It's almost a trademark of Orbital that they couldn't give a monkey's. They don't seem to have the faintest interest in music being made by other dance acts, and never seem to have made a record that paid the slightest bit of attention to what's in, out or bubbling under.
This becomes all the more surprising when you consider that they work in the genre of dance music, a field in which the sound of last Thursday is passe, and everyone seems to be on a tail-chasing venture to unearth the sound of next Tuesday week. One imagines that this total regard for fashion is what's stopped Orbital going out of fashion, and allowed them to make records for as long as they have. The other element is their almost eerie consistency. They've never once gone off the rails.
Which, for the listener, makes for a safe and comfortable journey. You know where you are with an Orbital album, each subsequent record being a variation on a solid, trusty theme they established from the outset.
There'll be crystalline layers of electronica, all sorts of rhythms and melodies blending with one another, morphing into one another, playing against one another and developing as they go. It's the side of them that owes a huge debt to Kraftwerk.
Then there'll be the beats and the noise; the crux of their dance heritage, but also where their fondness for all things punk shines through. Whether they pop up to obliterate those perfect melody lines, or just exist on their own as whacking great electronic riffs, they're always there.
And then there's wit, like the huge reverberating cry of 'SATAN!' at the start of the song of the same name, the Star Trek quoting 'when time becomes a loop', or the use of Bon Jovi and Belinda Carlisle samples in their live set.
'The Altogether' is perhaps the most concentrated and refined mix of these elements they've ever made. The 11 tracks all eschew, bar the edit of 'Meltdown', their fondness for lengthy flowing and developing music in favour of briefer, more 'song'-like tracks.
'Illuminate' is a fine example of the band's less raucous moments, and is enhanced enormously by a committed performance from David Gray. We wouldn't be stunned if this appears as a single.
And the gags? The Ian Dury sampling 'Oi!'. 'Waving Not Drowning', which melds together acoustic guitars and telephone touchtones. And, of course, a highlight of their live set has been a thundering electronic version of the theme from Dr Who, and it appears here, replete with samples of Tom Baker. It's almost reason enough for the BBC to commission a new series of the show (and how about Stephen Fry as the Doctor? Just a thought.)
So there it is. Orbital have once again managed to make an album that's precisely what you'd expect from them, while being neither dull nor predictable.
And that's got to be a feat in itself.
