decoded_ Something for your mind… Something for your mind…

Photos by Matt Costain from his Flickr album.

I finally got to see Orbital play live, and they were awesome!

It’s been almost 20 years since I first became a fan of their music, introduced to their ‘Orbital – Orbital’ (Green Album) in 1991 via friend Mike Mesissner (Bliss guitarist). The sounds on that album really inspired my own electronic music making and first techno productions.

Their live performance was fantastic. Much fun jumping around to their sounds on the dance floor. Hearing ‘Chime (Live)’ and ‘Belfast’ brought back a flood of fond memories, big smiles. I used to hear these tracks at clubs and parties in Adelaide in the early-mid 1990s, ‘Belfast’ holds some special memories. I would have loved to have heard ‘Midnight’, one of my other faves.

I’m so glad they got back together and are still touring and performing live after all these years. Huge thanks to the Playground Weekender crew for bringing them down under, and to all involved in making their side-show at The Forum happen. It was a fun Tuesday night, great crowd, lots of fans, lots of appreciation for their music/live performance.

Awesome to see the Hartnoll brothers wearing their iconic dual light glasses, bopping away behind a huge mixing desk, controlling all the kit around them.

Visually it was a great show too, nice oldschool, trippy graphics on a wall RGB LED screen behind them, some intelligent lighting and smoke machine! I miss smoke machines, you don’t come across them out in clubs these days, why is that?

And most importantly, it sounded awesome, great sound system in The Forum.

Here’s what they played… Thanks to MrBadger on InTheMix for the exact track list.

Time Becomes
Out There Somewhere (Part 1)
The Moebius
Out There Somewhere (Part 2)
Lush 3/Eurotunnel
Impact
Remind
Satan
Belfast
Chime (Live)
Chime Crime
Know Where To Run
Halcyon
One Perfect Sunrise

The Box
Doctor ?

The only moment that I didn’t like was the Belinda Carlisle and Bon Jovi samples during Halcyon, obviously tongue in cheek, but I felt it spoilt the magic.

For the nerdy gear heads, here’s what Matt Costain and I spotted them using on stage…

? Mixing Desk
Apple – MacBook Pro (Laptop) with Ableton – Live (DAW Software)
Jazzmutant – Lemur (Control Surface)
Novation – 25SL Mk II (Controller / Keyboard)
Alesis – Andromeda A6 (Synth Keyboard) x2
Macbeth – M5N (Semi-Modular Synth)
Roland – Jupiter 6 (Synth Keyboard)
Roland – SH-2 (Synth Keyboard)
Moog – Voyager RME (Synth Rack)
Roland – TB-303 (Bassline)
Roland – TR-909 (Drum Machine)
Roland – TR-808 (Drum Machine)
Elektron – Machinedrum (Drum Machine)
Yamaha – A5000 (Sampler Rack)
Ridge Farm Industries – Boiler Solid State (Limiter / Compressor)
TC Electronic – FireworX (Multi-Effects Processor) x 2
Behringer – Composer Pro (Compressor)

More data:

http://www.loopz.co.uk
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Orbital

So, there’s another one to tick off my list of early pioneers and legends of electronic/dance music I’ve seen play live. Let’s have a quick think about who is on that list:

Kraftwerk [Live] *
Depeche Mode [Live] *
Nitzer Ebb [Live]
New Order [Live]
The Orb [Live]
Derrick May *
Juan Atkins
Kevin Saunderson *
Jeff Mills *
Kenny Larkin *
Underground Resistance [Live]
Daniel Bell
Robert Hood *
Richie Hawtin *
Francois K *
Carl Craig [Live]
Laurent Garnier *
Laurent Gariner [Live]
CJ Bolland
Sven Vath
Joey Beltram *
Danny Tenaglia
Sasha & Digweed
Autechre [Live] *

* = seen multiple times.

Yeah, very happy with that! I think I need to see some Chicago house legends though. Should have seen DJ Pierre when he was out here.