Joy Orbison has had a lot of "big tunes" over his short history, and most of them have had an identifiable vocal at their centre. "Ellipsis" is no different. This one's "we just used to like...do our own thing" sample comes from an interview with drum & bass duo Source Direct, and it's an apt description of Orbison himself. Joy Orbison has been doing his own thing throughout his short career, and it's only from impeccable timing that "Ellipsis" sounds achingly relevant upon its release on his Hinge Finger label. I wrote about the collision between "bass music" and "house" in a feature earlier this year, and it doesn't get much more exemplary than this piece of wax.
But what makes "Ellipsis" so special? Part of it is that sample, instantly recognizable if not just for how strange it is. But it's also got a killer squirmer of a bassline, which initially makes it out to be another rambunctious "UK bass" track. Then that piano hits: it's the sun breaking through the clouds and all those other clichés, but instead of a fey moment of retro chic it feels enormously powerful, especially with that bassline rumbling underneath. Heavy enough for the dubstep kids, nimble enough for the house heads. Producers like Shed and Martyn have recently used synth-heavy overtures to recapture early rave histrionics, and here Peter O'Grady manages to do it with some slamming ivories.
Speaking of Shed, he takes the flipside with a Head High remix, appropriate given that alias' own experiments with piano rave. His remix is every bit as stiff and breaky as you'd expect—probably more so—as the piano riff is strangled beneath close, pummeling breaks. It loses the litheness of the original in exchange for bumbling brute power, and though it has nothing on the original, it makes for a nice alternative.
Buy Joy Orbison - Ellipsis at
Tracklist: Joy Orbison - Ellipsis
 A Ellipsis
B Ellipsis (Head High Remix)
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