angels twenty - return home

Orbital
One Perfect Sunrise
Blue Album (2004)

Orbital have always lurked in the background throughout the many stages of the popular North American electronic movement. Often overshadowed Stateside by the likes of big hitters like the Chemical Brothers, Orbital have been content to rule certain venues where their dominance is unquestioned. And really, it can’t be too bad when one of those venues is Glastonbury, where their five sets have attained near-legendary status, and where the band played one of its last shows before bowing out for good last year. But in the popular consciousness, Orbital have managed a minor hit thanks to The Saint soundtrack, and that’s about it.

It’s fitting, then, that “One Perfect Sunrise” and other tracks from the Blue Album should recall aspects of their career peak, just before electronica broke cover in 1996. Orbital remain content to follow their own muse, largely ignoring the fickle changes in taste over the years. Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance lends her vocal talents to this relatively straightforward anthem, and if you’ve heard all of this a million times before you can be forgiven for wishing Orbital had tried something different for their last album. But in some ways, that’s perhaps missing the point. The video for the song is essentially a farewell and a retrospective, concatenating footage of the same near-legendary live sets mentioned previously. And in those images you can almost imagine the euphoria of the crowd, perhaps recall it if you’d been there yourself. “One Perfect Sunrise” plays to the crowd, sure—but of all the possible final tracks for Orbital to leave us with, there is probably none better.

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