ALBUM REVIEWS / POP

*** Orbital, “In Sides,” FFRR. Orbital’s music unfolds in layers, with improvisation taking place inside the algorithmic machinery of evolving loops that crest with electronic drama. To hear an Orbital song bloom from a simplistic blip to a bombastic symphony is worth the often seven-minute wait. The techno duo--part of the bill at next Saturday’s ‘Organic ‘96” concert at Snow Valley Resort--often sounds like cyber-nerds on acid, but this latest lyric-less work, a double CD, is refreshingly brooding, dark and mean where other Orbital albums occupied a lighter galaxy.

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).