The spirit of nineties rave is alive and kicking, if a little ragged at the seams and somewhat the worse for drink, at Edinburgh’s Picture House on a Sunday night. The capacity crowd give off a definite vibe of having booked babysitters for the weekend and partied hard as a build-up to tonight’s Orbital show and there’s the odd walking casualty amongst this throng of middle-aged Ravey Daveys.
Orbital were amongst the premier league of British dance acts of the nineties, alongside the likes of Underworld, Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers. Having split up for a few years, the brothers Hartnoll are back doing exactly what they used to and doing it darn well.
The roar that greets them as they walk onto a darkened stage, traditional headlights in place picking them out, is immense as the Orbital duo situate themselves within their vast lab of equipment. The onslaught that follows is tremendous.
While there is possibly a bit too much in the way of slightly lacklustre new material, they more than make up for that with such fabulous gems as a punishingly deconstructed “Satan” and the eternal summer morning glory of “Chime”. A brain-meltingly dazzling lightshow and visuals combine with the pulverising sound to get the Picture House physically shaking.
Nothing quite beats their eerie but thunderous version of the Doctor Who theme, however, complete with TARDIS dematerialisation roar, causing an already hysterical audience to go into near meltdown and providing your correspondent with a delirious out-of-body experience.
Orbital’s comeback is a fine example of the principle of things not broke not needing fixed. By the end of this evening and two encores, a gloriously trashed audience are bellowing their names from the tops of their lungs leaving the Hartnoll brothers seemingly overwhelmed. As they proffer us their thanks, they tell us “You’ve been SPECTACULAR!”. And you know what? So were they.