Friday, 16 May 2008

Rhotation (32) Into BPM

Hello, Rhotation 32 spins off some more techno routines...I posted Orbital Diversions at Rhotation 17, however got some more to share by these brothers that have meanwhile grown apart. I tossed and upcame In Sides. It raised some eyebrows in the beginning, specially the 28 min single, The Box, (included here) and switching from the political Snivilization to a more eco themed album, not very trendy in the UK at the time, caused some headscratching, however as these things go, with hindsight In Sides turned out a classic....Apollo 440 came out of the limelight with Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Dub, showing what creative sampling can accomplish. They have been very active at the remix front, however when they let other remix their single Liquid Cool the result was stunning, it needed 2 different EP's of about 40 min to comply releasing the excellent results, unfortuately i only have the 2nd one which i include with Electro Glide In Blue, their 97 landmark album.

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Orbital - In Sides (97 ^ 199mb)

The brothers Hartnoll, Phil and Paul, grew up in Dartford, Kent, listening to early-'80s punk and electro, during the mid-' 80s, Phil worked as a bricklayer while Paul played with a local band called Noddy & the Satellites. They began recording together in 1987 with a four-track, keyboards, and a drum machine, and sent their first composition, "Chime" (recorded and mastered onto a cassette tape for a total production cost of £2.50), into Jazzy M's pioneering house mix show Jackin' Zone, as a result "Chime" was released as a single in 89. The following year, ffrr Records re-released the single and signed a contract with the duo -- christened Orbital in honor of the M25, the circular London expressway which speeded thousands of club kids to the hinterlands for raves during the blissed-out Summer of Love. "Chime" hit number 17 and saw them on Top of the Pops, where the Hartnolls stared at the audience from behind their synth banks.

Orbital's untitled first LP (the "green album") was released in September 1991, consisted of all-new material -- that is, if live versions of "Chime" and the fourth single "Midnight" are considered new works. Unlike the Hartnolls' later albums, though, the debut was more of a collection of songs than a true full-length work, its cut-and-paste attitude typical of many techno LPs of the time. During 1992, Orbital continued their chart success with two EPs. The Mutations remix work -- with contributions from Meat Beat Manifesto, Moby, and Joey Beltram, Orbital returned Meat Beat's favor later that year by remixing "Edge of No Control," and later reworked songs by Queen Latifah, the Shamen, and EMF as well.

Their career took off in 1993-1994, with the release of the EPs "Lush" and "Radiccio" and their second album ,also untitled, but nicknamed the "brown" album as an alternative to the "green" debut, it unified the disjointed feel of its predecessor and hit number 28 on the British charts. The Hartnolls continued the electronic revolution that fall during their first American tour. Phil and Paul had first played live at a pub in Kent in 1989 -- before the release of "Chime" -- and had continued to make concert performance a cornerstone of their appeal during 1991-1993, featuring live projections, live musical arranging and sequencing on the fly, making their shows entertaining, improvised and truly "live". On a tour with Moby and Aphex Twin, Orbital proved to Americans that techno shows could actually be diverting for the undrugged multitudes. That summer proved to be the pinnacle of Orbital's performance ascent; an appearance at Woodstock 2 and a headlining spot at the Glastonbury Festival (both to rave reviews) confirmed the duo's status as one of the premier live acts in the field of popular music, period.

The U.S.-only albumlength Diversions EP released in March 1994 as a supplement to the second LP -- selected tracks from both the Peel Sessions and strong remixes from the album's single, "Lush." Following in August 1994, Snivilisation became Orbital's first named LP. The duo had not left political/social comment completely behind on the previous album -- "Halcyon + On + On" was in fact a response to the drug used for seven years by the Hartnolls' own mother -- but Snivilisation pushed Orbital into the much more active world of political protest. It focused on the Criminal Justice Bill of 1994, which gave police greater legal action both to break up raves and prosecute the promoters and participants. The wide variety of styles signalled that this was Orbital's most accomplished work. Snivilisation also became the duo's biggest hit, reaching number four in Great Britain's album charts.

During 1995, the brothers concerned themselves with touring, headlining the Glastonbury Festival in addition to the dance extravaganza Tribal Gathering. In May 1996, Orbital set out on quite a different tour altogether; the duo played untraditional, seated venues -- including the prestigious Royal Albert Hall -- and appeared on-stage earlier in the night, much like typical rock bands. Two months later, Phil and Paul released "The Box," a 28-minute single of orchestral proportions. It screamed of prog rock excess -- especially the inclusion of synth harpsichords -- and appeared to be the first misstep in a very studied career. The resulting In Sides, however, became their most acclaimed album, with many excellent reviews in publications that had never covered electronic music. It was over three years before the release of Orbital's next album, 1999's Middle of Nowhere. An aggressive, experimental album titled The Altogether emerged in 2001, and one year later Orbital celebrated over a decade together with the release of the retrospective Work 1989-2002. With the release of 2004's Blue Album, however, the Hartnolls announced that they were disbanding Orbital. After the split, Paul began recording music under his own name, including material for the Wipeout Pure PSP game and a solo album (The Ideal Condition), while Phil formed another duo, Long Range, with Nick Smith and released Madness and Me last year.



Orbital - In Sides (99mb)

01 - The Girl With The Sun In Her Head (10:26)
02 - P.E.T.R.O.L. (6:20)
03 - The Box (Part I) (6:28)
04 - The Box (Part II) (6:00)
05 - Dŵr Budr (9:55)
06 - Adnan's (8:41)

Orbital - In Sides (99mb)

07 - Out There Somewhere? (Part I) (10:42)
08 - Out There Somewhere? (Part II) (13:26)
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09 - The Box (Radio Edit) (4:13)
10 - The Box (Untitled Version 1) (7:46)
11 - The Box (Untitled Version 2) (8:40)
12 - The Box (Vocal Reprise) (7:36)

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Apollo 440 - Electro Glide In Blue ( 97, 107min, 199mb)

Apollo 440 (alternately known as Apollo Four Forty or @440) was formed in 1991 by Howard Gray, his brother Trevor, classically trained on the piano, and their Liverpool schoolmate Noko, formerly the guitarist in Howard Devoto's Luxuria, and James Gardner, although Gardner left after the recording of the first album. The name comes from the Greek god Apollo and the frequency of concert pitch — the A note at 440 Hz, often denoted as "A440", and the Sequential Circuits sampler/sequencer, the Studio 440. The group was initially influenced by Britain's acid-house explosion, and worked as remixers (sometimes under the name Stealthsonic Orchestra) for U2, EMF and Shabba Ranks before making the leap to actual recording. The single "Astral America" appeared on the group's own Stealth Sonic Records in 1993. After relocating to the Camden area of London, Apollo 440 recorded their debut album, Millennium Fever, and released it in 1994 on their own Stealth Sonic Recordings label.

The band had been most known for its remixes (about 50 in the nineties) until the release of Liquid Cool in the UK. However, it was not until the success of the singles Krupa and Ain't Talkin' 'bout Dub that their own musical efforts were brought to international attention — particularly the latter contributed greatly to pushing Apollo 440 into the spotlight. They hit the British Top Ten in 1997 by sampling Van Halen for the single "Ain't Talkin' Bout Dub". It was followed by the release of their second album, Electro Glide in Blue, it features Charles Bukowski, Billy Mackenzie and a tribute to Gene Krupa: all three of whom had become deceased by the time of the album's release. On the day that Princess Diana died, BBC Radio One suspended its regular schedule out of respect and spent the day playing more understated music; the track Stealth Mass in F#m was played several times on this day.

The group resurfaced in early 1999 with Getting High on Your Own Supply., in 2003 they've released their thusfar last album Dude Descending a Staircase (2cd) , the title and cover refer to the famous painting Nude Descending a Staircase by Marcel Duchamp. Currently, the band resides in Islington, London, having once again moved its headquarters (affectionately labelled Apollo Control). In 2007, the band played a tribute gig to the late singer Billy MacKenzie and decided to go on after that. They plan for several more gigs and an album that should be out in 2008.



Apollo Four Forty - Electro Glide In Blue  (99mb)

01 - Stealth Overture (Voc.Elizabeth Gray ) (1:00)
02 - Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Dub (Voc.Mary Mary) (4:31)
03 - Altamont Super-Highway Revisited (6:31)
04 - Electro Glide In Blue (Voc.E MacFarlane) (8:36)
05 - Vanishing Point (7:27)
06 - Tears Of The Gods ( Vo. C.Bukowski) (6:17)
07 - Carrera Rapida (Theme From Rapid Racer) (Voc.Mary Mary) (6:46)
08 - Krupa (6:15)
09 - White Man's Throat (Voc.Dr G.Hoxley)(4:53)

Apollo Four Forty - Electro Glide In Blue 2 (99mb)

10 - Pain In Any Language (Voc.B.MacKenzie) (8:38)
11 - Stealth Mass In F#m (6:35)
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12 - Liquid Cool (Deep Forest Trans-Afrique Life Extension Express) (6:41)
13 - Liquid Cool (Space Colonization Remix) (13:59)
14 - Liquid Cool (Ollie J's Live Dubs) (7:43)
15 - Liquid Cool (Space -320°F Biostatic Ambient Mix Part 1) (11:15)

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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !

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