Music: Orbital

Jeff Hemmings talks to Phil Hartnoll of Orbital

The Brighton-based duo of Phil and Paul Hartnoll are one of the biggest acts to have come out of the rave scene, responsible for many memorable songs including ‘Chime’, ‘Halcyon’, ‘Are We Here?’, ‘The Box’ and most recently, ‘Wonky’, the title track from their first album in nine years, which was released earlier this year.

Featuring MC Lady Leshurr, the brilliantly funny video for the track came about due to actor Matthew Horne’s love of the band. “He approached us – he’s got a video production company – and we slung him that one, and they came up with that treatment… It’s one of my favourites, that along with the one for ‘The Box’… he did us proud,” says Phil, who along with Paul were based for many years at The Levellers’ Metway complex in Kemp Town.

Since their reunion in 2009 (following their initial break up in 2004), Orbital have been enjoying life making and performing music again, and finding very receptive audiences around the world for their take on dance and electronica, often improvisatory in nature.

“We weren’t feeling it anymore [back in 2004]; we got a bit lost. The last album (Blue Album) we weren’t entirely happy with… we ended up chucking the baby out with the bath water. My brother always wanted to do something with an orchestra, which he did, and I did a project with some local people called Longrange, which is now defunct, and I did some deejaying.”

Orbital’s success, like all good musical stories, wasn’t pre-ordained, coming about more via that time honoured route of skill, luck and being at the right place at the right time – their first single ‘Chime’ was picked up by legendary dance label FRR in 1990. “We recorded it on a four track using c-90 tapes,” says Phil. “We could flip it over, do the other side. It was a bit of a test to see if this works. That track was so impulsive, it ended up catapulting us into getting a record deal.”

Nowadays of course, technology has moved on: “We always played out live, even at the beginning, setting the studio up on the stage, but now we use iPads along with a mix of analogue and software synthesisers.

The songs aren’t pre-arranged, we like to feed off the audience. “It’s hard work on stage. Fun too, but a lot of ‘Oh god, what’s going on there?’… something random will happen, and it could be a lucky mistake or not. It’s a free-for-all really.”

Orbital, Concert Hall, Brighton Dome, Tuesday 11 December, 7pm, £24