Snivilisation

1994 was an amazing year. At a Halloween party that year, I hooked up with a beautiful Asian woman dressed as a cat (she could have been any nationality now that I think about it, and was dressed as an Asian cat - anything was possible in '94). I was dressed up as The Joker. Jack Nicholson's Joker in Tim Burton's Batman to be precise. She and I left the party to go to her place and fool around. Before things got too deep, she paused and said, "Now go into the bathroom and take off your makeup. I want to see what the real Joker looks like." We'd been making out a while, and she had some of my Joker makeup on her face so it was hard for me to take her seriously. I told her this was my true appearance. Apparently, I was quite protective of my secret identity back in those days. We all were. I went down on her as the Joker instead. That's who I am. I'm a giver. That's as far as we got. Joker Brand Products didn't include Joker Brand Condoms in '94. If they existed, they'd surely be purple and shaped like a smiley face. I still think about that little minx a lot. We probably could have built a wonderful life together. 1994 was also the year Jackie Kennedy, Kurt Cobain, and Nicole Brown Simpson died. It was the year when the baseball strike cancelled the World Series, and this album was released. So it wasn't all hooking up with Saucy Asian Felines, even though it felt like it was. I also met my future wife a week after that Halloween party. We were married for 9 years until she divorced my ass, but have two wonderful children together who continue to amaze, inspire and fill me with joy everyday. What I'm saying is a lot of good things came out of 1994, but this album certainly wasn't one of them. Thankfully it wasn't on my radar in '94. In fact, I didn't have to suffer listening to any of this until today. But life's funny like that. Maybe I went to that Halloween party because there was no World Series. If the Joker had more than one night with that Asian Cat Lady, I would have never met my (first) wife, would never have experienced the joy of my children. Which reminds me: on our first date, my wife and I went to the movies. I wanted to see Pulp Fiction, but went the safe route and chose Forest Gump. And I bet if we saw Pulp Fiction that night, we'd still be married. That Asian Cat Lady would have LOVED Pulp Fiction as much as I still do. Maybe if this album was playing at her apartment after that Halloween party, I would have gladly washed off my Joker makeup. Maybe we would have had unprotected sex. Anything to drown out this album.

The bleeps where very bleepy and the bloops where just as bloopy. Not something I would of seeked out but glad I gave it a listen.

Felt like I was on hold for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Although Orbital's music is classified as "techno" there can be no doubt the brothers' skills transcend that poppy genre and this album is their finest work. It is a concept album so you must listen to it from beginning to end and every track (with one exception) is excellent. The album comes to a climax on "Are We Here?". Perhaps what is most commendable about Orbital is their ability to build a beat in the abscence of a central boom-boom beat that is so common in electronic music. If you listen closely, the beat is actually built by layering the loops carefully so as to build a rhythm that dances around where the beat would be.

Tech-NO

Listening to this record is like having to watch your 6 year old brother after he just got done snorting pixie sticks and there’s no sign of his sugar high ever wearing off. Overly busy, grating electronica. Zero chill. It’s maddening.

Mysterious secrets of the rave. Minimalism, experimentalism, and classic techno collide. Conceptually rich, diverse and epic.

“Snivilisation”, a title with Gen X reek: easy cynicism, a cheap pun, comfortable edginess. Slowly, the kids are beginning to hate us as much as the Boomers… Dated title apart, this is alright. Better heard on headphones if not in a club, my favourite parts creep around the ears, just a little off-kilter. The sarcastic corporate samples are largely tiresome, reminders of well-worn 90’s cynicism. The best clichéd 90’s sample source will always be “Robocop”, or “Scarface” if you’re listening to the Wu Tang Clan. Unlikely to seek out again, but wouldn’t complain if someone put it on. Two point seven. Was three, but ending the record with two ten minutes-plus tracks is a contemptible move.

Is it a dance fest, am I playing Sims, or is this a happy hardcore party? Definitely a bit too crazy for me to listen to during work.

I so wish that this kind of stuff was breaking when I turned 18. Trap and Dubstep will always have a special place but this is so much more interesting and mind blowing. Totally out of control soundscape that transports you to a different universe via an aural blackhole. This record is the 50m high solid gold gate that leads to the other astral dimensions we've been seeking since the beginning of time.

Excellent background music, but not much that drives it into the foreground for me.

Wow, amazing album. One of the Best things that happened in 1994. I have never heard about this band until 1001. Thank you!

Acid, experimental, eerie sounds and so modern that I sometimes forget that this is more the 25 years old.

Orbital! I didn't realize they'd made this album. THANK YOU TO THIS LIST for enlightening me. Ever since Halcyon+on+on, I've been a fan. Easy 5 stars.

Packed with personality and filled with surprising twists and turns. Great beats with music that kept me guessing. Those overlapping piano loops in “Kein Trink Wasser” are beautiful. Highlights: “Sad but True,” “Crash and Carry,” “Kein Trink Wasser,” “Attached”

I seldom listen to electronic music so I am woefully unfamiliar with this genre and the artists who practice in it. Nice to get more intros into the form through this project. This is a really good album. I've moved beyond old prejudices I held before; the ones that had me declare "I prefer music made with REAL instruments" in some misguided torch-bearing for 'authentic' music or some such made-up nonsense standard. I am very grateful to be far more open to music made by, well, anything. I'll experience it how I experience it, or at least I do my best to program my mind to receive and perceive all art through that process. This album has some excellent music in it and I enjoyed the experience of listening to it. At times, it was a little too frenetic for me, but I understand this band was into the rave thing and that kind of music is probably right for that scene. (I'll bet that sentence comes across as unhip and square as I am in real life ;-) I am very early in learning music, mostly as a guitarist but also a little voice and piano as well as music theory through my various studies. Honestly, this album has piqued my interest in this genre, so I won't be surprised if I add it my course of studies.

Wow. The. Repetitive. Nature. Of. EDM/House Music. Is. Not. My Jam. Sorry, Orbital - I am definitely not your target audience so I'm rating this one as such. I'd never revisit this. There are a couple of positives I did take away from this album that I will never listen to willingly again: the first 4 "songs" didn't grate on me. This earlier portion of the record was fairly easy to do some "deep work" to as it played in the background. Some of the tracks, like Crash and Carry, had some melodic spots. And then things completely traversed into noisy EDM repetition, including "songs" more than 15 minutes long that made me want to jump off the closest bridge. Memory unlocked: I do recall there being an Orbital song on the EDM/electronica-heavy soundtrack for the forgettable 90s movie "The Saint," though - why I bought that as a teen, I do not remember. Certainly not because of Orbital (sorry, Orbital). Interesting factoid (only one this time) from Wikipedia: *The band released the album at the time of the launch of the Criminal Justice Act, the legislation that gave British Police greater legal powers to break up unlicensed raves that gave Orbital its name. The Are We Here? single featured the track "Are We Here? (Criminal Justice Bill?)", which consists of four minutes of complete silence. Standouts: Forever, Crash and Carry

this takes me back, playing in the room of every cool kid in college in the early days before we all figured out that nobody among us was really cool at all. Typical Orbital, ravey but pleasant and melodic without being too challenging, not bad really although the vocal samples are pretty annoying in places

Heck yeah. 5am. 32 degrees. Walking the best dog around the block. Drinking coffee. Listening to techno. I felt so European. Playing on loop.

8/10 Finally some decent electronic music, which this list severely lacks. Will be curious to see if there is more from Orbital, because there are definitely better albums than this. This still sounds great, classic 90s dance music with that signature orbital synth sound. You can feel how some of this influenced work that came after, like Duck Feet having a definite Boards of Canada vibe. Best: Philosophy by Numbers

weak

Snivilisation is a really weird album (probably because it's an electronic album and those have often been pretty weird). There are things that i like about it and things that i don't like about it. This album does have plenty of cool beats, some well done melodies and enough 90s charm to be really memorable. I thought i was gonna give this album a 4 but as it kept going, i soon realized that towards the end, it was just going to drag itself out especially with it's last two songs which easily pass the 10 minute mark. The album did get pretty tiring towards the end but i still liked the majority of it. Best Song: Crash And Carry Worst Song: I Wish I Had Duck Feet

Hm. Probably not a good combination to get Bjork on one day, and Orbital the next, but that's the way it goes somedays. I'd actually gotten the other Orbital album in this collection early on ("Orbital 2"), and I'd have to say I'm hard pressed to distinguish between the two albums. I enjoy their music overall, but more as background music than an active listening experience, and I find it hard to believe that this was intended to be rave/dance music, frankly, but then again I wasn't living in the UK during that time, or seeing the Orwellian impact of things like the Criminal Justice Act, which it seems Orbital was railing against. (That said, the US has had its own share of social decay and disintegration over the decades highlighted by misguided political strongarm tactics.) "Crash and carry" and "Quality seconds" were the only two tracks that I noticed, the former for being more dance-oriented and the latter for being almost Ministry-style. A few years after this album was released, I remember discovering an internet radio station labeled "Music to code by", and this fits that bill quite well both then and now. (I wish I could remember the site that provided access to these curated "stations"; I think it was something like Live365 but with a different name, and plagued by *lots* of buffering and outages, but regardless I remember that particular station had more Everything But the Girl and Portishead than Orbital, but still....) And while it's waaay too long, even for the ambience, the album has a creative/amusing cover.

This was pretty good actually. If some of the songs were shorter it would have been better though.

Nice house/dance vibes with Snivilisation, great to chill out to or have in the background whilst working/studying. Best: Science Friction Worst: Are We Here?

Bloody boring if Im honest

Damn, all the beep-boops and glu-glus were really impressive. If you were to send this album back in time all the music would suddenly disappear

Another hour and a quarter of noise and samples.

I expected this to be as good as their first two albums, but it wasn't. Good for a chillout in the living room when doing something else, but not the listening experience of earlier material

2.5 Seriously, these guys made it on this list TWICE? And as if to spite me for making fun of the kidneys on their previous album cover, they went ahead and straight-up put a phallus on this one (please tell me you all see this too and that I’m not just having a weird Freudian moment). Anyway, I actually thought this was better than their poop album, but more so because it’s inoffensive rather than it is really any good. It seems that Orbital went in more of an ambient direction this time around than they did a club-oriented one, and while they certainly didn’t do anything wondrous with that, it does offer the smallest hint of a vibe at times. Like, the opener, Forever, had me feeling like I was sitting at the main menu of a 2000s racing game - for a second there, it was like I was a ten-year old kid again. That’s really the most positive thing I can say about this album though - the rest of this is just unremarkable, uninteresting techno. Are We Here? Idk, I’m pretty checked out. Fortunately, nothing here is grating except for Quality Seconds, which they thankfully kept to under 90 of (though none of which were quality), but overall, this is the kind of thing I found myself forgetting I was listening to while working and I’ll likely have entirely forgotten about in a week’s time.

liked songs: I was expecting worse based on the album name and cover, but this wasn't horrible. Definitely too repetitive and not super interesting, but I appreciate some of the textures and soundscapes that are created here. Big points off for too many "wet" textured sounds. 2

No.

I do not want duck feet

Beeps And boops man. Beeps and boops.

75 minutes and the first course still hasn’t arrived.

So that's two Orbital albums and zero They Might Be Giants. We're in the last 200 albums of this experiment now. No Lemonade. No Breeders, Ween, Whitney Houston. Two Orbital albums, though. I mean I get maybe putting one on here to represent this corner of the music world. But what can two Orbital albums do for us that a single The End of the Tour cannot?

**Orbital – *Snivilisation* (1994)** _Genre:_ Ambient techno / IDM / Rave _Length:_ 75:00 (12 tracks) --- ### 🎧 **Music & Production** - **Sound palette:** Glitchy breakbeats, lush pads, acidic 303s, spoken-word samples, Alison Goldfrapp’s ghostly ad-libs, and the brothers’ trademark “where’s-the-kick?” groove architecture that builds rhythm by layering syncopated loops rather than a straight 4/4 thump . - **Dynamic arc:** Tracks often begin minimal or pastoral, then mutate into stormy, polyrhythmic climaxes—an Orbital signature that feels especially cinematic here (“Sad but True”, “Are We Here?”) . - **Studio tricks:** Heavy use of filter-sweeps, reversed reverbs, and micro-edited vocal snippets; the mix is wide and headphone-centric, giving the record a 3-D art-installation feel . - **Pacing gripe:** Two 10-minute closers (“Are We Here?”, “Attached”) back-to-back can feel exhausting; several listeners flag the final quarter as “dragging” . --- ### 📝 **Lyrics & Samples** There are no conventional verses/choruses; instead, the “lyrics” are **sample-bites** that act as political graffiti: | Track | Key sample / vocal | Theme | |---|---|---| | *Philosophy by Numbers* | Cheery advert voice: “So what do you want to study—technology or philosophy?” | Satire on utilitarian education & tech worship . | | *Are We Here?* | Criminal Justice Bill protest chant, crowd yelling “Are we here? Are we here?” | Rave culture under siege by 1994’s anti-party legislation . | | *Sad but True* | Alison Goldfrapp wordless falsetto | Loss of identity in media-saturated society. | | *I Wish I Had Duck Feet* | Children’s-story narration + circus FX | Body-image fetishism pre-Instagram (prophetic) . | --- ### 🌍 **Themes** 1. **Civilisation in self-sabotage mode** – the title itself is a sneer at “snivelling civilisation”. 2. **Tech vs. humanity** – “Philosophy by Numbers” warns that a society mastering gadgets while abandoning critical thought risks a “second dark age” . 3. **Rave as resistance** – Written just after the Criminal Justice Act, the record treats the dance-floor as a threatened commons . 4. **Post-colonial hangover** – Distant tribal drums & chants bubble up, hinting at Britain’s imperial echo. 5. **Media narcissism** – Samples about cosmetic surgery, advertising and reality-TV point to today’s IG-filter world long before it existed . --- ### 🌱 **Influence & Legacy** - **Immediate:** Alongside *Dubnobasswithmyheadman*, *Exit Planet Dust* and *Lifeforms*, *Snivilisation* helped shift UK techno from warehouse utilitarianism to album-length storytelling—paving the way for **Boards of Canada, Burial, Kieran Hebden** . - **Long-tail:** The fractured beat design and socio-political sample collage can be heard in later acts such as **Autechre, Clark, Andy Stott** and even **Radiohead’s *Kid A*** sessions (Thom Yorke name-checked Orbital as a textural roadmap). - **Live staple:** “Are We Here?”/”Attached” remains the epic finale of Orbital gigs, often stretched to 20 min with improvised MIDI loops. --- ### ✅ **Pros** - Arguably the **most conceptually unified** Orbital album—works as a 75-minute suite. - **Goldfrapp’s spectral vocals** and the brothers’ evolving arrangements create **emotional peaks without lyrics**. - **Still futuristic:** the mix of break-beat science, dark ambient and satirical samples feels eerily relevant to algorithmic culture. - **Highlights:** “Forever”, “Sad but True”, “Kein Trink Wasser”, “Are We Here?” . --- ### ❌ **Cons** - **Density fatigue:** Constant tempo changes, dissonant FX and two consecutive 10-min tracks can feel **“like watching a sugar-fuelled 6-year-old”** on one sitting . - **“Philosophy by Numbers”** is intentionally irritating—some listeners skip it on every play . - **Lack of immediate hooks** compared with the Brown Album or *In Sides*; rewards only appear after **focused headphone listens**, making it **poor background music** for many . - **Dated ’90s cynicism:** The corporate-voice samples can feel **“well-worn”** or **“edgy-for-its-own-sake”** to post-Internet ears . --- ### 🏁 **Verdict** *Snivilisation* is Orbital’s **bleakest, brainiest and bravest** statement: a **concept-rave symphony** that mourns the death of collective idealism while still begging you to dance. Its **messy sprawl** is both its genius and its Achilles heel—**a masterpiece for the patient, a migraine for the casual**. In 2025’s tech-drenched, attention-fractured world, the record’s **Cassandra-like warnings** hit harder than ever, ensuring its place in the **IDM canon** even if it never reaches the playlist ubiquity of *Chime* or *Halcyon*.

Genuinely wincing at all the negative reviews for this thing just because it - like itself and all the other electronic albums on this list - DARES to not be Gen-X/Millennial UK/US rock slop. God forbid, get a grip. Anyways, I had to listen to this about 4 times to make up my mind. The production on this thing is crazy, especially for 1994. I love this old electronic shit. You really get an insight into the technology of the time and how difficult it is to produce music like this. Philosophy by Numbers was a banger. Quality in Seconds made my heart race. And Are We Here? made me zone out (in the best way possible). This record is so diverse in all the music held on it, every song feels different and there are large intermissions between the differing beats and styles that it doesn't feel out of place. This is definite a record you need to listen to in one go. I hate to be 'that analogue music guy', but I feel like experiencing this on vinyl after a joint would go so hard. And the album art is cool as fuck. I'm calling it. This album is a masterpiece. Unbelievable this thing has such low scores. Open your ears.

I will be listening to more orbital in future. This evokes a feeling of knowing too much about computers in 1999. Goes hard as fuck.

Days after writing that I wish I had not listened to jazz music while working, I receive an album that I found really suited my job working in the email mines. This bangs from end to end. No skips, no notes other than some of the tracks on this album sound like you are drunk playing the sims with an infomercial on in the background. That's not a bad thing. Highlights: I Wish I Had Duck Feet, Kein Trink Wasser, Quality Seconds

Underworld but more ambient

Brilliant.

Just wonderfull, and not even their best work.

God, this is so good. Why did I ignore this group?

5/5 - Space pop, computer music - Definitely gets into Trance territory - Clever modulations; they do groove - The record captures, as the group name suggests, the atomic or the aeronautic. - This is a good ambient record for your stacks if you like Aphex.

I enjoyed the repetitive-ness of the songs with no lyrics, it helped me to focus on my work tasks for today. Several songs remind me of video game background music.

Lovely

new favorite album

Solid

Bought this on CD when first release and have regularly listened since. An awesome album. I cannot believe its over 30 years old ....

Amazing sounds, funky beats

Classic 3rd album which takes a sharp turn from their 2nd (also on this list). There are several spellbinding tracks on this: the jazzy opener Forever, the moody Sad But True featuring Alison Goldfrapp, who also features on the album centrepiece, the incredible 15 minute Are We Here? The grandest thing they did, until the next album. There are a couple of tracks on it I don’t like but I felt that 4 was too low so I’m giving it top marks.

very chill, love it

One of many many albums that I like way more having read some reviews and got insight into what I should be listening for - someone points out that most of the time there is no central beat, and 'everything dances around where the beat should be' - once my dumb ass knew to listen out for this, I was entranced

That's a keeper! Looking forward to going for the group rides during the summer and playing this

Awesome old school dance. Interesting melodies and samples. Really one of those 'why hadn't I heard of them before?' moments

Orbital at its best. This album invokes that sense of wonder overlaid with the harsh industrial type samples that make for an amazing contrast. These guys are great for invoking a special mood, always go back to them. I prefer Insides a little to this one, but this is still great, and some classic Orbital on this.

hell yeah

Techno-Ambient music to chill to.

Can’t believe this was 1994….

Great synth soundscape.

There's a special place in my heart for this album, even though I haven't listened to it in a long time. I discovered Orbital around the time I started my first year of college (2009), which was a time of great musical exploration for me, going to club nights and gigs in the city for the first time, and of course music festivals. I actually got free tickets to see Orbital that year (or maybe it was the year after) and went with a friend, had a brilliant time. This album was always my favourite of theirs, so takes me back to those days. Theirs some really interesting blending of styles on here, and the few vocals there are offer interesting critique of technology's impact of society, advertising, and also the crackdown on electronic music in the 90s. I'm not sure if I picked up on all that before, but after a couple of closer listens it all makes sense. The standout tracks for me are Forever, Kein Trink Wasser, and Are We Here, but there's not really any weak tracks imo.

Holds up exceptionally well in my opinion

Expected to hate this, but loved it.

As a huge Brown album convert, I could never get into this album on previous occasions. Something is happening however today, I'm really digging it. Feel like I'm waking up to this record for the first time. Maybe it's something about the hooks, they're less obvious, insistent perhaps, but they're there. I'm loving every track in different ways. Finished very strongly as well with Are we Here and Attached. Going into rotation.

Rating: 9/10 Best songs: Forever, Sad but true, Crash and carry, Kein trink wasser, Quality seconds, Are we here?

Extremely good album. Together with Insides, Dubnobasswithmyheadman and Exit Planet Dust, probably my favourite 4 electronic albums from the 90s.

Fantastic album, arguably Orbital's best work.

Very interesting and enjoyable.

This album is so cool! Can’t believe it wasn’t on my radar before now. Right up my alley.

Incredible

Beep boop beep

IDM with deep themes? That's like catnip to me. Love this so much.

Fantastic

Cool soundtrack

Decent until Crash and Carry, then it becomes amazing.

cool

My wife introduced me to Orbital, and this is one of the albums she had a physical copy of and was in high rotation. For people who know me they would understand that I Wish I Had Duck Feet is a fave. I really like Philosophy by Numbers and the way it feels more like an extension of Science Friction. Kein Trink Wasser, Quality Seconds are great and Are We Here? is another favourite.

Not necessarily the Orbital album I woulda chosen, but what the hell, you can't go too far wrong. This is very much the sort of chin-stroking intellect-masturbatory music that appeals to the specific type of nerd that I am. I started out being a nowt-but-metalhead but I could see the utility in ambient music for soothing scene-setting. Orbital was the first act that made me think I could enjoy upbeat electronica too. Fave track - "Forever", maybe, or "Are We Here?" - I'd happily listen to the whole album again at the drop of a hat though...

Partially too experimental, but in general - an epic electronic opus

This is right up my street. Added to my collection, heard a fair bit of dirge from orbital, and some that I absolutely love, (illuminate is my absolute fave and I can't stand David Gray usually). Anyway, this was a great listen, not one for every day, but great end of busy week relaxing album.

Pretty good beats to relax to.I was doing other stuff while I was listening.Perfect for that.

I like it

A peculiar album, even the repetitiveness of the album doesn't make it boring, it makes you follow a kinda dream. It's just so interesting to hear but I don't think it's and album to hear everyday or every moment

I’ve listened to orbital before and loved them so seeing this album come up got me excited and it was a really good listen! All tracks I really enjoyed.

Amazingly groundbreaking IDM from the 90's. Still sounds fresh and new.

Exactly what my brain needed on a stressful Wednesday morning. Orbital are at their best when they're doing more chilled-out stuff.

Very cool electronica. Enjoyed it a lot

Huge part of my 90s soundtrack

Very unique ambiance, I love it !

Found a new favorite artist

richtig gutes Album, schön abwechslungsreicher Elektro

Awesome

A little bit techno, a little bit D&B. Not my go-to but I enjoyed it enough

This is another one of those classic early 90s electronic albums that instantly evokes a sense of nostalgia. It’s packed with those classic piano and keyboard sounds that made me fall in love with electronic music in the first place. You can still hear traces of the earlier, more club oriented aesthetic, but now it’s filtered through the framework of early IDM and experimental electronic music. It’s also a great early example of ambient house and ambient techno, with experimental broken beats mixed throughout the album.

I know people don't like this kind of music.. But I like this kind of music.

Fantastic for the classroom

I really like the range of sounds they experiment with in this. I especially loved how hard they came out of nowhere with Quality Seconds, even if it felt out of place. This album is cool vibes and feels like ear candy.

This is that really good old school electronic music.

Cool