Orbital - Don't Stop Me Single Review

I wish I could be interested in this single, I really do. I wish that I could sit here and tell you that Orbital's first single in six years was a triumph and an excellent return to form. It actually hurts me, in fact, to report that what Orbital have actually released is an astonishingly dull techno/trance song that sounds for all the world like it's being sequenced by a Mega Drive (Which was cool about three years ago), with all the creative thought of a wet flannel. Keen listeners will recognise a sample from Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star", others won't; but it doesn't matter because it's repeated so many times in the track that it'll drive anyone absolutely spare within a couple of minutes. Another sample is simply of a woman screaming "shut up!" increasingly angrily, and I must say that I found myself agreeing with her more and more vehemently as the track shambled along (For a full six minutes) without achieving anything of any real worth or note.

The other side of the single fares little better, spineless drums clicking and farting their way under what could be the bassline from the last track in the opening, before a needlessly trebly synth smothers the rest of the track. The whole thing sounds dated unfinished and uninspired; there's nowhere near enough variation or excitement to hold the listeners attention for the 8 minutes the track last for, unless you found dull glitchy trance to be particularly rewarding. This is backing music at the best; the sort of music you might here in the back of an arcade shoot-em up ten years ago:- Instantly forgettable, unobtrusive and not designed to be paid attention to.

Whatever happened to Orbital? The group who created tracks like 'Satan' and "The Girl with the Sun in her Head" are no more, it seems; instead the group seem to be nothing more than two men who are out of tune with the scene, desperately trying to recreate past glory. Avoid, and if anyone asks you about it, pretend you don't know them or even like music.

Chris Spann