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.
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.
Mysterious secrets of the rave. Minimalism, experimentalism, and classic techno collide. Conceptually rich, diverse and epic.
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.
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.
Acid, experimental, eerie sounds and so modern that I sometimes forget that this is more the 25 years old.
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.
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?
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.
Exactly what my brain needed on a stressful Wednesday morning. Orbital are at their best when they're doing more chilled-out stuff.
It’s a bit over reliant on the vocal samples when I think they’re not necessary, but the sound of this thing is great. Not too busy, but very energizing.
i liked this a lot more now than i did back in like '96 when i first heard it. it's held up very well.
Not their best but a great album nonetheless. I love Orbital’s pioneering dance sound. These feel like classical compositions in depth and heft and really elevate the genre. Probably 3.5 stars for me for this particular album but I’m rounding to 4 in case this is the only Orbital album on the list!
It's Orbital, and if you're in the mood for Orbital, you'll like this album. It's a time period for me: Orb, Orbital, other electronica/acid house music
Definitely eclectic but I liked it a lot! Thought about going with 5 but there really aren't any lyrics so it's not stimulating in that way. Really good musicality!
La pasé muy bien, parece soundtrack de película experimental con algo de ciencia ficción y me siento comprometido con eso. El sonido como de lluvia/agua de "Forever" me sacó de onda al principio. Otras canciones que me gustaron mucho: "Sad But True", "Philosophy by Numbers" y "Kein Trink Wasser". 8.5/10
Sí me gustó bastante, un poco lo tuve que poner de fondo. Pero sí está chida su vibra ecléctica de all things EDM
While it might be my favorite album from Orbital, this is still a great ambient-ish techno release to check out. Favorites: Sad But True, Science Friction, Are We Here?
I’ve listened to songs by Orbital in the past, but this was my first time hearing a full album. I really enjoyed this album. The music is interesting and has that 90s electronic music sound with a lot of cool samples. Great music to listen to while working! My favorite songs: Forever, Crash and Carry, Kein Trink Wasser, Are We Here?
Snivilisation is perhaps one of their most ambitious works, ranging from house to hard rock, using the voice in the subtlest of ways and integrating samples in almost mimetic ways. It is also their most "physical" album, which is a testament to the duo's greatness. (7/10) FT: Forever, Kein Trink Wasser
Kunnon hyvä, ei merkkiäkään kämyydestä joka liittyy yleensä sekä ysäriin että reivimusaan. Etenkin tykkäsin alkupuoliskosta. Jatkoon.
Excelente possibilidade de audição de eletrônico com muitas camadas de batidas e melodias.
Enjoyed this in 94 and still liked it all very much today. Quite Krafwerkian with the layered sounds and (mostly) absence of big beats a la Fat Boy Slim and Chemical Brothers. Still absolutely love Kein Trink Wasser.
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.
Listened to Orbital back in the day. This is like comfort food to me. A headphone ride to say the least. It all flows quite smoothly except "Quality Seconds." The way the vocal samples are used is a quaint reminder of the time period in which this came out, but I think they add to the rhythm and body of the songs.
Este disco está interesante. Desafortunadamente la página de Wikipedia no dice mucho sobre cómo fue producido, pero me da curiosidad saber si todo fue mezclado “en vivo” o ya utilizaron computadoras para hacerlo. Si fue lo segundo, debieron ser equipos relativamente sofisticados para la época. Musicalmente me agradó, pero tampoco me fascinó. Los sampleos están muy bien hechos y la música está padre, pero algunas canciones duran demasiado y se vuelven tediosas. Aún así, queda padre como música de fondo y con gusto lo volvería a escuchar.
The first couple songs were hard to get into. It defitely picks up though and helped motivate me to clean my kitchen. I listened to a lot of this type of music in the mid-late 90s - so it's enjoyable. Bits and pieces sound too much of the 90s, a bit stale. But overall I liked this.
I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Some of the songs actually annoyed me, but I feel hesitant to blame the music, maybe I was in a bad mood. I lieu of giving it another listen, I'll just give three stars instead.
solid early techo album. Didn't blow me away and was less clubby than I was expecting.
I'm having a very hard time rating this. It isn't bad, it just all blends together. For this type of music, I don't think I'm equipped to judge.
I've listened to Orbital before but not this album. I know them from the Mortal Kombat soundtrack. It's fine for background music. Not something I'd listen to regularly.
It started strong, but the weird speech insertions and repetition kind of wore me down after a while.
Da intelligisiert er sich dahin, der ich sag mal "Deutschlehrertechno" (hier natürlich jede im Land des Rezipienten gelehrte Muttersprache einsetzen). Und es ist nicht alles nur lyrisch, sondern immer auch mal schön auf die 12, zum Beispiel in Sad but True und Crash and Carry. Und genau da gefällt mir das Album am besten. Wenn einem zwischendurch mal die Entenfüße einschlafen, wie z.B. auf Kein Trink Wasser (Achtung, Deutschlehrer, bitte mal den Wortwitz aufklären wer kann!), wird man anschließend mit ein paar Quality Seconds unsanft geweckt, dieser Komplex hatte in seiner Dichotomie allerdings auch nur in etwa den Originalitätsfaktor eines von mir mit 17 aufgenommenen Mixtapes. Zum Abschluss hin dann wieder etwas "Intelligent Techno", diesmal aber in wärmer und flächiger und vielleicht nicht ganz so ausgetüftelt. Ich würde dem ganzen mal 3,1 Punkte geben.
Völlig unaufgeregte Strukturen, Beats durchgängig und ungebrochen, Schichtungs-Pop, das Copy’n’Paste Pflänzlein wird ordentlich gedüngt, seine Früchte zur Überreife gezüchtet. „Sad but True“ will eskalieren, fängt sich dabei aber etwas zu früh wieder ein; kann als programmatische Leitlinie für das gesamte Album gelten und degradiert vieles zu recht durchschaubaren Rockismen. Aufregend bleibt allein die Fülle und Balance ihrer Songideen, nicht aber deren Umsetzung. Etwas nervig ist jedoch der überbordende Gebrauch von spoken word/footage Schnipseln. Leicht überkritische 3.1
Orbital has been a major influencer in the British Electronica movement and genre, and this album shows a much more atmospheric approach to the genre. Intermixed with vocals and what sounds like taped conversations, the album flows into a delightful background of cacophony and noise. Unlike other groups of their era, this one feels content to dip toes into the industrial sounds without going completely in, but also stays away from any major attempt at singles.
Es bueno escuchar estos discos por razones históricas. Siento la música muy superada pero hay rolas que aguantan un sentón.
This grew on me. Might listen to it again if I need to be hyped up during a boring work task.
A solid groove of an album. Songs weren't all that distinct from one another but I danced pretty much the whole time. The last track felt like the end of a long dance party and I felt good and ready to go home.
This upbeat electronic music wasn't bad. I wasn't over the moon about the album, but I found myself bouncing to the beat through much of it.
Interesting album. Mostly long and meandering, but the last song is really something. Damn though it takes its time getting there. 3.5 🌟
It's really good, and a step up from the previous album, but this is the second orbital album on the list, it's not different enough for me to get too excited about.
Blev impulsivt skeptisk till 90-talstechno, men blev senare glatt överraskad! Det är en sorts "ambient techno", stämningsfull och härlig att ha i bakgrunden. Beaten är träffsäkra och allt känns extremt väl uttänkt. Ibland blir det väl lite för repetitivt (men det får man väl räkna med), som i avslutningslåten Attached. Gillar särskilt Forever, Science Friction, och 15-minuters-eposet Are We Here?, som är som ett äventyr genom olika stilar, känslor och platser. Bästa låt: Någon av de tre jag nämnde ^
eka biisi hyvä, sitten vähän suvantoa ennen kuin lopussa taas paranee. Varmaan tää pätee teknolevyihin yleensä että osa biiseistä ei iske. 3/5, voi tulevaisuudessa nousta.
Very Aphex Twin like... Repetitive, but not annoyingly so. Actually made some really nice background music for working. A couple of duds, but overall not too bad for being a relatively unplayed album.
Not really into techno these days, never heard of this Dj or album before, quiet enjoyable would listen to again.
Alhoewel ik meer van de up-tempo dance muziek ben, vind ik dit wel heel interessant. Ambient? Zwaar relaxed. De nummers hebben leuke melodie'tjes en "Forever" heeft misschien wel hit-potentie als het in een ander jasje zat. Mijn favoriet is echter het meer up-tempo nummer "Quality Seconds" :-) ***
First time listening. Had it on in the background, it was alright. Couldn't tell you much about the individual tracks though.
I probably would have liked it back in the day. But it sounds dated, now. I like some tracks. Some are actually annoying. Like "Quality Seconds". I like "Kein Trink Wasser".
So when I saw this album come up as my listen for today, my initial reaction was "oh no, not another electro-dance album". From what I've gleaned from the previous albums I've heard (been assigned?), these albums tend to be pretty samey and way too long. Well this one is better than most I've heard of the genre. It's still much too long. I got through the 6th song and was thinking this is pretty good, actually, then I see that of 3 of the 4 remaining songs, the shortest is 9:26, with one of them clocking in at over 15 minutes. Well the last part of the album was as good as the early part. In general terms; interesting beats, not too monotonous and overall an enjoyable listen. 3.5 🌟 (extra points because Tidal chose as the next random song after the last had played something called "Water From A Vine Leaf" by someone called William Or it, which was quite excellent).
In terms of electronic music I find techno to be one of the least interesting for me, at least this era of techno. I know Orbital is considered quintessential techno and I get it, but feels so dated now in comparison to modern IDM. Listening to it in a big warehouse at a rave, now that I could get into. As a casual listening experience it's meh.
Ill be honest and say I did not finish this one but I do not expect that I missed much. It was fine electronic music but it’s not for me. While I don’t need vocals I do like a melody and that was missing here.
This falls under a group of music that I call club music without the club. While it works as a standalone listen (I do like Allison Goldfrapp's vocals), it loses power outside the club. The combination of politics and electronic music can be powerful, but some songs seem to go on a bit too long. That may work in the club, but the focus on drum and bass at the expense of melody is problematic to me.
I love strong, bold roasted, black coffee, in all of its various applications: in a pint of stout, for example, or a crust application on a steak, or most definitely in the Italian dessert, Tiramisu, with its foundation of coffee-soaked ladyfingers upon which to build the layers of sweetened mascarpone cheese and cocoa. Think of each of the songs on 'Snivilisation' as laying a foundation- sometimes beginning with synthesized percussion, other times with, say, the alternating use of two synth bass parts to set the beat before the electronic percussion jumps in (‘Science Friction’); once, even, on ‘Kein Trink Wasser,’ a full three minutes of simple piano chords rapidly played- upon which layers and textures are then laid, musically constructed. There’s an awful lot of creative playfulness that went into this recording. The opening song, ‘Forever,’ was led by a spritely cymbal tapping beat to which lush synthesized string chords were added, eventually settling into a nice groove, until a surprisingly catchy bridge just slithered into the song like a snake and lingered for a while, longer than most bridges, almost like a wholly other song. ‘I Wish I Had Duck Feet,’ is as good an example as any of Orbital’s flawless skill in syncopation, with a kind of a latino flavored bit of electronica. Imagine Kraftwerk covering Santana. Keys that seem to be letting off sparks are played over a crazy chord progression on ‘Philosophy by Numbers.’ A clever synthesized xylophone arrangement is featured on ‘Science Friction.’ And Allison Goldfrapp’s periodic non lyrical vocals were a welcome intrusion, all caramel sweet and rich, with just a hint of B’jork. I’m not sure if ‘Quality Seconds’ and it’s techno-meets-thrash metal fits on this particular LP, but at a minute and a half it was quickly forgotten during the next fifteen plus of ‘Are We Here?’ I really like the Ambient genre of music, and while I favor the more a piacere compositions, I’m also finding that I enjoy some of the techno-ambient stuff out there, like this LP. Scratching my head over the title, though. It’s not spelled ‘snivel,’ so we’re not talking crying eyes and runny noses. The only information I could find was that the numerical value of Sinvil (whatever that is?) in Pythagorean Numerology is 4. And the letters ‘D,’ ‘M’ and ‘V’ all carry that same value. Some subtle reference to (and perhaps ranking of?) the cultural anthropology of the Department of Motor Vehicles? (Look at the cover art before entirely dismissing this ridiculous theory.)
And it's more UK 90s techno. Author really lets you know when he has favourite little scenes - this is a complete non event of an album and there's no legit reason it should be on the list. Just nameless, boring techno. And 75 minutes of it! 2/5.
A smile when I saw this long lost album. Then I heard it and realized why it was forgotten.
I wish I had duck feet as well, but I'm not really sure I understand the song. At all. I'm reminded of playing SSX for some reason. And for that, you get two.
Mid-nineties dance. Important, but I guess you had to be there in the field. BT: Forever, Sad But True, Crash and Carry
Techno Electronica teilweise fand ich eher Richtung ambience Nicht für mich, auch wenn man hin und wieder einfach mitgrooven muss
First Listen. Pretty much good background music. Don't know if this one will grow on me with more listens. 2/5 for now.
I honestly didn’t think the music could irritate me more than this album’s stupid title but it really outdid my expectations. Literal hatred: I refuse to believe the laudatory reviews about this overlong trudge of pretentious monotony can represent anything other than drug nostalgia.
I was feverish and had a headache while listening to this, which might have affected my reaction to it. Kind of like the time I binged Black Mirror while in the hospital recovering from surgery. Not a great idea. This just sort of made my head want to explode. 2 stars.
Wow quelle album bizarre. Je n’ai pas detester mais cest un peu too much electro. Quand mem bon mais a petite dose 3.15
This project so far has had its fair share of electronica in this playlist. Each has been in its own niche. This one fits in the "long and repetitive" niche. I laughed out loud when I read it was on a list of the 25 best dance albums ever, as I had spent a lot of the time listening to it thinking, "how would you dance to this?" Not that there aren't some cool things here. But I noticed that there was a vast difference between my feeling after listening to the entire album (minus 3 minutes, see below) and listening to 30 second samples of each track for a review. The first eight notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, for example, is brilliant. Hearing it repeated over and over for 9 minutes without ever moving on to another phrase would make me murderous. "Forever" was a good and hopeful start to the album for me. I liked the sound of it quite a bit. "I Wish I Had Duck Feet" was an interesting collection of sounds and percussion. Still liking the album although both tracks were overly long. "Sad but True" was where it started getting on my nerves. "Crash and Carry" was your standard '90's dance club beat, but I always found those boring and long. "Science Friction" had an interesting enough sound but like so much of this album, repeated ad infinitum. I liked the voice samples in "Philosophy by Numbers" but not much else. "Kein Trink Wasser" went on forever in a piano-pounding, nerve-fraying way. "Quality Seconds" then blared out of the speakers and I thought my music player had malfunctioned. Very jarring but mercifully short (if still repetitive). "Are We Here" went on for twice as long as the songs I've labeled "too long." And I will confess that I skipped about three minutes towards the end of the 12.5 minutes of "Attached." I was just feeling done with it. Did I miss anything?
I Wish I Had Duck Feet är en briljant titel på en låt men det är också det enda briljanta med denna skiva. Kein Trink Wasser har ngt men annars känner jag att jag lagt 90-talets techno-scen bakom mig. Vill jag vältra mig i nostalgi slår jag snarare på VM-krönikan från samma år
4/10. Some of the songs are actually pretty enjoyable, but most of those still go on way too long.
Alku hyvä, mut sit sukellettiin aika sakeisiin ysärisoundeihin eikä enää muutenkaan mitään säväyttävää. 2.5/5
Did not age well. I think in the right timeline and with enough drugs people would enjoy this, but I don't hear much to like in this.
Just because it’s British doesn’t mean it’s good or a “must listen to.” Sub-par techno.
The project has its high moments and is a fine background record. But it's also far too long and uneven in quality, interest, and genre.
Meh. I don't dislike ambient music, I just don't see the point. You can't sit and listen to it. You can't dance to it, unless you're on acid, and it's too intrusive for me to have on while working. It would be fine, but the voice samples are very annoying.
I like Orbital in bite sized chunks. Especially their versions of the Saint and Doctor Who themes. they're bangers. Satan and The Box slap too. This album though. too long. too boring. too self indulgent.
Had some interesting moments, but it was a bit of a chore and I'll probably never listen to this again.
One of those situations of what to do when the artist makes reasonable music but one of the members is an unethical scumbag. There’s enough other good art in the world so I choose to skip this.
I like my electronic music to sound like it was made by someone on 4 hits of acid and doesn’t know how to use traditional time signatures. (Aphex Twin).
El lado interesante del disco es que viene de la época en la que los raves eran perseguidos por la policía y el disco intenta tener algo de protesta al respecto. Fuera de eso, definitivamente no es mi género ni mi estilo y la verdad es que ni en una fiesta llegué realmente a disfrutar este particular estilo de EDM.
Aunque a veces puedes entrar en ambiente con la electrónica (más ahora que estoy en la playa) llegamos al punto de 'la electrónica es música de verdad?' No soy ajeno ya que anduve en raves y haciendole de DJ en algunas ocasiones pero al final del día son beats de bites, nunca he visto a un grupo de músicos tocar electrónica para grabar o en vivo
Electronisch spreekt mij niet echt aan, kan wel goed begrijpen wat mensen hier goed aan vinden
En los últimos meses he estado escuchando metalstep, que para mi es música de videojuegos o de películas de acción y supuse que eso me haría apreciar la electrónica desde otra perspectiva. Sí y no. Sí, porque ya no es un cero automático de calificación y puedo ahora apreciar ciertos momentos. No, porque fuera de música de fondo o supongo que bailando, no le encuentro chiste. Buscando un poco de referencias encontré que esto es techno/ambient techno y he ahí mi respuesta. Ambient es música de fondo y no es lo mío (cof cof Eno cof cof) y techno, en palabras de un spot de radioactivo hace ya muchos años "it's repetitive, it's boring and it fucking sucks". Ha sido una racha complicada de discos y este no ayuda a la causa. Otro disco que no tengo al menos una canción que recomendar.
1.5 | Techno!!! TECHNO TECHNO TECHNO TECHNO!!! Como por qué está este disco aquí? No entiendo de nuevo... incluso el otro disco de electrónica que ha tocado, a pesar de tampoco tener quiza tanto sentido en la lista, al menos proponía algo ligeramente distinto y era un genero no tan conocido. En este caso hay... un disco de EDM... largo como suelen ser, con música bastante bien hecha, pero bastante estándar. Canciones de receta para un rave que no proponen nada distinto, siendo que ya era 1994. Cumple su función supongo, lo escuche en la regadera y trabajando... fue música de fondo correcta que no impresiona en nada, algunos ritmos de trance bien hechos que si tuviera 20 años menos y más químicos serían buenos. El disco brilla ligeramente más cuando baja el ritmo y tiene un par de canciones tranquilas. Aun así nada que ver, nada que proponga y hay muchísima música electrónica que merece más la pena. Disco competente sin chiste.
It was just plain weird. It was very out there and used a ton of non-traditional sounds. Just didn’t work for me. A 1 maybe feels a bit harsh, but it’s closer to a 1 than a 2.
In places this sounds like it was made on 'Music 2000' on the PlayStation 1. it is also unrelentingly dull and uninteresting. Just so, so boring. 75 minutes long too. Such a slog to get through. Urgh. To give some credit though, Orbital do have cool glasses. 1/5
Not for me. Sounds like the electronic equivalent of elevator music. Tracks are too repetitive and not distinct enough to stand out
Are there any actual musicians here? This is just a bunch of repetitive sounds with some melody trying to peek through. I could have it on (very softly) as background music, but I wouldn't go out of my to listen to this style of music ever. It's soulless.