This is my favourite track of all time.
Orbital – III
Released on FFRR (FX 149) on 07/01/1991
A1 Satan
A2 LC1
B1 Belfast
As you can see from the tracklist above, Belfast was tucked away on this release as a B side track with many DJs at the time preferring the harder Satan.
What hit me when I first heard Belfast was just how pure it sounded and like nothing else at that time. The same feeling is still with me all these years later and it’s a track that I never get sick of hearing and having experienced it played in Ibiza at Mambo’s as the sun set one evening which made it even more of a magical aural delight and evoked a lot of emotions.
Many years ago when MySpace was a thing (remember that?) I asked Phil Hartnoll what was used to create the bassline for Belfast and he kindly told me it was a Roland SH-09.
So, what is there to say about such a masterpiece? Well, let’s see what Paul said about it some ten years back and there’s also a chance to hear the very first incarnation of it before the vocal sample was added on the released track!
Paul Hartnoll wrote the following on his blog back on 06/09/2015:
“I’ve been trying to remember exactly when I recorded it. It comes from the era between my first ever release on the House Sound Of London under the name ‘DS Building Contractors’ and buying our first Orbital D.A.T. after getting a proper record deal with Pete Tong at FFRR. I know it was recorded after Chime because the track on the tape before it is a more typical House track that has elements of Chime and Belfast in it.”
“I think it was probably winter 1990 and in the months between Jazzy M putting out Chime on Oh-Zone and its release on FFRR. Because it was influenced by the wave of Ambient House spearheaded by The Orb and their A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld (EP) that came out early 1990 I believe.”
“It must have been then as Chime was out and the Orbital name was already launched because the simple truth is I wouldn’t have called Orbital – Orbital if id seen The Orb first, that would have been mad right? Far too confusing having Orbital, Orbit and The Orb around at the same time. Funnily enough someone asked me if I’d written Little Fluffy Clouds just the other day at Solfest. That’s been happening for 25 years. I wonder if Alex Paterson gets asked if he wrote Chime?”
“Anyway so there I was just finished an early shift at Pizza Piazza in Sevenoaks. I decided to make an Ambient song, it was a rainy melancholy mid-week kind of afternoon. I got the chords first and just went from there. Got it all in place as a drumless Ambient piece, but I just couldn’t resist the call of the TR-909 drum machine.
So in went the drums. Much better! So what you hear here is the Jam I did on a rainy afternoon, after work and before catching up with my friends for the evening. At the time I remember thinking, it was ok but I wasn’t over impressed. This was all recorded in my parents living room in the stairs alcove studio, that all the early stuff was written in, up to and including the first Green album.”
“So, months latter after the success of Chime in March 1990, I got a call from David Holmes, DJ, club runner and hairdresser from Belfast. Would Orbital like to play at the Art College in Belfast? Yes! So after the gig, in Davids Mum’s house’s spare bedroom David asked if we had any Demo’s. I gave him a tape with two tracks on. Two weeks later David rings up and tells me that him and his friends all love the second track on the tape . We called it Belfast after the brilliant time we had there. So the track was named after, and dedicated to, David and all his friends.”
“Where is the vocal?”
“Well, when we were making the Orbital EP III, we decided to put a version of Belfast on it, while I was re-recording it with all the lovely new gear we had bought from the record deal, Phil was making a birthing tape for the imminent arrival of his second child. So he was at my Dad’s hi-fi with the headphones on, while I was at the computer and sampler playing through the track. He popped the headphones off and said listen to this, it sounds brilliant. So he turned the speakers up and hey presto! Hildegard Of Bingen ‘O Euchari’ burst through, in tune, in time, Job done!”
“I met up with David this May, he’d just won the Ivor Novello for best film score for 71. We were in the pub afterwards and he spoke about our trip to Belfast and the tape and how much it all meant to him and his mates at the time. I asked him if he still had it, as I thought it was the only one and had been quite curious to hear the other track. But alas, he said he had no idea where it went. So imagine how pleased I was when i discovered the original recording on Wednesday as I was setting up and listening to the old tapes and realised I’d only give him a copy, not the original after all.”
“Here it is, all these years later. The Original Belfast”
The magnificent vocal which was added to the released track:
Hildegard Von Bingen’s – O Euchari
Orbital are still creating incredible music and to date have released 10 studio albums, plus live albums, compilations and soundtracks. They continue to play live – see their official website for upcoming tour dates:
https://www.orbitalofficial.com/
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