Recording
"The Girl with the Sun in Her Head" was dedicated to the memory of Volume magazine photographer Sally Harding, a friend of the Hartnolls, who died in December 1995. The track was entirely recorded using electricity provided by Greenpeace's mobile solar power generator, Cyrus. It opens with the sound of a heartbeat which serves as bass and develops into what many critics hold as one of Orbital's most accomplished pieces.
"P.E.T.R.O.L." was included in the video game Wipeout (and on its later soundtrack album), and also on the soundtrack to the film π. The title of the fifth track, "Dŵr Budr" is Welsh for "dirty water" and was inspired by the Sea Empress oil spill environmental disaster which took place just off the coast of Wales in February 1996. "Adnan's" was originally included on 1995's charity album The Help Album, benefitting War Child.
Vocals on the album are credited to "Auntie", a pseudonym used by long-time collaborator Alison Goldfrapp on this release. Her singing on "Dŵr Budr" is nonsensical chanting, and has been rumoured to have been played backwards, though neither the brothers nor Goldfrapp herself will divulge any information.
The album's cover art is by John Greenwood, who is also responsible for creating the covers of previous Orbital releases. The collage for the internal artwork was created by Foul End Trauma, an anagrammatical alias for the design artists Fultano Mauder. The design group also contribute lyrics to the vocal version of "The Box" on the single's release, with one half of the group, Grant Fulton, providing vocals.
Read more about this topic: In Sides
Famous quotes containing the word recording:
“Self-expression is not enough; experiment is not enough; the recording of special moments or cases is not enough. All of the arts have broken faith or lost connection with their origin and function. They have ceased to be concerned with the legitimate and permanent material of art.”
—Jane Heap (c. 1880–1964)
“Write while the heat is in you.... The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Too many photographers try too hard. They try to lift photography into the realm of Art, because they have an inferiority complex about their Craft. You and I would see more interesting photography if they would stop worrying, and instead, apply horse-sense to the problem of recording the look and feel of their own era.”
—Jessie Tarbox Beals (1870–1942)