Fans of the Orb with a completist bent (and there must be some of you out there) will be thrilled by the appearance of this budget-priced three-disc retrospective of material from the vaults of legendary acid house label WAU! Mr. Modo. This is effectively another way of saying "the vaults of the Orb," the equally legendary production and writing duo of Alex Paterson and Killing Joke bassist Martin "Youth" Glover; Paterson and Youth not only produced the vast majority of these tracks, but appeared as musicians on many of them as well. Featured artists include Discotec 2000, Paradise X, Mystic Knights, Blowfly, Uncle 22, and Sound Iration, among others, and the program includes a few bona fide hits (a demo version of the Orb's "Little Fluffy Clouds," a previously unreleased version of Zoë's lovely "Sunshine on a Rainy Day"), but mostly offers obscurities that will be of interest primarily to established fans. That said, there is plenty here that could draw new listeners into the fold: househeads will enjoy Eternity's luxuriously long "Ashram House [Extended Mix]" and Paradise X's subtly samba-inflected "2 Much [Out of This World Mix]"; those whose tastes run more to breaks and reggae will get a bigger kick out of the two versions of Indica All Stars' "Open Our Eyes" and Sound Iration's "Seventh Seal," while those whose tastes range more broadly will enjoy the third disc, a continuous DJ mix that includes some material from the first two discs as well as additional tracks and runs the gamut from house to breaks to dubwise reggae. Paterson and Youth were some of the best producers of electronic dance music in any genre during the late '80s and early '90s, and this set is a fitting monument to their significant achievements.
If the Orb's 1995 release Orbus Terrarum was an extended meditation on the earthbound, the band's follow-up in Orblivion rises from the muck of primordial ectoplasm for a guided tour of late 20th century Western culture's more paranoid face. From the Cold War (the album kicks off with Joseph McCarthy's intoning of the immortal invective "Are you now, or have you ever been...") to the pre-millennial ranting of David Thewlis' warped, apocalyptic monologue from Mike Leigh's Naked ("The bar code! The ubiquitous bar code!"), Orblivion does for post-industrial, turn of the century mania what earlier albums such as The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld and U.F.Orb did for aliens and flying saucers. Like the previous record -- an effusive mix of sprawling environmental textures, clanging, treated percussion, and humorous, trainspottery samples -- Orblivion brings with it another adjustment in mood, combining elements of downbeat, electro, and drum'n'bass with dense, soupy amalgams of treated electronics and shimmering rhythms. Orblivion also evidences a renewed interest in the more immediately engaging, upbeat pop of "Perpetual Dawn"- and "Little Fluffy Clouds"-era Orb, with a deeper, more embellished sound marked, in all likelihood, by the first full-time contributions from former engineer Andy Hughes (who replaced Kris Weston after the latter's departure in 1994). Dub is still the organizing principle of the Orb's music, however, and whatever one's opinion of the actual album (reactions are likely to range from "genius" to "aimless") the production is undeniably amazing. [Island's 2008 U.K. edition included a nine-track bonus disc of remixes.]
If you're a big fan of the Orb and have most of their releases, the big question you may be asking yourself when you see this release is whether you even need it or not. Since I heard Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld, back in late 1993, I've been a massive fan of the group and have managed to pick up all of their major releases and even a couple singles. Still, when I saw that this one had come out, I had to get my hands on it for the simple fact that the version I purchased had a bonus disc of unreleased material. After the initial run of 2CD sets, they went and cut it down to one CD, making it more of a release for those just getting into the group. I must say, if you're just getting into them, it's about damn time.
Not only has the Orb been around for a long time releasing great disc after great disc, but they've always kept that sort of goofy attitude about themselves that they never manage to come across as pretentious and neither has their music. They've released songs that run both 40 minutes and 1 (as well as about every length in-between) and if there's ever an electronic music hall-of-fame, they should probably be one of the first few to get inducted (after the obligitory forerunners like Eno and Stockhausen).
Anyway, the first disc is exactly what you'd expect to get in a best-of release, with a couple other tracks thrown in for good measure. Instead of starting out the disc with the bands almost trademark song of "Little Fluffy Clouds," they open with a rather unexpected Orbital (not by the group Orbital, though) Dance Mix of "A Huge Evergrowing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Center Of The Ultraworld." Quite a bit different than the album version, it's a nice way to start things off. From there, they go into 7" mixes (meaning radio edits) of the aforementioned "Little Fluffy Clouds," "Perpetual Dawn," "Blue Room," and "Assasin." The first disc also includes original versions of "Toxygene," "Towers of Dub," and "Asylum" among others. A very nice inclusion on the disc is of the unreleased track "Mickey Mars." It's a little bit of a different style for the group, but it's great. Things close out with a couple more classics and a hidden remix of their track "Oxbow Lakes" from Orbus Terrarum.
For more hardcore fans, the second disc offers a lot more in terms of excitement. Things start out with a live version of "Little Fluffy Clouds" that doesn't offer a whole lot new to the formula. From there, the group goes into the Ultrabass II mix of "Perpetual Dawn" and a super tricked-out take on "Pomme Fritz." Things get even more strange with the drum and bass spiked version of "Toxygene" by the Ganja Kru. It seems a bit weird at first hearing the track redone in such a different genre, but it manages to work a lot better than other drum and bass inflictions I've heard. After sort of a throwaway mix of "Assassin," the disc continues with excellent versions of "O.O.B.E.," "Blue Room," and a remix of the previously unreleased "Mickey Mars" that's even better than the original on the first disc. Things close out on the harsher side with the Vestax Mix of "Montagne D'Or (Der Gute Berg)."
Overall, it's another great release for the group. I may be a little biased in my support of the group (since they're one of my favorites), but the 2CD set provides a lot more Orb music for those who can't get enough of the group. If you have most of their releases, definitely go for the 2CD version, as the first one mainly just has the classics, but even those are all mixed together and it makes for a nice smooth flow through the course of their music. The second disc is mixed as well, and it's a little more across-the-board in terms of styles, but very interesting nonetheless. 140 more minutes of fun from the pranksters.
Marking pretty much the precise point at which dance music became epic, Alex Paterson turned an on-off DJing gig into a fully-fledged project with The Orb’s first studio album after years of EPs and singles.The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld certainly doesn’t short change on the promise of its title. A continuous, progressive composition of ten tracks over four sections (‘Earth Orbit’, ‘Lunar Orbit’, ‘Ultraworld Probe’ and ‘Ultraworld’), the album and its signature song ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’ did an awful lot to change the concept of what dance music could sound like, particularly in terms of mainstream perceptions.
The concepts of extended dancefloor remixes and sampling had of course been around for a long time, but there was something playfully subversive, eccentric and quintessentially English about what Paterson introduced with his music. The Orb started life in the rave scene, catering to ecstasy casualties in the chillout room at Paul Oakenfold’s ‘Land of Oz’ nights at Heaven in the late ‘80s. Quickly becoming celebrated for playing ambient, percussion-free sets that lasted for several hours, Paterson worked with partner-in-crime Jimmy Cauty, whom he met through a mutual friend in Killing Joke’s bassist Youth and who found fleeting superstardom with pop terrorists The KLF.
Piling dozens of ‘found sounds’, field recordings and all manner of spoken-word samples on top of each other, and marrying those up with similarly researched visual materials projected on to the walls, The Orb’s sets threatened to overload the senses but, crucially, didn’t overstimulate those who came to hear them, wanting instead to lose themselves in a musical journey. This philosophy was carried over completely intact to Paterson’s first full studio effort – and truly, …Ultraworld is a journey like few others before or since.
Kicking off with The Orb’s most famous track ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’ which eventually became a UK Top 10 hit in 1993, nearly three years after its original release, it’s the closest to a commercial moment at under five minutes. The subject of litigation because of the uncleared central sample of pop star Rickie Lee Jones (with a noticeable cold!) talking about her childhood memories of the skies where she grew up in Arizona, it’s quirky disposition and rock-steady beat for many represents a kind of shorthand for the more ambient, comedown side of the rave scene.
Following this, Paterson spreads his wings and shows what he’s really capable of with a bigger canvas. The lush, Dionysian ambience of ‘Earth (Gaia)’, featuring Bible readings; the totally spaced-out dub feel of ‘Perpetual Dawn’; the gentle, loping breaks and beats of ‘Supernova At The End Of The Universe’ and ‘Into The Fourth Dimension’… all liberally sprinkled with an arsenal of snatched samples that could only have been the result of an incorrigible music nerd given access to vast archives of records.
Finally, after a full 90 minutes, the record arrives at its destination, a trip that began with cloud-gazing and meadows ending in the alien atmosphere of the 20-minute closer ‘A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld’. Many mixes exist of this track, but the one on the album is a live mix with the central sample of Minnie Riperton’s ‘Lovin’ You’ fading in and out very fleetingly as a wealth of samples from sci-fi radio plays and natural sounds dive and swoop about to create a musical equivalent of a sensory deprivation chamber. Whereas ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’ summed up a wider scene, ‘A Huge Ever Growing…’ perhaps sums up Paterson’s sensibilities best.
here’s something of the punk sensibility in Paterson’s approach to the arrangement, with the sense of a lot of things going on at the same time (multiple samples rubbing up against each other at the same time) but, paradoxically, a sparseness in terms of the deployment of those same samples so that it never feels as if he’s labouring the point. Consequently, though the arrangements often very lengthy (all but one of the tracks are over 8 minutes long) it always feels very accessible and easy to listen to, and how much pleasure one derives from Ultraworld – and, indeed, The Orb’s entire discography – is entirely up to the listener.