Work: 1989-2002

More than Leftfield, more than Underworld, it was Orbital – with their visually arresting gigs, their snazzy videos, and (most importantly) their undying faith in the good old LP – that managed to translate dance music into a form acceptable to studious (ale drinking) big brothers all over the land.

A good thing or a bad thing? Well, we’ll leave the sub-genre guerrillas to fight it out amongst themselves. But it’s worth wondering what shapes the Chemical Brothers would now be throwing if the Hartnolls hadn’t provided them with such a gold-plated template to work from. Intelligent, surprising albums you could listen to in the house, live shows big enough to steal Glastonbury’s heart. Sounds straight-forward now, but Orbital got there first.

Which is an achievement definitely worth celebrating.

But is Work… the best way of going about it?

Well, no, because at its heart this 14 track collection – by deciding to follow the singles path of a group that held little or no stock in the single format – is conceptually challenged and deeply frustrating. So, while mighty and moving tracks like ‘Style’, ‘Nothing Left’, and ‘Are We Here’ are given an airing, ‘Illuminate’, ‘Satan Spawn’ and other late-period exercises in water-treading take up space that could be filled more profitably by such luminous moments as ‘Keine Trink Wasser’, ‘Petrol’ or ‘Waving Not Drowning’.