Composer Reacts to Orbital - Halcyon And On And On (REACTION & ANALYSIS)

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Күн бұрын

Bryan reacts to and talks about his thoughts on Halcyon And On And On
ORIGINAL VIDEO // • Halcyon And On And On
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0:00 Intro
01:13 Reaction
10:41 Analysis - Initial Thoughts
11:57 Analysis - Dueling Priorities
19:47 Analysis - Building Block Creation
23:19 Analysis - Beautiful Atmospheres
26:17 Analysis - Lyrical Dive
28:10 Outro
#reaction #orbital #techno

Пікірлер: 83

@darkhoundslobber2028 Жыл бұрын

Fun fact: The Hartnoll brothers (Orbital) perform live. I don't mean DJ sets. I mean they recreate their tunes live using synths, pads, etc. each time they have a concert. Sure, they sometimes just have to properly time a key strike to start/stop a pre-recorded vocal track or drum loop or sample, but many of their performances are 'in the moment' creative takes on their studio recorded material. It's quite fun to experience and their shows back in the 90s were legendary for their energy and good vibes. Glad to see you checking out one of their classics.

@FiveSigma72 Жыл бұрын

Oh man so many good nights at clubs and festivals with Orbital. Along with the Chemicals and Leftfield, they were my best nights of the 90s. Feel blessed for having that decade happen in my 20s....I may just be old now but it feels like theres nothing like that kind of vibe now, either in bands or EDM.

@darkhoundslobber2028 Жыл бұрын

@FiveSigma Yeah, Orbital was my portal to all other dance music and I was born at just the right time to watch them ascend as they caught their first wave during my late teens. Those days I feel like the production & beat styles/tastes weren't so rigid either, so it wasn't unusual to hear break beats, 4 on the floor, and minimalist techno beats all at the same event, and often combined in various flavors during the same set too. In the end I became a huge breaks geek (particularly due to the glory days of that style in the early 2000s), but my continued love of techno and hybrids thereof stems from Orbital for sure. Even the stuff they put out today continues to be unique and genre-blurring. They are living legends.

@princealbertz 9 ай бұрын

Another fun fact. Orbital Halcyon was used in Mortal Kombat 1995 movie and Mean Girls and one or two more movies that I have not watched

@jmp01a24 7 ай бұрын

@@FiveSigma72 You lucky B. Jealous much: YES!

@jmp01a24 7 ай бұрын

@@princealbertz Chemical bros did tune for one of the first PS1 games. That racer game I forget the name... And ofc Bomb the Bass was featured on Xenon II on Amiga CDTV. I recorded that over to cassette and played in my car. lol.

@wtw5002 Жыл бұрын

From the Hackers soundtrack! Who remembers that epic gem of a movie?

@dustmighte Жыл бұрын

Mortal Kombat too

@dethsor666 9 ай бұрын

the soundtrack was awesome... Loved it as much as Pulp Fiction

@DerekPower Жыл бұрын

This is often described as “ambient house”, which purposeful brings together … well ambient and house (electronic music coming out of Chicago). This particular track’s title is a play on Halicion (triazolam), a prescribed tranquiliser that Paul and Phil Hartnoll’s [Orbital] mother was addicted to for years. Because of this, I can imagine the “conflicting elements” as illustrating what it does to someone and why one takes it. This kind of music characterised the rave sound of the late 1980s and early 1990s in the UK.

@muzikkification 11 ай бұрын

Late reply, but yeah. The use of 909 drums, etc have Chicago house written all over it, yet on the other hand it has that ambient quality, which is more techno-inspired.

@jamesarnold6958 Жыл бұрын

Complaining about repetition in dance music is a trifle bizarre as it’s part of the point - out in a club or at a gig you’re supposed to be swept away in the beats. Either way this review seems to miss the little clever subtleties of the track with the little vocal sample changes. Not one of Orbitals most complex, but easily one of their catchiest, especially live where it’s a rare moment of relax after the more driving stuff. They are legends of the dance world (and yes, a BAND not a DJ) and forefathers of performing electronic music live instead of simply mixing records. For a true demonstration of the Hartnoll brothers musical chops I would recommend Out There Somewhere (parts 1 & 2) from the InSides album. Essentially two musical movements in numerous parts it changes its clothes many times during its runtime and possesses more musical hooks than most people’s entire albums. A staggering pseudo classical techno masterpiece. It would give you a LOT to talk about! There’s a reason the band have headlined festivals like Glastonbury in front of eighty thousand people. Live they wipe the floor with most of the competition.

@UMBR. 9 ай бұрын

Repetition is the fundamental building block of music. Without repetition, you don't have music.

@alasdairwhyte4772 7 ай бұрын

Every time someone uses the term "EDM" I die a little inside. It's akin to my parents asking if I went to a nightclub or like any of that Rave music.

@m00d_fm 10 ай бұрын

One of the greatest electronic acts ever. The Insides album in particular was one of the formative albums in my love of electronic music which lasts some 30 years later.

@FiveSigma72 Жыл бұрын

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the track from their The Box ep with all the harpsichords in a really unique baroque sounding track. It's always been one of my favourite Orbital tunes, which is saying a lot.

@FiveSigma72 Жыл бұрын

(edit) apprently its a Harmonium not a harpsichord. Kicks in about 9.30 on the full ep. Only way I can describe it is medieval EDM lol.

@cbh6886 Жыл бұрын

This is probably my favorite electronic piece of music ever. Consider a reaction to The Box by the same guys.

@HerbertTwack 10 күн бұрын

The second this starts it takes me straight back to Ibiza. Glorious

@AnahataMaryjane 2 ай бұрын

the girl with the sun in her eyes is my fave orbital song.

@dethsor666 9 ай бұрын

Listening getting the train to uni back in the day. Train line goes through deep temperate rainforest valley and opens out onto the ocean at sunrise... That's what this tune is for.

@blackbirdfilms1966 4 ай бұрын

All I see is the Mortal Kombat movie ending scene

@richardjones38 Жыл бұрын

I just searched your videos, and it looks like you've never checked out the Prodigy. While on a theme of '90's British dance music you really should check out some of their early, more 'ravey' tunes from before they became known in the US with songs like Firestarter. I'd recommend Out of Space, Wind it Up, or Their Law. I have some Orbital albums, and have seen them live. The original Halcyon is 3:52 long, and I wouldn't say it's repetitive. I prefer it to this version. The Prodigy are more my cup of tea though. Their songs almost all constantly evolve - Liam Howlet is a genius innovator of electronic music. They became quite widely liked by metal fans in the UK in the late '90's - folk who would typically never previously listen to electronic stuff. No doubt helped by their hard core, more punk attitude, and by their later stuff often incorporating live drums & guitars, but before then too. The Prodigy live at Download festival 2006 was one of the most insane live shows I've seen. RIP Keith!

@SylvesterTemple 8 ай бұрын

Drifting in late, but just wanted to say, a lot of the EDM stuff is short because that's the commonly played "radio" versions of it, whereas DJs versions tend to be a lot longer to give DJs time to sort out what comes next and have some fluidity and choice as to how they are mixed...... When I'm considering tunes for DJing, if it's shorter than 5 mins long, I tend to ignore it and skip to the next, knowing that the most anyone would hear clearly of the track on it's own is maybe about 3 minutes, and then there will be a mix into it which will generally last up to 2 mins, and about the same mixing into the next track - this is especially true when playing trance, where layering of tracks matters. With my last recorded psy-trance set, there's very few times it's just a single track playing on it's own, and mostly those bits tend to be just the breakdown, with the previous and/or next track I'm going to be using layered over the top.......

@posiputt1476 Жыл бұрын

I'm not sure if this is intentional, but the ambient and dance sides of the music being at odds with each other may be a way to capture a kind of manic/restless state that is being suppressed by a sedative like halcion. I imagine being driven and sedated at the same time would be quite unsettling, but others may experience it as a blissful way of making an otherwise bleak and repetitive life bearable. am I making any sense at all? aside from that I think you may find much electronic dance music from the mid nineties to early naughties a bit "flat". production today seems fuller (but also sometimes kinda sanitized? overperfect? uncanny?), which I found impressive yesterday with the completely maxed out at all times meters. I'm kinda talking out of my ass though, because I'm really not versed in music production. even though I tried it myself several times over the last 25 years. anyway, I'm looking forward to more of your thoughts on electronic music! especially the weirder side of it. moar autechre pls :D (surripere would be my suggestion, also around 10 minutes long)

@CC-oi9mc Жыл бұрын

The song and music video are inspired tragically by the hartnoll brothers own mothers terrible addiction to it

@UMBR. 9 ай бұрын

The vocal is a sample taken from "It's A Fine Day" by Opus III: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ipusga2vi9F-bJI Which itself is a cover of an acapella track of the same name by Jane: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aqfKlIx4rN6qaJo I recommend checking out Kirsty Hawkshaw. Her voice is truly angelic. Beautiful, with an amazing pitch range.

@UMBR. 9 ай бұрын

--- ON REPETITION --- People who know about music should recognise that repetition is the fundamental building block of music. Everything from that which differentiates musical tone from noise (repeating cycles/patterns of vibration); to how we divide music into looping beats and bars, pulse, time signatures; to songs having repeating sections, verse chorus verse chorus.

@UMBR. 9 ай бұрын

--- ON "EDM" AND "AMBIENT" --- It is a mistake to assume that "EDM" is just big synth bang bang tracks. Ambient is a sub-genre of electronic music, and it often crosses over to the more club/dance sub-genres. With "ambient", it is intended to be background music; evolution and change within a track are minimal. You zone out from it. You said this yourself. As far as I am aware, "Halcyon + On + On" is intended more as ambient dance, than progressive dance. It is where ambient crosses over into dance. It is more suited to coming down and chilling out; to putting it on in the background while you space out/trip out and drift away. Listening within that context, the 9+ minute duration is justified. It can also work for dance too, meditative dance. Hypnotic trance movement.

@UMBR. 9 ай бұрын

--- ON "PROGRESSIVE" --- With "progressive" dance, it is less about explicit sections with obvious differences (eg. verse > chorus); and more about long sections where changes are more gradual; sounds evolve; there is a driving sense of forward motion; things building up. Timbres shift; amplitudes and speeds increase and decrease; filters open and close; pitches rise and fall; elements pan left and right; flangers and phasers move things around... Hence "progression". Thus, the progressive-ness necessitates the length of these longer tracks. And this is a bit of a problem for "progressive" music. Because the changes are often more subtle, they fall below the radar of many listeners, so these listeners may draw the conclusion that nothing is happening, it is repetitive, and boring. And sometimes, there are so many elements, it is easy to miss what actually IS changing. For something that is more explicitly progressive, I HIGHLY and STRONGLY recommend "Divinity" by BT: kzbin.info/www/bejne/noeXeHh7drCWiqM I would LOVE to see you do a reaction and analysis of that. It IS a club track. It changes, evolves, moves forward. It builds. It is uplifting. Pulsating and pumping. And beautiful. The sheer layers that shift and move around each other...

@andrewgoodfellow2039 26 күн бұрын

It's the vocal from It's a fine day, backwards

@UMBR. 26 күн бұрын

@andrewgoodfellow2039 yes indeed, the vocal sample is reversed, or "backmasked"

@RandyColby 7 ай бұрын

You should really check out Orbital - The Box

@_portis Жыл бұрын

A classic for sure. Orbital were one of the best, irreplaceable! One of my first electronic purchases, at an ep price i remember lol! Hoping you get to my squarepusher recommendation! i think in future polls you should just call it electronic, and not necessarily including the 'D' :)

@dalek604 Жыл бұрын

Orbital are named after the M25 orbital moterway (freeway), it had just been built when the rave scene kicked off. The M25 helped people to get to the illegal raves and people would park their cars in the laybys near by.

@Shoomer1988 5 ай бұрын

I forgot to mention the track was about their Mother's addiction to the 'Halcion' tranquillizer, the spelling change reflect the pleasure is gives you so much you can't do without it.

@YershJRSZ 4 ай бұрын

Worth to mention is that it's re-interpretation of the original Halcyon recorded earlier in 1992 as the part of Raddicio EP. (That's why it's renamed to Halcyon and On and On). Also highly reccomend the live version including "Heaven is the place on earth" and "You give love a bad name" samples :D

@jmp01a24 7 ай бұрын

It's in the landscape of ambient (start out as that anyway) then it moves into more techno based territory. Their Lush series is originally a remix of opus III's its a fine day. Edit: you must do all of them together Lush 1-3.

@YershJRSZ 4 ай бұрын

Only Halcyon is based upon "It's a Fine Day" Lush is a separate track, but also one of the greatest if not the greatest suite of techno music: Lush 3.1 - Lush 3.2 - Impact - Remind. Just perfect flow, especialy on the original album versions as the spotify's current mix of Lush 3.1 is bit broken at the outro by making it fade out instead of mixing into 3.2, the rest is just perfect. But they are most likely to drop the remastered version of the Brown Album later this year as now they are about to drop the remaster of their 1st album with a special tour containing of live interpretation of their first two albums. (It was announced as Green Album tour, but then they added the Brown Album, so it's two sets one after another)

@jmp01a24 4 ай бұрын

@@YershJRSZI guess there's a different female vocalist used on Lush: 1 is the rather short setup for the awesome techno section of 2-3, which was every underground DJ's favourite track. Very Detroit/Hawtin. Love how Orbital inserted the female vocals, they fit so well. I forgot Halcyon On and On was the track using Opus 3 (it's a fine day) vocals. Which was a coversong of Jane's 1983 version (just her singing, no instruments). It became more popular than the re-mix by A Guy Called Gerald same year. lol. At least outside UK.

@welshydragon2007 2 ай бұрын

Stands the test of time as they toured this and their first album - it was awesome- is was completely lost in the moment

@danalawrence4473 Жыл бұрын

Another lovely techno record- melodic and at times driving. This is a superb record. I've had it for many years.

@lastsplash6 3 ай бұрын

This and Chicane - Offshore are two of my favorite chill tracks. Saltwater is another great one by Chicane, highly recommend if you haven't heard them already.

@commentathor1997 Жыл бұрын

Try washing dishes to it

@gadgeroonie 3 ай бұрын

the vocal has been reversed on a sampler - its from 'its a fine day by Opus III

@Stopadoodledoo 8 ай бұрын

The first time I heard this song was in a mate's caravan and yeah, we may have been a wee bit under the influence, but it totally changed my perception of what music could be. Such a beautiful, deep song.

@DumblyDorr Жыл бұрын

A classic - and for a good reason. Love this track :) There are so many amazing electronic tracks from so many subgenres I would love to recommend - but if I should name only one I'd love for you to take a look at ,it would be: Venetian Snares - Hajnal I consider this track to be a modern masterpiece - it goes from classical to blues to jazz to breakcore. It evokes Stravinsky as well as an explosion in a percussion factory... you could certainly sink your teeth into this one (he also has a song that's a 7/8 version of "Gloomy Sunday" which works astoundingly well with Billy Holiday's vocals).

@dustmighte Жыл бұрын

Total walking out of the club after sunrise into a sleeping city vibe

@icepee9252 4 ай бұрын

I find that this track is transidential but with feet of clay. Ethreal but with solidity.

@KennethBradburn-pk9oj 2 ай бұрын

It was written for Mortal Kombat movie , watch the original and your mind will change . It accomplished the climax beyond the movie. To save the world

@KennethBradburn-pk9oj 2 ай бұрын

Exactly

@hassNpheffer 6 ай бұрын

Orbital are the quintessential electronic duo. The Hartnolls are brilliant composers. My personal fave is both parts "The Box". Part 1 especially is one of the most beautiful pieces Ive heard in my lifetime and part 2 takes it to another level bringing it dooming beats. It's perfection.

@kylefox2292 11 ай бұрын

Beautiful!!

@JonasJudah 8 ай бұрын

The track you heard was a remix it wasn't the original. The better one was with Kirstie Hawkshaw singing the lyrics. This one just has sample clips of Kirstie and is more simpler.

@vinniramos Жыл бұрын

you should do boards of canada!

@vinniramos Жыл бұрын

I recommend the song "Dayvan Cowboy"

@DJAdalaide 7 ай бұрын

What and let him destroy and tear apart some more of my favourite music? no thanks!

@greggerypeccary Жыл бұрын

It is not at all strange for 90s electronica to have long tracks -- this was not disco, but music for partied that lasted all night long... or to chill out to. Other examples of long tracks would be Salt Tank's Eugina: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aaSmooVjp9-djpo (ST's EPs were 40 minutes longs... their albums over an hour) T-Power's Police State was 14 minutes long: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f3PRh3x3gbmLsJo

@greggerypeccary Жыл бұрын

Oh, and it's funny that you say you have a problem with the schism between the driving part and the chill part... I think one of the things that make music interesting, one of music's fundamentals, is those kinds of schisms. A lot of music tends to end up one-dimensional because of a lack of understanding of these things, be it "extreme" music (all loud/fast) or hippie music and pop (all about groove and melody). I think Juko from Sokoninaru has a good sense for composition because he understands this and is good at mixing quiet/loud, fast/slow, start/stop, melody/noise etc. BTW, as a cynical person I have to say... most music has no artistic idea behind it. It's usually people farting around trying to get laid.

@pentagruelhexagasm Жыл бұрын

long tracks are for mixing purposes for live dj sets. you will often that tracks repeat the entire song twice or just the drum beat playing for that very reason. i find myself skipping dance tracks half way / three quarters the way thru because they are built in a utilitarian way. the proper way to here this stuff is in a dj set, and the point of that dj set is solely to make you dance, but these tracks are built in way that aids the DJ over creating a coherent musical piece.

@Shoomer1988 5 ай бұрын

Orbital where at one time called 'Electronic Listening Music', a term that never really caught on. You should try to checkout some videos of them live at the Glastonbury Festival. The even headlined once in front of about 60k people. Oh, the whole of the 'Brown' is great too and the track 'Chime' is aa Rave legend.

@CC-oi9mc Жыл бұрын

It’s a crowd pleaser but far far from one of their most composed conceptual or artful tracks in my opinion but it’s a legendary tune. I think the girl with the sun in her head, dwr budr, are we here, out there somewhere, Belfast, or attached. And as a credible snob I beg please please don’t do the box or Klein trink wasser or anything released after in sides (none of it is worth a piss sadly). I do think Paul Hartnoll in his prime is one of the greatest composers we’ve had and I truly mean that. In the live versions of Halcyon they remix the end with You give love a bad name by Bon Jovi and heaven is a place on earth by Belinda Carlisle , it’s really fun.

@Jihavoh777 Жыл бұрын

I love this song, but listening to it with analyzing ears sucks the joy right out of it lol …You should listen again sometime when you’re just out driving, enjoying the day.

@FraterTaciturnus Жыл бұрын

I'm hearing early Grimes here. Would love to hear your reaction to Oblivion.

@kylefox2292 11 ай бұрын

My favorite of all time as far as Electronica. Plus all the remixes..

@KennethBradburn-pk9oj 2 ай бұрын

This particular song is a composition of the movie end far beyond the other music or the movie. It’s myssitical

@3DJapan 10 ай бұрын

One of the best albums of all time.

@jamesfield1674 Жыл бұрын

They are masters of layering listen to The Girl With The Sun In Her Head

@tommyvercetti6035 Жыл бұрын

Guy are you just looking at my playlists at this point?

@CriticalReactions Жыл бұрын

I swear I only ethically source the list of music I react to 😅

@jonathanhenderson9422 Жыл бұрын

Orbital is another of the rare electronica acts I've heard of. Like the Aphex Twin, it's beautifully atmospheric and would make a great background soundtrack for any number of things or activities... but, yes, it's very repetitive, too much so for active listening for me.