Orbital are a couple of lads who've made something of a habit of doing film soundtracks. In between their excellent albums, they've dabbled with doing soundtrack work, on films such as "The Saint" and "Event Horizon", and gotten the style down quite well. Composing soundtrack music is quite different from making a regular album, the soundtrack music usually has to complement the action taking place on the screen, which can mean that when that visual context is taken away, the effect of the music is often diminished.

Octane, a British horror movie, is by all accounts a bit of a shocker, as evidenced by the fact that even independent theatres here which normally delight in showing anything that's not from the United States aren't touching it. Thankfully, none of the film's apparent shoddiness seems to have touched the soundtrack, which Orbital have sculpted into an often tense, very dark, and intruiging listen. Forget about the dance music normally associated with this band, what we have here is an orchestral-style film soundtrack that has been composed almost entirely with electronic instruments.

Most of the music has rather bluntly descriptive titles, like the frantic-sounding Frantic and the shifty, edgy, Total Paranoia. Nothing is left to the imagination, which might spoil some of the effect, but listening to the music without knowing the song titles, you could probably pick the desired emotion anyway. There are a few other pieces, like the faintly ominous Through The Night which cultivates a general sense of unease with a constantly repeating tune popping up over and over under the main melody. Chasing The Tanker combines a very fast tempo with seemingly random distortion waves to create a real sense of urgency.

One of the nice things about this album is the way that everything holds together. The same musical themes, and even the same collections of notes, often pop up together in different songs. Far from sounding like the brothers Hartnoll were out of ideas though, it serves to give the whole soundtrack a cohesive feel, like it's one single massive piece of music, rather than a collection of disparate segments like many albums of this type feel like. This consistency without getting repetitive is a trick that many artists could gain a lot from.

This album certainly isn't danceable, and the fact that danceable beats are missing will probably work against it. The techno history of the band will turn off some, and the unconventional nature of the constructions will turn off others. But if you're the sort of person who can look past that, then this album will be a very rewarding experience.

Orbital are a couple of lads who've made something of a habit of doing film soundtracks. In between their excellent albums, they've dabbled with doing soundtrack work, on films such as "The Saint" and "Event Horizon", and gotten the style down quite well. Composing soundtrack music is quite different from making a regular album, the soundtrack music usually has to complement the action taking place on the screen, which can mean that when that visual context is taken away, the effect of the music is often diminished.

Octane, a British horror movie, is by all accounts a bit of a shocker, as evidenced by the fact that even independent theatres here which normally delight in showing anything that's not from the United States aren't touching it. Thankfully, none of the film's apparent shoddiness seems to have touched the soundtrack, which Orbital have sculpted into an often tense, very dark, and intruiging listen. Forget about the dance music normally associated with this band, what we have here is an orchestral-style film soundtrack that has been composed almost entirely with electronic instruments.

Most of the music has rather bluntly descriptive titles, like the frantic-sounding Frantic and the shifty, edgy, Total Paranoia. Nothing is left to the imagination, which might spoil some of the effect, but listening to the music without knowing the song titles, you could probably pick the desired emotion anyway. There are a few other pieces, like the faintly ominous Through The Night which cultivates a general sense of unease with a constantly repeating tune popping up over and over under the main melody. Chasing The Tanker combines a very fast tempo with seemingly random distortion waves to create a real sense of urgency.

One of the nice things about this album is the way that everything holds together. The same musical themes, and even the same collections of notes, often pop up together in different songs. Far from sounding like the brothers Hartnoll were out of ideas though, it serves to give the whole soundtrack a cohesive feel, like it's one single massive piece of music, rather than a collection of disparate segments like many albums of this type feel like. This consistency without getting repetitive is a trick that many artists could gain a lot from.

This album certainly isn't danceable, and the fact that danceable beats are missing will probably work against it. The techno history of the band will turn off some, and the unconventional nature of the constructions will turn off others. But if you're the sort of person who can look past that, then this album will be a very rewarding experience.