Machine Code

I remember back in 99 when I first bought this album. Before then I had only listened to trance and the common club hits, even Spice Girls. I hadn’t learned about all the great music out there. In comes Orbital, and blows my mind away. For a year straight. On my way to school. I had it on literally 24/7 and it really opened up my music taste. So naturally, this review isn’t technical or analytic, because the CD is pure emotion to me.

In retrospect of course I enjoy the high attention to detail, the way every track oozes of effort and talent, but at the time, I had no clue about such analytical things. The CD shoots off with “Way Out”, where trumpets and synth lines morph away in complicated matters, and a beautiful repetitive melody comes into play. Orbital always loved those long evolving tracks, and this CD is no exception. All the tracks feel like a journey on each own, where usually there is a first section, second section and then back to first section. With all the sounds and small things they put in I can’t imagine the amount of work needed to sequence it all, but even so it never gets overpopulated or too messy, all the sounds are placed well and work well.

Now naturally in a review, the reviewer is supposed to compare it to earlier albums. And while I agree that this can be fruitful, in this case Middle Of Nowhere is just different. It’s different in the way that they no longer have as much a theme or a concept with the album as they did on Snivilisation or In Sides. It’s music for music’s sake so to speak. It’s all about the sounds, the arrangements, the climaxes. The title ‘Middle Of Nowhere’ with a pure white cover sort of gives this away before listening to it.

It’s even so extremely enjoyable to listen to, and an album that will forever be a part of my soul. I reckon it’s one of their best…
10/10

Oh the joys of 90s television.. Before CGI became ultra-realistic and took precedence over story and content (see: Avatar), there were made several TV series with low budget, that still remained fantastic. One of those shows was called ‘The Outer Limits’, with 90s charm and clever twists.

The show focused on 1 hour science-fiction gems, where every episode ended in an unexpected twist. There are different characters and leads in every episode, similar to The Twilight Zone. In retrospect I appreciate this show even more because nothing like it has been or is being made. The visual effects, while basic and primitive in many ways, also provided a completely unique atmosphere to the show. Who can forget the last frame of one episode where aliens had taken over the world and an alien had sat itself on the president’s head in the Oval Office while the shot faded out with a view of Washington DC in ruins?

The show just plain worked. And even though it was a sci-fi show, it was also completely rooted in human social relations and societal critique. Many ideas and concepts could be applied to real life occurrences, and while the show could be called ‘crazy’, it never strayed away from its inner human core. This is a show I highly recommend to any sci-fi fan, and luckily for us, all 7 seasons of it is on hulu.com for free!