https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/ ... beth-orton
A great producer - a fantastic talent for taking a mainstream artist and giving them a touch of the weird...
(And today I learned he was behind Bassomatic's Fascinating Rhythm, which is a hell of a tune from my youth - the kind of thing I remember hearing really distorted being played through overloaded speakers in the dark at fairgrounds surrounded by lights, screaming, the smell of hotdogs and the vague hint that violence was never far away!)
RIP William Orbit
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A_Northern_Soul
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Re: RIP William Orbit
Yep he was one of those guys who was behind so much stuff as a producer his work was well known even if he wasn't.
I've told this story before but back in my teens I used to sit watching MTV Chill Out Zone with a video tape paused to record anything I enjoyed. That was where I heard Water From A Vine Leaf for the first time and it straightaway was obviously something really special.
But I'd somehow managed to cut off the bumper that said what it was, and pre internet how do you even find out? Well a few months later I was walking through Soho and the track was playing out of a trendy clothes shop. I ran in and said to the guy on the till "this music, what is it" and bless him the guy ejected the mix tape from the store player and told me. I bought Strange Cargo 3 that day and it was the soundtrack to my life for a goodly while.
Hinterland came out the year I got paralysed and had nothing but time to listen to music and smoke. Over time I realised I already knew him from BassOMatic. Plus he was one of those guys who, if there was a CD Single and track 3 was unusually good? It was a William Orbit remix.
Everybody knows the work he did for Madonna or All Saints or something but the guy has such a back catalog, a lot of it really hard to find. Gems like the Torch Song album got rereleased luckily.
Really sad to see him go. I know a lot of people if they haven't heard his name through Madonna are going to go William who? But that's cos he just worked and worked and was shy about self promoting. You HAVE heard stuff he made, whoever you are
I've told this story before but back in my teens I used to sit watching MTV Chill Out Zone with a video tape paused to record anything I enjoyed. That was where I heard Water From A Vine Leaf for the first time and it straightaway was obviously something really special.
But I'd somehow managed to cut off the bumper that said what it was, and pre internet how do you even find out? Well a few months later I was walking through Soho and the track was playing out of a trendy clothes shop. I ran in and said to the guy on the till "this music, what is it" and bless him the guy ejected the mix tape from the store player and told me. I bought Strange Cargo 3 that day and it was the soundtrack to my life for a goodly while.
Hinterland came out the year I got paralysed and had nothing but time to listen to music and smoke. Over time I realised I already knew him from BassOMatic. Plus he was one of those guys who, if there was a CD Single and track 3 was unusually good? It was a William Orbit remix.
Everybody knows the work he did for Madonna or All Saints or something but the guy has such a back catalog, a lot of it really hard to find. Gems like the Torch Song album got rereleased luckily.
Really sad to see him go. I know a lot of people if they haven't heard his name through Madonna are going to go William who? But that's cos he just worked and worked and was shy about self promoting. You HAVE heard stuff he made, whoever you are
Re: RIP William Orbit
So sad. I used to work in a bar in Glasgow and Hinterland was very much the day shift soundtrack, that and Boulevard by St Germain, both albums got me into a wider range of music, I was a hip hop obsessed skateboarder at the time. Makes sense why when I heard BOC it just felt like home.