Starkey - Orbits 10th Anniversary Outtakes (2022)

To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the release of his Civil Music album Orbits, NOREMIXES label boss Starkey has compiled the Orbits 10th Anniversary Outtakes. These eight never before released productions were created at the same time as the original Orbits album, but were left off of the tracklist for one reason or another.

Released in 2012, Orbits, was met with many positive reviews. Pitchfork gave it a 8/10 saying, “The eclectic dubstep producer's third full-length manages to draw his diverse influences together into a streamlined signature sound.” The album was also Mixmag’s album of the month with a 9/10, and its single, Command, was track of the week. Mixmag said this of the album, “Orbits ties together everything that makes him great: gutter grime attitude, North American bass-boy swagger and flights of stargazing experimentalism.”

2011 and 2012 were prolific years for Starkey; he was an in demand producer, DJ and remixer. So there were a lot of productions to choose from when putting the original Orbits release together. However, a few of the tracks included in this collection were actually signed to major label artist projects, so couldn’t make the cut at the time. Those tracks were then abandoned for one reason or another, hence their inclusion in this collection for the first time. “A few of the tracks I included here,” said Starkey, “were more interlude-ish in nature, and we decided that we didn’t want to have the tracklist for Orbits be any larger, and they kind of took away from the pacing. But I still really like them. Two other tracks were set aside for vocal collabs. But those also just didn’t end up coming together in the end. So now everyone can hear them in this collection!”

None of the productions included in Orbits 10th Anniversary Outtakes were opened or worked on in any way after 2012. However, every track was mastered in 2022 from the original two track bounce for continuity and level management.