OFF: Orbital/Porcupine Tree/Astralasia

[Jonathan Jarrett]

On Sun, Feb 17, 2002 at 06:16:06PM -0000, Andrew Garibaldi typed out:
> Orbital 'Halcyon' is by far and away the best thing they ever did - just
> track down the CD single with the edit and the full version, forget the
> albums and get into Shpongle instead - far better..
> The Astralasia mix of 'Voyage 34' is on the 'Voyage 34' CD album if I
> remember rightly, with all three versions (from the two singles) fo thetrack
> on it and it's fab. As to spaciest Tree CD, well if you don;t mind vocals,
> then surely must be 'Sky Moves Sideways' altho' there are two instrumental
> CD's by them if you want something with more power.
> As to latest Astralasia, believe it or not I've not heard it yet as I am
> about three light years behind with reviewing (well, not quite, but one hell
> of a backlog) due to all the work now underway to get the CDS website up and
> running. As to reissue of old Astralasia stuff, not heard anything but I'll
> ask them tomorrow and let you know.

        It was Rich Warren asking, I believe, but for information
generally, `Halcyon' is on the untitled album with the brown sleeve, known
as the brown album by afficionados :-) I have it and love it, though I
actually don't rate `Halcyon' very highly. I'm unusual among Orbital fans
in this respect though. I understand the single track is different in some
aspects, which may be why.

        Never heard of Shpongle before; are they better than Orbital at
the same thing, or are they parallel evolvers?

        _Voyage 34: the Complete Trip_ is indeed the CD with that track
on it, though there are four tracks, the original Phase One and Two of the
track, the Astralasia remix (which to my mind is like every other
Astralasia remix I ever did hear, boring, picking the least interesting
bits of a track and looping them for longer than before, minimalist to the
point of tedium--but your mileage may well vary) and a fourth Phase which
is in some sense a remix but has loads of extra stuff by Richard Barbieri
of later PT and various solo ambient projects over its very bare bones so
as to effectively be a new piece. It's rather a good CD, and I agree with
Andy, _The Sky Moved Sideways_ is indubitably the spaciest of their other
albums, and not a little like Floyd's _Wish You Were Here_ either.

        Hope all that's of some use even now, and someone tell me about
this Spongle lot, yours,
                         Jon Jarrett

ObCD: The Eastern Dark - _Where Are All the Single Girls?_
--
        Jonathan Jarrett                Birkbeck College, London
                 jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
        --------------------------------------------------------
  "The large print giveth and the small print taketh away." (Tom Waits)