It’s been 12 years since Orbital entered the public consciousness with ‘Chime’, and having to live up to such an anthemic debut single has not been easy. One of the first dance acts to successfully merge their music with the ‘stadium show’ Orbital have developed a reputation for giving punters value for money in concert. Their use of lighting, visual effects, and an ability to re-create their recorded work without the use of DAT’s has ensured Orbital headline status at festivals around the world.

However, a glance at their discography shows that success hasn’t always been that easy to come by. In between stunning works such as ‘Chime’, and 1996’s ‘In Sides’, have come prog-electro epics (‘The Box’), political statements (‘Halcyon + On + On’, a response to the British Government’s draconian Criminal Justice Bill) and their first LP (‘Orbital’ which still sounds incomplete to this day). In 1999, the duo released their fifth album, ‘Middle of Nowhere’, which recieved critical praise from both the dance and mainsteam music media, but sold disappointingly (The pair told Q magazine last month that London Records big-wig Pete Tong didn’t know how to promote the album properly).

2001 sees the Hartnoll brothers return to the public eye with their sixth album, and first impressions show a duo who aren’t sure of where to turn next. Orbital fans won’t be disappointed, but newcomers to the boys from Kent will wonder why, like the signpost in the opening credits of the TV series M.A.S.H, ‘The Altogether’ veers off in all directions.

Criticisms aside, Orbital still know how to cook up a good tune. ‘Illuminate’ uses the vocals of Irish star David Gray beautifully; a trance remix would no doubt raise the grins and arms of ravers across any dancefloor. ‘Funny Break’ is all saxophone and breaks, and those Orbital fans who cotton on to this gem of a track would do no harm in snapping up the single as well for the top-notch mixes by the ultra-hot production teams of Layo and Bushwacka, and the Plump DJ’s. Opening track ‘Tension’ uses whizz-bang blips to spin your head around, while ‘Last Thing’ is a very dark piece of work indeed. The album also includes the duo’s spin on the theme tune to Doctor Who, (‘Doctor?’) which has been a standard in their live show for some time now.

But suddenly, it all goes a bit, well… pear-shaped. The confused ‘Oi’ goes from wacky sax to Ian Dury, but doesn’t linger in the memory. ‘Tootled’ sound like something Apollo 440 could have churned out on a bad day (the strumming bass is lifted off Tool’s ‘Sober’), while the flowery ‘Waving Not Drowning’ seems very much like Diet-Orbital.

However, ‘The Altogether’ appears to be Orbital’s best chance of chart success. A current single with dance floor cred, an upcoming single with mainstream radio appeal thanks to an Irish warbler; maybe Pete Tong has worked out how to market Orbital after all.