
                           -------------------------

                           *  R  E  V  I  E  W  S  *

                           -------------------------


                         AN APPRECIATION OF "THE ORB"
                         ----------------------------

                                  By Mr. Orb
                                  __________



To fully appreciate this kind of  music  one must first understand it's nature.
I, myself, used to enjoy Tangerine  Dream's  music but found them becoming more
and more formula based, each piece  more  or  less sounding like the last. This
was  a  shame  as  at  their  greatest  they  created  wonderfully  atmospheric
soundscapes in such LP's as  'Rubycon'  or  'White  Eagle', in comparison their
most recent work 'Rockoon' sounds  shallow  and  clinical  (or  is my CD player
broken?).
    Enter Alex Paterson who, in association  with the KLF's Jimi Caulty created
a new style of music: 'Ambient House'. Caulty was the first to release an LP in
that style. Similar to the Orb's  subsequent  Ultraworld album, with it's cover
picture of Battersea power station, the  KLF  paid  homage to Pink Floyd with a
grazing sheep, a parody to  the  Floyd's  Atom  Heart Mother. [By a spectacular
coincidence, "Ultraworld" also  pariodied  a  Floyd  album  cover.  (Animals) -
<Genie!>]
    Alex first bite of fame was as a roadie, humping gear and taking stick from
Killing Joke, who included his old  school  chum  Youth, now transformed in the
premier re-mixer/producer and responsible for many of the groups more ambitious
tracks.
    On the surface the music seems repetitive, shallow and avoiding any musical
composition: The usual well mapped  structure  of  Verse, Chorus, Verse, Middle
Eight and Bridge is replaced in their  pieces with a much longer narrative flow
taking samples from  obscure  sources;  'B'  Movies,  Radio  Interviews (Little
Fluffy Clouds), Space noises,  Humpback  Whales,  and  even Hammond organ music
(The end of 'The Peel Sessions').
    Most notable of The Orb's style of  music is that to accommodate the almost
free-form musical experimentation tracks are rarely  less than 10 minutes long.
The single 'Blue Room' which,  allegedly,  is  dedicated to the rumoured ultra-
secret extra-terrestrial holding tank at Wright-Patterson Airforce Base in Ohio
clocks in at an  impressive  40  minutes  ,  and  holds  the record for longest
single. [Just 1 second under the  maximum  continuous running time for a single
as laid down by Gallup regulations. Apparently, it  was done as a response to a
radio interview with Flowered up,  who,  upon  the  release  of their 13 minute
single "Weekender, were going along the  lines  of:  "blah blah 13 minutes blah
blah uncommercial blah blah real music blah blah..." "Weekender" never even got
near the charts, whilst "The Blue Room" made the top 10! - <Genie!>]
    (An interesting aside. The Blue Room CD costs 4.00 and contains 40 minutes
of music, simple math follows that one  is  paying 10p per minute. My point is,
how can record companies justify charging nearly 15 for Beatles CD's which are
even shorter ?)

                                 Discography:
                                 ------------

(Note: This follows my collection of CD's and  in  no way is a full or complete
review)

The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld. (Double LP) 17.99

    Tracks:
    CD 1                        CD 2

    Little Fluffy Clouds                Perpetual Dawn
    Earth (Gaia)                        Into The Fourth Dimension
    Supernova At The Edge Of The        Outlands
                     Universe
                                        Star 6 & 7 8 9
    Backside Of The Moon                A Huge Evergrowing Brain
    Spanish Castles In Space             That Rules From The Centre Of
                                                        The Ultraworld



Interestingly I bought this LP after hearing  an excerpt of 'A Huge Evergrowing
Brain That Rules From The  Centre  Of  The  Ultraworld'. A text-book example of
ambient house: it clocks  in  at  over  20  minutes,  takes samples from almost
everywhere, and has a repetitive  nature  that,  far  from becoming tedious, is
incredibly soothing.

The  album  also  contains  the  Track  'Little  Fluffy  Clouds'  which  as  an
introduction to the groups music  does  it's  job  very well and introduces the
listener to this style of music.

The Orb  Aubrey Mixes (Orb Remixes Geddit?)             12.99
-------------------------------------------

    Tracks

    Little Fluffy Clouds: Cumulo nimbus mix
    Backside of the moon: Under water deep space mix
    Spanish castles in space: Castles in goa mix
    [It sounds not too unlike Pink Floyd's "Saucerful of Secrets" - <Genie!>]
    Outlands: Fountains of ellisha mix
    A huge evergrowing pulsating brain that rules from the centre
    of the ultraworld: Aubrey mix mk 11
    Perpetual dawn: january mix 3
    Spanish castles in space: extended youth mix

When this CD was released, as a marketing ploy it was to be deleted on the next
day. Suffice to say I was  extremely  pissed  when  I couldn't find any copies.
Several months later in a  small  Woolworths  not  only  did  I find it, but at
5.99.

The Orb  Perpetual Dawn (US Import)             8.99
-----------------------------------

    Tracks

    Perpetual Dawn (Solar youth mix)
    Perpetual Dawn (Solar flare extended)
    Perpetual Dawn (Ultrabass I)
    Perpetual Dawn (Ultrabass II)
    Star 6 & 7 8 9 (Phase II)

The orb's very commercial effort to attain chart success in the U.S.


The Orb Peel Sessions                   8.99
---------------------

    Tracks

    A huge evergrowing pulsating brain that rules from the centre
    of the ultraworld (loving you)

    Back side of the moon (tranquility lunar orbit)
    Into the fourth dimension (essences in starlight)



The tracks on this CD consisted  the  sessions  that  The Orb recorded for John
Peels radio program from 3.12.89 to  2.10.90  [NOTE-  As  far as we at PBHQ can
tell, the version of "A  Huge  Evergrowing...."  is  more  or less the ORIGINAL
version. It was recorded with Jimi Cauty and didn't even have the title when it
was first broadcast on Peel's show, and was called something like "'Loving you'
Orbital Mix" when it was first repeated- <Genie!>]



The Blue Room Cd Set (2 CD's)                   3.99 each
----------------------------

    Tracks

    CD 1    CD 2
    Blue Room   Blue Room (Radio)
    Blue Room (Excerpt)
            Towers Of Dub (Mad Professor Remix)




Between this period I was given a tape of 'Coldcut versus the Orb' recorded one
wintry October afternoon from  Kiss-FM.  The  Orb's  efforts consist of various
remixes of UF-ORB tracks (to be included in the UF-Aubrey Mixes?)


UF-ORB (or U                            12.99
------     F
           ORB)

    Tracks

    O.o.b.e
    U.f.orb
    Blue Room
    Towers Of Dub
    Close Encounters
    Majestic
    Sticky End


More conventional than the original  Ultraworld  LP  it contains some fantastic
music, notably  U.f.orb  which  has  a  brilliant  drum  track  and  bass line.
Nominated for a brit award it lost to Annie Lennox's souless 'Diva' LP.


Oldfield Versus The Orb: Sentinel               3.99
---------------------------------

    Tracks

    Sentinel (nobel prize mix)
    Sentinel (orbular bells)
    Sentinel (seven inch mix)

Following the vapid 'Tubular Bells II'  (more  of  a flop than a follow-up) The
Orb got hold of it and produced some cracking remixes.

The Orb: Assassin (2 CD Set)                    3.99 each
----------------------------

    Tracks

    CD 1                                CD 2

    Assassin (The oasis of rhythms mix)         Radio 7
    U.F.ORB (Bandulu remix)                     Another live version
    Chocolate hills of bohol mix


At the time of writing this constitutes The Orb's last release. [Wasn't there a
12" released in the last couple of  months  called "Mother of Pearl"? It seemed
to be some sort of collaboration as well- <Genie!>]

In conclusion The Orb represent a taste of the way that conventional music will
sound in a thousand years time. I can  imagine Han Solo sticking U.F.orb on the
Millennium Falcon's DCC or Minidisc player.

[FINAL THOUGHT- In January 1989, I  taped  a  very strange piece of house music
off the John Peel  show.  It  was  just  under  5  minutes  long, with some guy
chanting a mantra over an acid  bassline,  and  a strange sample of some French
guys going "Zee Roof! Zee Roof! Ze roof  is  on fi-errrr!". It was by some beat
combo called Mr Orb. I wonder whatever happened to them? - <Genie!>]


        ---------------------------------------------------------------


LATEST ORB NEWS - taken from Melody Maker- The Paper That Likes To Say "Suede"

**  The Orb's US tour is postponed  for  the  moment because of a legal wrangle
    between WauMrModo Records and Big Life Records. Apparently WauMrModo thinks
    it's now independent from major label  Big  Life records, who have up until
    now distributed their records, including their main act- guess who? However
    Big Life don't quite agree on  this,  so  there's  a  big of a legal tussle
    going on....

**  There's a major campaign in Stirling  University  to get The Orb elected as
    Honarary Presidents of their  Student  Representative  council, and The Orb
    have agreed to stand. The main points  in favour of the candidates from the
    Ultraworld are, according to the campaign leaflet, that:
        a)  They have a pet sheep called Fluff.
        b)  The "Huge Evergrowing  Brain  that  Rules  From  The  Centre of the
            Ultraworld" quite obviously  is  a  pointed  reference  to Stirling
            university.
    Methinks this campaign team must  be  completely Into The Fourth Dimension,
    but they'll probably win,  and  anyway  I'd  rather  have  The  Orb win the
    position than some tosser like bloody Johnny Ball!!!!

**  Their latest piece of music is  around  63 minutes long. Thus, under Gallup
    chart rules, it is technically a 1 track album.

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