www.loopzorbital.com

Why has the focus on the latest album been on Wonky and why did the brothers choose this track to name the album? Personally I am not a great fan of the track but it has offered a lot of opportunities for remixes.

Personally, I love the title track.

What do you like about it? I think the reason I dislike it is the vocal element.

The vocals compliment and make the track feel complete. I always thought something was missing from the DJ version. First time I heard the album version it made me smile.
I love all the analogue style beeping and all the bendy sounds.

A great track IMO.

A vocal track is not really Orbital's genre though is it. The majority of their work has been instrumental with the odd vocal sample From a film at the beginning and end not a song with lyrics throughout.

And the fact that it works so well with these vocals makes it so much better!

Wonky is a good track, better than Illuminate, which is the only other song I can think of that has a similar structure.

I can see that it is not to everybodies taste though.

I would definitely agree that Wonky is superior to Illuminate. I believe the vocal part was performed by David Grey who was related by marriage to the Hartnolls at the time.
I am just wondering why the brothers decided to focus on Wonky for the latest album? Perhaps it is a sign of the direction they wish to take for the future but I feel that this would be an error as too many others acts are already doing music like this.
For me they will always be typified by "Shadows " which is my favourite track.

I really do think they named the album "Wonky" because they liked the word, though there does seem to be quite a bit of pitch modulation to many of the tunes too... which could be considered as sounding wonky.
Not sure that their next album would necessarily sound similar to this one (if we're lucky enough to get another one), their back catalogue is full of different themes and genre bending loveliness, but they always seem to string a particular feel through their albums... which in my opinion make them sound unique, then they move on to a different style...whilst maintaining that Orbital feel.

If anything, Wonky seems more of a hybrid of their back catalogue than any of their previous albums. I can hear influences from MON/Sniv and Brown in the new album, but that could just be me.

I guess we all focus in on specific styles Orbital are capable of producing, I've always preferred the more dancier stuff and loved the breaky/soundtracky feel of MON as well as the 4 to floor Brown album. I personally would be horrified if they did an album of the more weird off-kilter experimental electronica like they tried with The Altogether, this part of their phase for me does nothing and I do consider "Shadows" to be an all time career low... but that's the beauty of Orbital; you never really know what you're going to get!

Nicely put Memly! I completely agree with you

MON is probably the album I listen to least. The Blue album gets played a lot by me ,especially Pants and Lost. I suppose that within their music there is a lot to choose from ,but I have never understood why they included "Waving but Not Drowning" on the Altogether. Personally I like the instrumentals but then I am from a generation that likes Vangelis's Opera Sauvage L'Enfant.

I seem to recall one (or both) of the brothers saying in an interview that they were surpised at how well Wonky went down at DJ sets. It also rips the place apart when they play it live. I think it's great, personally but if you prefer the more melodic stuff then you're likely to not like Wonky so much.

There is very little discussion I can find on this forum about the brothers 2010 EP Don't stop me/ The gun is good. It is almost as if it never existed. Both tracks relied heavily on samples and despite my normal preference for their melodic work I liked both tracks. Has the reception to this EP influenced their work on Wonky?

I liked the 2010 EP, especially The Gun Is Good. Some great uses of samples in that song.

Wonky, to me, is a great tune. First time I heard it was the DJ version and was pretty blown away. The madness of it put a big fat cheshire cat grin on my face. I was concerned when I heard they were gonna use an MC on the album version of the song because, like many, I felt that was out of kilter of whatever we all seem to think Oribital are....

However, I reckon they pulled it off. The album version defies genre to me. It fuses a lot of stuff together but is still distinctly an 'Orbital tune'. There's no whiff of any attempt to try to sound like anyone else, it's just their take on things right now.

The reason why they made it the title track is maybe related to the responses they got to it whilst DJing, as mentioned previously.

I can only guess but I can imagine a scenario where they were working on the album last year, naturally a little nervous given that it was their first LP in 8 years, whilst simultaneously taking Wonky out with them on their DJ Sets and getting amazed and very encouraged by the responses they were getting. That, together with their obvious love of the word itself, maybe clinched it.

I really rate the Gun is Good/Dont Stop Me.

I'm sure this was just a tester to see if their fanbase were still willing to buy music made by Orbital.
I suspect if the sales for this had of bombed then we may not have got Wonky. But this is just a guess...