orbitaldvd

Those of you familiar with Orbital will know the brothers Hartnoll have been bringing us intellectual techno for nigh on ten years, beginning with their classic anthem 'Chime' in the early nineties. How far they have come then, as now their new album 'The Altogether' is released on brand new spanking DVD. And the effort the group have put into it is second to none. Without going into the numerous extra features for the moment, this is one of those music DVD's up there with releases by Underworld and The Super Furry Animals. First of all are the menus - not designed to be conventional by any means, they may confuse viewers at first due to the fact there aren't any! Just try moving about the DVD with your remote and see how many screens you can find. In terms of being an album, this is one of Orbital's best, up there with 1996's 'In Sides'. For this DVD, every track on the album has had a promotional video made to accompany it, ranging from bizarre animated household objects in 'Tension', a girl in a suitcase in 'Funny Break', robot children destroying Paris in the comical, Ian Dury sampling 'Oi!', a young man about to meet a prostitute in 'Pay Per View', a throwback to early nineties rave visuals in 'Tootled', the fake children's program style of 'Waving Not Drowning' and manipulations of light on the David Gray collaboration "Illuminate". The music is what you'd expect from Orbital as well, sometimes euphoric, sometimes dark an d moody.
This is a great album for both lovers of Orbital and those just looking for something different in their dance music.

EXTRA FEATURES
Where this DVD comes into it's own, however, is with it's extra features. 'Tension' appears as both the music video and as footage from a live performance, with the brothers prancing about in their now trademark illuminated headsets. 'Funny Break' benefits from a making of feature, displaying behidn the scenes footage to the music. 'Pay Per View' operates on three levels, as a promo video, as a short film incorporating dialogue and sound effects, and as six minutes of hilarious spoof commercials. 'Shadows' has a multiple angle feature, featuring different versions of the CGI flies that appear in the video. 'Waving Not Drowning' is featured in six differing short sections that can be found on the disc, including a tour of a CD factory with Brian Cant commentary, audition tapes for the video, and sequences from the video with restored dialogue. There are additional videos for 'Meltdown' (a different version appears here than on the CD, this totalling 24 minutes of dark drum and bass) and 'Doctor?' - the groups' own take on the 1970's "Dr. Who" theme, which can be viewed in it's original format or with photos of crew members instead.
There is an extra hidden track entitled 'Monorail', but with the depth of the innovative menu system, it may take you a while to find it...