A one-stop-shop for Orbital which spans the breadth of their 30-year plus catalogue, A Beginner’s Guide traverses everything from their early chart hits ‘Chime’, ‘Belfast’ and ‘Halcyon’, fan favourites such as ‘Lush 3.1’, soundtrack moments like ‘Beached’ (their collaboration with film score maestro Angelo Badalamenti) and more recent cuts like ‘Ringa Ringa’ and ‘Dirty Rat’ (with Sleaford Mods)...

As someone who was once a massive Orbital fan, I can honestly confirm that A Beginner’s Guide is the perfect introduction to their groundbreaking musical world. For both the new and the initiated, A Beginner’s Guide provides the key moments in the seminal career of the UK electronic music duo composed of brothers Paul and Phil Hartnoll. Listening to this reminded me of commuting to work on London's underground in the '90s listening to In Sides (1996). In fact, from that album, remixes of 'The Girl With The Sun In Her Head' and 'The Box' are represented here.

Available on CD, digital download or vinyl, the album is housed in newly commissioned sleeves inspired by the designs and illustrations of 1970s technical manuals created by Julian House at Intro, a long term Orbital collaborator, plus new sleeve notes.

The CD version features five further tracks (including ‘Doctor?’, their breaks-flecked version of the Doctor Who theme) in addition to the eleven featured on the vinyl version.

For some of us this will be a loving look back at a bygone era.

Track listing:

01 Chime (Edit)
02 Halcyon (Edit)
03 Belfast (Edit)
04 Satan (Spawn)
05 The Box (Edit)
06 Lush 3.1 (Edit)
07 Beached (Edit)
08 Are We Here? (Edit)
09 Are You Alive? (Feat. Penelope Isles) (Edit)
10 Style (Edit)
11 Dirty Rat (Edit)
12 Funny Break (One Is Enough) (Single Version)
13 Ringa Ringa The Old Pandemic Folk Song - Featuring The Medieval Baebes (Edit)
14 Remind
15 Illuminate
16 Doctor?
17 The Girl With The Sun In Her Head

8

Nick Smithson