Published on Oct 21, 2005
A soundtrack for the dying world? Yes indeed. Presenting…the
music of Orbit Service.
Twilight is a good metaphor for the music of Orbit Service. To
try making sense of it, much like the time of day before sundown,
the album guides the living distressed into a place that is dark,
lifeless and peaceful. The best part of
Twilight is that though gravely disturbed, it keeps this
dissonance confined well within its own realms, never burdening the
listener with pain and suffering.
Gloom has always been one of the coolest aspects of indie music,
and the Brits have perfected this art of creating magic out of
moroseness. Though hailing from Colorado, Orbit Service sounds like
a band from Manchester. This is not meant to be taken in the wrong
sense, because Orbit Service does not imitate the Brits as observed
in the current trend of New Wave-resurrecting newbies; it only
possesses the kind grief and poignancy that has been looming over
the British underground scene like a dark cloud ever since Pink
Floyd released
Dark Side Of The Moon.
Twilight is an album of droning atmospheric music, which is
driven mostly by quaint instruments like guitars (a lot of suicidal
acoustic ones), basses, drums, piano, organs and strings. The vague
and convoluted synthesizers take a backseat on the music by this
band, providing only gloomy surreal sound effects, serving as
secondary instruments.
The beginning track of the record “Start Dreaming” fades in with
a trumpet knell, which slowly melts into a bone-chilling sluggish
riff played with the aid of an acoustic guitar. Then blends in the
most slothful drum-beat ever thumped, and then come in the vocals
that resembles The Clientele’s Alasdair MacLean in his most
resentful mood. “Yeah, I am dreaming to save my life” is the
punch-line of the song, and you can figure out how the record
sounds and feels like.
The moody instrumental pieces move between creepy ambient sounds
(“High Orbit” and “Sad Syrup”) to beautifully sullen
Radiohead-esque piano pieces (“When Everything Was Dead”). At
times, the influence of Floyd is only too apparent (“The Seven
Rays”), and so is the inspiration from early Cure during the
Faith/
Pornography phase (“Down Again”). Still, the band ends up
with a sound that is very much its own.
Twilight is a record of mournful music. But, the group’s
heavy usage of natural instruments makes this music sound real,
humanand hopeful. This is scary, because the surrealistic world
weaved by the band makes the choice of death much more attractive
and painless than the choice of life, which it promises too. This
is music to soothe the suicidal tendency in you; and also to stir
it up.
[For more information on Orbit Service, visit them at