Is There Humor In Music?

09/21/2001 4:00 PM, LAUNCH
Ken Micallef

"I don't know what happened," says Phil Hartnoll, one half of the techno duo Orbital. "We have never done that before, where we would use bits of a sample as a basis to manipulate and twist and change as a sound source. We have never taken riffs, though I suppose the Ian Dury one is like that, and the Tool track."

On Orbital's The Altogether, brothers Paul and Phil go on a sampling binge that makes a frat house saturnalia look like a geriatric church bingo. Sampling the late Ian Dury and occult rockers Tool as well as the Cramps, South American streetwalkers, actor Terence Stamp, and contemporary folky David Gray, they show they have no problem mixing tape loops, computer noise, and pop vocals into their maverick electronica.

Brothers-in-law to David Gray, Orbital sampled the singer was he was less than famous. "I always got frustrated about his albums, 'cause they never captured him," complains Phil. "When Dave fell into hard times and no label wanted to pick him up, he was forced to record in his bedroom; it is the best thing that has happened to him. We sold him an old mixing desk and told him about hard-drive recording. So he felt more confident about what he was doing without engineers in there telling him what to do. He understood it now, and had more confidence."

The Hartnolls recorded Gray while he was visiting their studio, and the pensive "Illuminate," which had been around as a shell for over two years, was born. "He sang over it in a loose fashion," Phil recalls. "We recorded him separately and slid it into place. Live, we take it further: We cut him up and put his voice through that vocoder effect. We have made him into a robot...it takes on a new lease live. It sounds much more like a Dave Gray and Orbital collaboration live, which is what it is. We have Orbitalized him."

Since Orbital arrived on the scene in 1990 with its then-odd blend of sonic dazzle and techno turbulence, much has changed. The electronica revolution fizzled, house has replaced disco, post-rock has replaced prog-rock, and you are as likely to find hacks like Moby in a Gap TV ad as on a festival stage. What hasn't changed is musician's constant unearthing of the sonic past. An ongoing fascination with the music of Kraftwerk, **Neu!**, and Can is matched by the new prog-disco of bands like the New Deal and Disco Biscuits.

"That is a natural thing," says Phil. "There is nothing since then that has come again. You look through history and things hit you: 'What is this chunk here?' Another generation comes through and explores what has passed. Kraftwerk was a heavy influence on us. 'Autobahn' was the first single that Paul had. It twisted my head that these guys had made this song about a road with all these great sounds. Kraftwerk have a great sense of humor, and with their German exterior they may be serious, but I don't think they are."

Phil and Paul shows they are anything but serious with The Altogether, an album that abounds with humorous moments within quasi-hit singles. Does this current relaxed state and obvious contentment come from their considerable skills, or are they just getting fat and happy in their 30-plus skins?

"No," Phil says, "it is the current atmosphere in our lives. I don't know what the next album will be like, or what is around the corner. I am a bit frightened to say I am happy, just in case He takes it away! You can't do that! But the music scene can get uptight and up its own ass. It's a bit too serious, really: 'What? Humor in music? No, can't do that. That's not right.' But we disagree with that."