When whispers were first going around about the remix comp I had the idea of a slower, more melodic version of Tension that would warp back into the original at the end, with the crazy voices replaced or recreated with with my own samples (things like talking computer programs and Kraftwerk's "boing boom tcha"). I started on this but didn't get much further than creating a 170BPM wall of junglist distortion. I did ponder doing a track sampling lots off songs of 'Orbital II' called 'Brown Love' but quite rightly left that idea alone. Long after giving up on the idea of submitting a remix I was giving the Green album a long overdue listen. When Steel Cube Idolatry came on I started humming a tune over it. I picked out the notes on my keyboard and realised that this would be a good starting point for a remix, because it seemed to give a different slant to the song. It then expanded to include analogue wobbles, rock posturing and TV's Worf stuttering, while still keeping the original version in sight. I doubt that Steel Cube Idolatry is anyone's favourite Orbital track but I hope that won't stand in the way of people enjoying this remix. After all, a Chris De Burg impersonator once won the Star in their Eyes grand final over a convincing Aretha Franklin impersonator.

The only clear influence you can hear on this mix is Orbital themselves, even without the samples. When I do music with my mates its a bit more acoustic and natural sounding, but its still hard to pin down clear influences. My favourite bands include, Underworld, Super Furries, Beta Band, Badly Drawn Boy, Kraftwerk, Warp Records and Skint stuff, Bjork, Radiohead, The KLF, Automator and loads of other stuff.

When I started the mix I was using a mixture of software, my SP-808 and Quasimidi Sirius. Unfortunately my 'puter refused to record the external sounds so I did the whole track using software. Its not quite as good as it was before (but then I would say that) but its pretty close. It was structured with Acid, using wave files created in Fruityloops. I used a couple of plug-ins for various softsynths and effects, cool edit pro and soundforge to chop up and change my wave files, and Rebirth for some beats and an acid wigout.

I think my favourite is probably Impact because of the way it starts out so focussed and crisp, then descends into wibbley madness. Other stand-out tracks include Belfast\Wasted, Halcyon, Old style, The Box part II, Times Fly (slow), Dwr Budr and Funny Break.

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