Orbital: Academy 1

We’ve been lacking words of late as our regular reader will have noticed. This trend is likely to continue as I struggle to express just how good Orbital were last night.

There were grown men and women hugging strangers and grinning like they were firmly entrenched back in the day. I’m sure I saw grown men gently weeping.  Today, this grown man has a sore right arm, legs like lead and is asking politely all around him to speak up just a little bit.

Clocking in at two hours this was a no-nonsense set of hits and highs. The reaction from the assembled was deafening. Every time a Hartnoll brother punched the air from behind the mixing desk and assembled bits of machinery (including something Raymond Scott must have invented) we dutifully did likewise. I just couldn’t stop myself from dancing like an idiot and carving some air-shapes.

I’m struggling to remember exact tunes. There was ‘Impact’ and ‘Belfast’. There was a blistering ‘Satan’.  The cheeky sample in the wonderful ‘Halcyon + On + On’ was as welcome and transcendental as ever. ‘Chime’ required the sturdiest of footwear. By the time ‘The Box’ had segued into ‘Doctor?’ I was literally speaking in tongues.

Words are still failing me. Let the brothers do the talking:

Lush [Euro-Tunnel Disaster ‘94]

The Box [Live at Glastonbury]

Doctor?

Walk now down here to buy.

angrybonbon