After breaking up "for the final time" in 2014, Orbital played a number of live dates last summer, announcing that they're "back for good." Although the Hartnoll brothers have rushed out recordings in the past, (their 1994 classic Snivilisation came just a year after Brown Album), their ninth LP simply feels like a rush job.
After their well-received 2012 LP Wonky, the British duo once again attempt to channel their characteristically chiming electro sound on Monsters Exist. Album highlights like "P.H.U.K." and "Buried Deep Within" feature thoughtful mid-song breakdowns and shimmering synth rhythms, but there are just too many tracks that sound half-finished on this nine-song 50-minute LP to encourage repeat listens.
The record's first two tracks, "Monsters Exist" and ""Hoo Hoo Ha Ha," seem so ham-fisted and unnecessarily repetitive that it shamefully might hamper the listener's ability to get to the LP's final and most fascinating song, the drone-addled "There Will Come a Time," featuring spoken word by English physicist Brian Cox. Monsters Exist stands as one of Orbital's most frustrating albums — the ideas are present, but the execution simply isn't.
(Believe Music)After their well-received 2012 LP Wonky, the British duo once again attempt to channel their characteristically chiming electro sound on Monsters Exist. Album highlights like "P.H.U.K." and "Buried Deep Within" feature thoughtful mid-song breakdowns and shimmering synth rhythms, but there are just too many tracks that sound half-finished on this nine-song 50-minute LP to encourage repeat listens.
The record's first two tracks, "Monsters Exist" and ""Hoo Hoo Ha Ha," seem so ham-fisted and unnecessarily repetitive that it shamefully might hamper the listener's ability to get to the LP's final and most fascinating song, the drone-addled "There Will Come a Time," featuring spoken word by English physicist Brian Cox. Monsters Exist stands as one of Orbital's most frustrating albums — the ideas are present, but the execution simply isn't.