If you go to the Oxford English Dictionary and look up the definition of a thankless task, it just says “Make a track listing for a compilation”. Assuming that the artist(s) in question have enough juice in their back catalogue, everybody wants a piece, from the maniacs who go through your bins to the people who once selfied themselves walking past one of your gigs.
Thirty plus years and fourteen albums in, Orbital were smart enough to know the score. Brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll scored one of acid house’s earliest UK hits with Chime and were also one of the first acts from that stable to earn a place on the mainstream festival circuit, in the process giving them a longevity few of their contemporaries could muster.
Rather than spend an age wondering which track best represents such and such a phase, A Beginners Guide is simply a collection which they say has ‘Not been designed for the initiated or the completists.’ You might argue that is the main audience for this kind of exercise, but kudos to them for turning the idea on it’s head.
Whoever the hell’s listening there are still plenty of sure fire things that demand inclusion here; Chime, Belfast, Halcyon On And On, Satan and Lush were never not making the cut. Further credit is due to the pair for the inclusion of the politically charged Dirty Rat, along with Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song) and the hypnotic closer The Girl With The Sun In Her Head. This judge docks them a point for the inclusion of the Doctor Who stuff, but then again that’s another hornet’s next of fandom nobody smart wants to kick over. Newbies assemble!
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 