
Opening and closing with two of house music's early classics - 'Chime' and 'Belfast' respectively - Orbital's selected works should occupy pride of place on every self-respecting clubber that survived the first, second, third... 'Summer of Love'.
For the original 'Chime' 7" alone, this compilation is worth every penny, transporting you back to a dark, sweaty basement in [insert your club of choice here]. For me it was the Sub Club, Glasgow, circa 1989, but it could have been a hundred, thousand places since. Always a firm favourite of Slam's Stuart McMillan and Orde Miekle I've lost track of the number of times I allowed my limbs to loosen to 'Chime', the perfect soundtrack to close out a night.
What's remarkable is the fact that these classics haven't dated in the slightest. Spanning well over a decade they underline Orbital's uncanny ability to tease a melody out and stretch it out into a mesmerising groove. 'Frenetic' is still about as close to perfection as you could get.
Closing with the slowly building, interlocking melodies of 'Belfast' is spine-tingling. The perfect eight minute mix, it's nostalgic, uplifting and proof, if ever it were needed that, truly, "house is a feeling".
[CM]
