Originally released on September 30, 1991, Orbital’s eponymous debut album became known as The Green Album to distinguish it from their second album (known as The Brown Album)The Green Album includes the seminal ‘Belfast’ and a live version of ‘Chime’, the landmark dance track that launched their career in 1990. Following the success of ‘Chime’, Pete Tong signed Orbital to London/ffrr Records, and Tong allowed the Hartnolls the freedom to record the album they wanted to make. Where their contemporaries on the rave circuit would knock out ten formulaic 4/4 piano bangers with guest vocalists and call it an album, for their debut Orbital wanted to explore wider textures, different rhythms, stranger mind spaces. “Our heroes were always Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire, the Severed Heads – people who made proper, satisfying, full albums,” explains Paul, “and we were like, yeah, that’s what we want to do.”It was this ambition that led to Orbital becoming giants of electronic music. The Hartnoll brothers would go on to redefine what dance music could do and the place it took within popular culture itself. Their music has influenced and inspired artists from Björk to Bicep and they have collaborated with minds as diverse as Madonna, Kraftwerk and Professor Brian Cox. The Moebius Speed Freak Macrohead Oolaa Desert Storm Fahrenheit 303 Steel Cube Idolatry High Rise Chime (Live) Midnight (Live) Belfast
