For more than ten years, Orbital's Phil and Paul Hartnoll have added a strong measure of unpredictability to the frequently linear world of electronic music. From classic tracks like "Chime", "Satan" and "Halcyon" to newer efforts like "Style" and "Funny Break", they've consistently pushed the envelope of expectations, charting new territory and defying the genre's stereotypes at every turn.

Shortly before the band's October US tour in support of the long-awaited Stateside release of The Altogether (which, by the way, features a second disc of rarities that's well worth owning), I had a last-minute opportunity to interview Phil. Though midday overseas phone calls are, I learned, really expensive, the opportunity to talk to Phil about Orbital's methodology, their future plans, their ability to "jam" live and their stellar version of the Doctor Who theme was well worth the cost. Mind you, I'm still not sure how I'm going to pay that phone bill...

Splendid: Let's start with a very general question. The thing I've noticed about your records is that you're consistently a lot more diverse than anyone else who's making electronic music, and indeed more diverse than many artists making music, period. Is it difficult, a constant challenge, to keep that diversity up?

Phil Hartnoll: I don't find it to be. I think... The point is that we just love all types of music, really. I've often thought that maybe it's our downfall, as we obviously draw influences from lots of different types of music, but obviously we've got our dancing feet, our rhythms from the dance floor from early house. When we first started, and we came up with the name Orbital many years ago, people at the time were doing different styles, even within the genre itself -- they'd do an ambient track, or a full-on techno track. And what they'd tend to do is have lots of different pseudonyms. At the time it was very snobby, we felt -- "Oh, no, you can't listen to that!" -- they were almost paranoid to call themselves...whatever they decided to call themselves. They were all trying to get their fingers in a lot of different little pies without actually admitting that it was the same person, if you follow what I mean.

Splendid: Right.

Phil Hartnoll: So we just thought, "The hell with it! This is what we do." We did end up playing tracks like "Satan" in acid house clubs early on, and got really sort of funny responses, but nowadays... I've seen people's attitudes change over the years, and it's become a little more accepted -- at least with us -- that what you get is what you get is what you get. We can't really do anything else about that. But it is, essentially, that we enjoy lots of different music. Sometimes we'll set out to do a track "In the style of" -- sometimes we do remixes of our tracks for singles and stuff like that, and we'll say, "Oh, this is a bit of a dancy number," or something like that, but not for the initial track. We normally just sit there, and draw influences from whatever we're listening to, or the mood that we're in, and end up coming up with a track that could be quite easily done by somebody else, really. I suppose that over time, people have hopefully either come to expect that, or accepted that it's what happens with us. They either like it or they hate it. You get someone like Underworld -- they're mates of ours, and I love their music -- and...well, you know what you're going to get.

Splendid: You know what to expect from them.

Phil Hartnoll: Exactly. Which can be good, because you buy it for that, and I've often wondered whether people wish we were like that. But I can't sit there and say "Let's do a consistent album in a consistent style." We just get fed up with it, and it's just not us, and we'd be doing it for a purpose -- having a consistent album -- rather than just to make music. Know what I mean? It never turns out like that.

Splendid: And that's why you're not putting out "Halcyon and On 2001", or something like that.

Phil Hartnoll: Yeah, really. You might do; you might. Not a remix of it, but a different version, maybe, because we don't know what they next album's gonna be like. We're very excited at the moment, because we're not with our record label any more. That's very exciting to us. The Altogether is the last LP that we've done with them, which is great for us, as we haven't seen eye to eye on a lot of things, really. For us, it's a very exciting time. Coming over to America, I'm looking forward to, too -- it'll be a nice rounding off. We have a week's tour booked after that, in England, to cap it off. It's around the south coast, as we missed the south coast on our last tour. It'll be lovely -- it'll be a really nice sort of ending to that period. We're sort of sitting with our laptops now, and writing new tracks already. I can't wait! I don't know what they're gonna be like -- we've never been in a position to actually write on tour, but now, with technological advancements and laptops and so on -- all the soft-synths and stuff are just fantastic! We've just started getting into those. We can actually do stuff on the road, which is quite exciting.

Splendid: That's a really interesting point. I've always been curious about that sort of disparity -- it just seems like, for primarily electronic artists, the writing process can't be as intrinsically "portable" as it would be for someone who's just carrying a guitar.

Phil Hartnoll: No.

Splendid: Whereas now it's finally getting to that point, and you can take advantage of that dynamic touring environment, and all that time spent together thinking about music, which seems like it would be the best time for any group to write...

Phil Hartnoll: Totally. With the development of soft-synths, really -- not just that, because you could always take your laptop and have your sequencing stuff there onboard, but without using all your outboard gear -- basically the laptop we have now is like having a studio in your pocket! It's fantastic.

Splendid: It's amazing how much they've come along in the last few years. So now you can just hammer something out...

Phil Hartnoll: And often you come up with different things, because it's a different approach, really. It's a totally different approach, because the synthesizers we're using -- the soft-synths -- are very different from our hard synths, our outboard gear. They're very different. Paul's written a track already; we played it in Spain, over the PA, just to check out the "chunkiness" of it. 'Cos it sounds good on the headphones, but you're never quite sure whether it comes up to scratch. But it does -- it's fantastic.

Splendid: As the technology moves to be more centralized like that -- there are a lot more people composing on laptops, and an increasing number of performances where the laptop is the primary "instrument" -- is it more difficult to keep the performance dynamic? I know that your shows have always been a little more energetic and interesting than others...

Phil Hartnoll: I would find that a bit too sterile, to be honest. It's just for me -- I'm not making any comment about anybody else or how they do it or whatever. Be we still do it the same way we did it eleven years ago, using these really basic sequencers. I mean, it is a pain in the ass, because you have to convert all the information down into these basic sequences; it's a lot of portage, but for us it's really worth it. There are no loops involved, so you can jam and improvise with the structure of the song, and you've got all the instruments there, the outboard gear that you can squidge and squelch about, and the whole mixing desk element. What it enables you to do is have a much more responsive interaction with the audience. If they're really enjoying a section of a song, you can sustain it -- keep it going, or drop away, or do all sorts of things. Paul, the other day, made a bit of a mistake and brought a drum rhythm into something else by accident -- and it sounded fantastic, so now we're keeping it in. Little things like that happen from the beginning to the time when you're finishing up, after you've been doing it for a year.

Splendid: But you have to have a great deal of technical proficiency to do that, don't you? I would imagine it separates the men from the boys as far as equipment use goes. Again, I'm not asking you to criticize anyone else, but for a lot of musicians in the electronic arena, "jamming" is an alien concept.

Phil Hartnoll: Yeah, it is. I think it's... Well, the sequencers we use -- we didn't have a computer when we first started, obviously, 'cos we're that old -- that's what we used, and it just seemed like a natural thing to take that out with us. Like I say, though, it takes a couple of months to prepare it, and it's very basic -- we can't be so fiddly, and we can't be very complicated in the arrangement, but it certainly sounds very rough and ready and raw and live, really. It sort of contradicts all the cynics we were first up against, who said that people couldn't really play this type of music and retain a human element. What we're doing really works for us, and we never look back, really. Or forward, really.

Splendid: One of The Altogether's most interesting tracks, really -- to me at least -- was "Oi!", because you're taking advantage of all that marvelous Ian Dury material.

Phil Hartnoll: Yeah.

Splendid: I remember "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" from back when it was actually on the charts, and that great chugging saxophone bit from the bridge -- I was really pleased that someone had finally used it.

Phil Hartnoll: It was a strange thing, though, actually, 'cos we'd had that in the sampler. It literally is just a case of when you're sitting around, listening to music, and say "Oh, let's put a bit of Ian Dury on." But I suppose we're just sort of in tune with it, and we prick our ears up and say "Oh, that'll make a great sample." So we had that sort of basic rhythm section in the sampler, and never really did much with it. So this one Friday afternoon we were at a bit of a loss, and didn't know what to do, and we said "Oh, let's drag that out and see what we can do with it." And it happened to be -- I think it was a Friday, anyway -- the day that Ian Dury died, which was a really spooky thing. After making this track, and thinking "Oh, great, I wonder what he'll think?" We got really far with it on that day, and a friend of ours, who had popped 'round earlier and noticed we were working with an Ian Dury sample, called and said he'd just read on the internet that Dury had died. It was really a bit spooky -- but it's quite comforting, though, because we did love him. If he was alive, I don't know what he'd thought of it...

Splendid: It would've been interesting if he'd been around; perhaps he could've come out during the show and done his "Ois" live.

Phil Hartnoll: The "Oi", yeah.

Splendid: No one did that as well as he did, that's for sure.

Phil Hartnoll: No, they didn't.

Splendid: Now, you mentioned that you're sort of "in tune" when you're listening to other people's music. Because you work with samples, does it change the way you listen to music all the time? Has it turned listening into work, changed record shopping into work...

Phil Hartnoll: No, I don't think so, not that I've noticed, apart from the point that I just mentioned. I'm not always searching for samples. I think this LP has the most obvious samples that we've used, apart from voice and various TV things. We normally sample something and twist it about so much that it's not the same. But this album, I think -- the Ian Dury one, and so forth... It normally tends to be voices that we nick. Apart from the point where you're listening to a record, and something leaps out at you -- but I'm not actually listening for it, so I don't think it has changed me.

Splendid: Then extend the same thing to watching television or films.

Phil Hartnoll: Well, yeah, exactly. It does. I'll hear something and go "Cor! Wait a minute! Rewind!" Yeah, you watch like that, and it annoys the people around you. That does happen, but I'm not looking for it consciously all the time. It doesn't spoil my enjoyment of anything, really.

Splendid: That's good. So, if you're, say, sitting at dinner, and you suddenly hear a piece of great dialogue out of nowhere, you don't need to stop whatever you're doing and make a note of it?

Phil Hartnoll: Umm...(laughs)...Well, I didn't say that. (laughs) Yeah, I might have to. It won't be because I'm looking for it, though, but because it leaps out at me -- "Whoa, wait a minute! I liked what they said just then!" You know.

Splendid: Gotcha. Let's move on now to "Doctor?" -- a staple of your live set for many years, and finally available on CD. And oddly enough, not mentioned a lot in the US press materials for the record, which seems rather odd.

Phil Hartnoll: Is it now?

Splendid: No, it's not. Which surprises me -- there are probably as many Doctor Who fans in the US as there are in the UK; it's just not a cultural icon, I guess.

Phil Hartnoll: I don't know. I haven't read the press release, actually. That seems a bit slack.

Splendid: I skimmed the one they sent me yesterday, and was surprised not to find any mention of it.

Phil Hartnoll: That is rather odd, really. Because we've been working with (the PR company) for so long, we usually just let them get on with that stuff and don't question it. But that's odd. I don't imagine there's any specific reason that they haven't mentioned it --

Splendid: Well, no, I wasn't suggesting there was any particular reason; it just surprised me.

Phil Hartnoll: I'm not embarrassed about the song, or anything. We did play it on the last tour, for The Middle of Nowhere. And it came in, too, because we were Doctor Who fans, and a borderline sort of Doctor Who fan club -- which is a bit worrying, actually. But we did put it in there, just as a bit of a live joke, and people went crazy and really enjoyed it, and we got a lot of requests for it. And because this album is by nature a bit more fun, and a bit more light-hearted... And also, we did try to do shorter tracks -- that was the only sort of criteria for the record, and that sort of worked out a bit. Because of the flavor of the song, we didn't think it felt out of place. It fits in. It would've felt really out of place on The Middle of Nowhere or another album, but this album...

Splendid: Yeah, it works well here.

Phil Hartnoll: Yeah, it's much more suited to the vibe of it. Through the internet, we came to realize that people really wanted to get a copy of it --

Splendid: Yeah, it's a much-sought-after MP3.

Phil Hartnoll: Is it? Great. How does it compare to the album version?

Splendid: I like the live version, with the dialogue sample at the beginning, but I think that the version on The Altogether is more faithful to the original music...

Phil Hartnoll: Well, okay...

Splendid: I like this version better, in a way...

Phil Hartnoll: That's good.

Splendid: Really, it's one of the all-time best theme tunes ever written, isn't it?

Phil Hartnoll: Oh, definitely. And, I mean, you imagine what a hard job that was... It was written in the sixties. I really admire that.

Splendid: Yeah, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop throwing musique concrete at the mass audience... and in keeping with your whole theme of people dying, Delia Derbyshire, who actually did the original version, passed away recently.

Phil Hartnoll: Yeah, she died, didn't she? God, I think it's almost like the kiss of doom if we do a track with anybody, or mentioning anybody, it seems like they go and die on us. We'll have to be careful with that.

Splendid: You could actually make good use of that, as leverage or something.

Phil Hartnoll: Yeah, sample Moby.

Splendid: There you go.

Phil Hartnoll: "Oooh! Ow!"

Splendid: Naughty naughty.

Phil Hartnoll: Nah...

Splendid: Was the BBC Radiophonic Workshop a big influence on you guys? I imagine round-about the time you were growing up, during the mid-seventies, when they did all that great stuff for the Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker eras, so you were exposed to all the extreme, Dudley Simpson analogue keyboard stuff...

Phil Hartnoll: Yeah, definitely, I think it must have been. Obviously, a lot more subconsciously than in the latter era. Paul actually has a big collection of Radiophonic Workshop stuff. But obviously, the BBC being the only channel, really, for us growing up, there's so much sort of stuff that's done from it, subconsciously it was quite a large influence. And with us being sort of the first TV generation, I suppose, TV was quite a big thing.

Splendid: And there was no thought of video recording at the time.

Phil Hartnoll: Nope. It was all about TV.

Splendid: And you hear the kind of extreme, hard-edged electronic stuff that they were sneaking in under the radar at that time, just as incidental music...

Phil Hartnoll: Yeah. It's so wild and wacky, some of the stuff. And even when you try to do a cover version of something like the Doctor Who theme, it's so difficult! Even with the wonderful synthesizers we have nowadays, it's still so difficult to try and match it, doing a straight cover.

Splendid: And speaking as someone with a fairly healthy collection of versions of that theme song, I have to say that you've come as close as anyone ever has.

Phil Hartnoll: Have you? Brilliant! That's really good to know, actually; that's why we were a bit nervous about putting it on the album, because... Well, you know. Cover versions... they're never, normally, as good as the original, are they? I'm not saying ours is, but we felt good about it. It was more through popular demand, actually, and seeing people's responses. But to actually tape it was really an experience, rather than just keeping it in the live form; to commit it to vinyl or CD is always a dangerous business.

Splendid: Well, I see I've reached the end of my allotted twenty minutes, so I'd better let you move on to your next interview.

Phil Hartnoll: You know what it is? It's 'cos I'm so crap, I'm quite happy to just carry on chatting, and then consequently you end up with people on your ansaphone saying "Hey, I was supposed to interview you," and I end up in terrible trouble.

Splendid: Well, we can't have that...