Orbital has been a favorite of mine ever since I found electronic dance music.  I loved Duran Duran when I was a kid because of my older sister.  Then my brother introduced me to the Smiths and Stone Roses.  He and I found electronic music together in the mid-90's (we argue about it to this day, he bought Prodigy after seeing the video for Poison, I bought the Orb after seeing them on the cover of NME for UFOrb).

In 1996, there was no Glastonbury so several of the electronic acts came out to the US to support the new "electronica" movement.  I went for the Orb but soon discovered Orbital, Underworld and the Chemical Brothers.  Orbital was the big breakout act for me because of Organic and I've seen then a dozen times.  One of the highlights of my life was getting to see them at Glastonbury in 1999, a truely amazing experience. 

The very first science fiction movie is a silence movie about a voyage to the moon.  Since it's french it's called "Le Voyage Dans La Lune".  And since it's French, Air wrote the soundtrack to it.  It was a coin flip between them and Daft Punk (HA, stupid americans!).  I find it interesting because it was made in black and white and hand colored versions back in the early 1900's.  The black and white version has long since been destroyed and the colored version was found in 1993 but had to be restored.  Naturally, wikipedia has more info on this film.

Also happening is Killing Joke's return, a bunch of tour announcements, and what the hell was Echo and the Bunnymen doing in a superbowl ad?

Many bands are hitting the road and we can't be happier.  Also the return of Rodrigo y Gabriela and Orbital make this a great week for music news.  Enjoy!

The linup for Coachella was announced today and it's full of surprises and the usual reunions.  Jaz-Z is headlining Friday which is pretty non-Coachella-like and surprising.  He's headlining with LCD Soundsystem and Them Crooked Vultures (the rock supergroup consisting of John Paul Jones [Led Zepplin], Dave Grohl [Nirvana], and Josh Homme [Queens of the Stoneage]).  Other Friday highlights are a reunited Public Image Limited, Echo & the Bunnymen, Grizzly Bear, She & Him, and Grace Jones (?!?!).

Saturday is headlined by Muse, Faith No More and Tiesto.  And also has MGMT, Hot Chip, Devo, Coheed and Cambria, 2ManyDJ's, Z-Trip, the XX, Mew, Raveonettes, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Camera Obscura, and a bunch of other little bands that I have yet to discover.

Sunday is headlined by ORBITAL!  Okay, not really, but they are the headliners in my mind.  Gorillaz, Pavement and Thom York take the top three spots.  You also have Phoenix, Spoon, Sly and the Family Stone (?!?), Yo La Tengo and about two dozen bands to round out the lineup.

This looks like a good year.  I was looking to cut a day or so out of the lineup to save some money but there are some great "must-see" bands on each day.  After last year I was questioning if I should go again and it looks like I'm going to be sweating along with the rest of you out in the desert for one more year.

I'm too tired to write a real review and it's already hard enough to talk about a DJ set because when you boil it down, it's just a dude playing records. Granted, this "dude" is the legendary Phil Hartnoll from Orbital and the records were all stored in a PowerBook, but it's still just a DJ set. So instead of actually writing anything, I just posted an IM conversation that I had with fellow Excellent Online contributor, Brian. Enjoy.

ORBITAL have announced that their forthcoming "The Blue Album" will be their last. The brothers Hartnoll, once considered to be at the forefront of electronic listening music, have fallen from favor since arguably reaching their zenith with "The Box." Their show at this summer's Glastonbury Festival will be their farewell. NOT a gig to miss, then. As a small tribute, Excellent Radio will be broadcasting non-stop Orbital this weekend.

Orbital will release their latest album, The Altogether on a DVD and each track will have their own unique visuals. According to NME, "The DVD, which is recorded in surround sound, will have a series of menus, which allow users to, amongst other things, uncover hidden or alternate versions of tracks."

The DVD will be release on August 27th, the tracklisting is behind the "Read More" link. Tension - Director: Giles Thacker

Orbital, Leftfield, and Asian Dub Foundation will be contributing new music to The Beach sountrack. Moby will include a remix of Blur's 'On Your Own' and as reported earlier, New Order will include their first new track in over six years, 'Brutal'. The soundtrack will be released February 8th on London Records.

Let's not beat around the bush here. Out of the multitudes of electronic acts out there, out of the countless dance acts out there, out of the prime few "say you don't love them and you get stares of pity" groups of musicians out there, ORBITAL are easily one of the most amusing. It's not often that there has been such a difference between Reputation and Actual Quality. There are reasons for this. Come on, take a gander

Tour news: LOVE AND ROCKETS are set to embark on a series of U.S. dates in December. Looking ahead to next summer, a couple of interesting rumors are already surfacing, including another "Big Rewind" style tour, this time featuring THE GO-GO'S and HOWARD JONES and the possibility of a electronia tour featuring ORBITAL and UNDERWORLD.