WILLIAM ORBIT
THE PAINTER
REVITALISED AFTER EIGHT YEARS AWAY, THE STELLAR PRODUCER CRAFTS HIS COMEBACK SOLO ALBUM WITHOUT FEELING THE NEED TO RAID HIS CONTACTS BOOK TOO HEAVILY
RHINO
SEPT/OCT 2022
CLASSIC
BEST NEW RELEASE
★★★★
You wouldn’t wish the drug-induced breakdown that William Orbit endured on your worst enemy. It meant he was mostly unable to work in the eight years since a pair of albums from 2014, Orbit Symphonic and Strange Cargo 5. That the Madonna/Blur/All Saints producer released two albums in the same year was typical of his workload once Bassomatic’s Fascinating Rhythm finally propelled him into the limelight in 1990 after a decade of toil. By then, the previously inspiring Orbit had just begun to seem a little formulaic.